Albert BAKER
1896 February 22 - May Turn Out Seriously

Albert Baker of Wilkonsonville Shot by Charles T. Aldrich, Jr.

Bullet Lodged in the Hip, Making Bad Wound.

Trouble Started Over Money - Aldrich Under $1000 Bonds

WILKINSONVILLE, Feb. 22 - Albert Baker of Wikinsonville was shot and badly wounded a few minutes bfore noon today in fight at the Aldrich mill, Woodbury Village, by Charles T. Aldrich, Jr. Aldrich is manager ans superintendent of the mill. Baker is an employe.

There were two other participants in the fight. One was Mrs. Jane Baker, mother of the injured man, and William Baker, a younger brother of Albert.

Aldrich was cut on the face with a knife, as he claims, by William Baker. Mrs. Baker claims that she inflicted the injury on Aldrich, smashing him over the head with a dinner pail when Aldrich was trying to "murder her boys."

Aldrich was arrested and taken to Worcester, where he was admitted to bail in the sum of $1000 for his appearance before the Central district court Wednesday morning.

The stories of the participants in the bloody battle vary decidedly. The Bakers claim that five shot were fired by Aldrich and that the last one took effect on Albert Baker. Aldrich claims he was attacked with a knife, and that, when hard pressed, he pulled a revolver and fired a single shot, which took effect.

When the shot that struck Albert Baker was fired, the latter was in the road in front of the mill. The ball first passed along the palm of Baker's left hand, slightly cutting the flesh.

It then struck him in the left hip, entering the boday about one inch below the crest of the ilim bone. Striking the left ilium, the ball was slightly deflected, so that it ranged back from the abdominal cavity, and, traversing inches of flesh, was located near the right ilium. The bullet was of 38 caliber. The wound is likely to prove exceedingly painful, but is not necessarily dangerous, though a slight change in course taken by the bullet would have made death almost a certain result.

After the shot was fired, Baker cried, "I'm hit!" He was asssisted to a house near by, where the wound was superficially examimed. From there he was helped about half-way to his home, which is near Wilkinsonville depot. At this point he was taken in a team and carried to Millbury to the office of Dr. H. W. Cronin, where an examination was made, and the ball was located and extracted by Dr. Cronn, Drs. C.A. Church of Millbury and F.H. Clapp of North Grafton, assisting.

The Sutton woolen mill, or the "Aldrich mill" as it is colloqually called, is about one mile from Wilkinsonville dept. Woodbury village consists of the mill and a few housed hidden in the woods. It is in the town of Sutton.

The shooting occured 10 minutes before 12 o'clock. The fight had been going on for some few minutes before the shooting took place. The noise of the pistol shots attracted every employe to the place, and there was great excitement until after Constable Lucius E Austin arrived and drove away toward Worcester with Aldrich, who had gone to his house near the scene of the shooting.

After Baker had his wounds dressed at Millbury he was brought to his home in Wilkonsonville. The family live in a small tenement in the "big boarding house," north of the railroad.

When The Telegram reporters arrived the house was filled with excited neighbors, men, women and children, who took up more than the entire seating capacity of the tenement, except the small room in which were the injured young man, his mother and his brother William.

The reporters were ushered into this room and the Bakers told their story with great evidence of excitement. Albert, the wounded man, lay upon the bed. William sat by his side, and his mother was near the foot of the bed. Albert is 21 years old and his brother is 17.

William and his mother were in the melee at the start, Albert coming in at a later stage, just in time to get shot. William's story is:

"My mother and I started about 11 o'clock to take Albert's dinner over to him at Aldrich's mill. My mother went with me to get some money that Aldrich owed us. When we got tot he mill, we went in through the office. My mother stopped in the office and I started to go into the mill to carry Albert his dinner, which I had in a pail. As I went to the door, Aldrich said to me, 'Hold on there! You can't go in there!'

"Why not?" I asked.

"He said, '-- -- you, you have spoiled cloth enough for me, and I have ordered you not to come here; now you -- of a --, get out!"

"I Sat Down on a Char, and my mother said to Mr. Aldrich, 'What makes you so ugly today?'

"Mr. Aldrich then told me again to get out of the office,a nd I started for the door. He stepped up and struck me on the shouldner, and I put up my hand to ward off more blows; Mr. ALdrich then picked up a revolver that lay on the desk. He struck me twice with the butt of it; once on the right cheek, and once on the top of my head here (showing a wound on his head.) This one stunned me, and I fell to the floor."

Mrs. Baker took up the story at this point. "I said," she told the reporters excitedly, "For God's sake, don't kill him!" Mr. Aldrich said, ' That dirty -- of a -- made bad cloth a-purpose and told me so.'"

William Baker then went on with the story: "I told him 'I never told you any such thing.' Aldrich then proceeded to throw me out, and I went out. My mother smashed him over the head with the dinner pail full of dinner, and tried to find something else around the office with which to hit him and defend me. She cut him so that the blood splattered all over me."

"Yes," said Mrs. Baker. "Then I went to the door and hollered 'Murder! Murder! He's killing my boy!" I tried to go to into the mill, and Mrs. Aldrich, who was in the office all the time, said 'Hold on. Don't go through that door.' I told her to mind her own business, that I was going after help to stop him from murdering my boy. No one came. The brute then ordered me to leave the place. He took hold of my shoulder, and started to put me out. He took hold of my arm and opened the outside door. I went down two or three steps. Then he pushed me and knocked me down."

It was at This Point in the scrimmage that Albert Baker appeared on the scene. He told the reporters the story of the finish. "I ran out of th emill to help my mother. I asked Aldrich what he knocked my mother down for. He stood on the step with the revolver in his hand as I started toward him. He put the revolver right under my nose. I could see the hammer lift and I knocked his hand up. My brother came to help me out, and grabbed his hand that held the pistol. We began to scuffle, and in the scuffle, the pistol was fired off three times. Aldrich had it down between his legs. William had hold of his hands. He tried to raise it so as to shoot us, but couldn't do it.

"I shouted for hel, and Mike Mahan, 'Neddy' Phelon and Mike Collins came out to help us. I told them to hold Aldrich while we ran. They held him and my brother Willie and I started out of the gate and took the gristmill road. I heard another shot, and I think that bullet must have struck the fence. Then there was another, the fifth. I felt the bullet strike me in the hip.

"I cried out to Willie 'I'm shot! Come and help me.'"

"He helped me to the house of Henry Morris, and then the crowd helped me toward home. We got almost to the Savery place, aand then some men got a team from Joe Balcom and took me to Dr Cronin's office in Millbury."

Mrs. Baker said that Aldrich owed the family $28 for board of a Miss Florence Gaynor, one of the mill operatives, also $5 to William Baker and $6 or $7 to Jennie, his sister, for wages. She says that the trouble had been caused because he did not pay the money.

William Baker said that he had got through work at the mill yesterday because he had been "cheated out of his pay."

Within a few minutes After the Shooting constable Austin put in an appearance and went to Aldrich's house. Aldrich did not want to be arrested, and did not want to go with the officer at first. After a little time, however, he put on his coat and rode away with the constable. They went in Aldrich's sleigh to Millbury, where the team was put up in M. H. Murphy's stable, the constable and Aldrich going on to Worcester on the electric car, the latter first leaving word with the stablekeeper to allow Constable Austin to take the team home, in case that he, Aldrich, was unable to obtain bail.

At Worcester, Aldrich was taken before Clerk John A. Thayer of the Central district court. Constable Austin told the story. Aldrich wanted to furnish bail. Clerk Thayer telephoned to Dr Cornin in Millbury asking him as to the extent of Baker's injuries. He then listed the bail at $1000. Mrs. Susetta Aldrich, wife of the prisoner, giving bonds Aldrich consulted counsel, Brown & Hopkins and returned to his home.

A Telegram reporter saw Mr. Aldrich in Millbury this evening as he was on his way home. He told his story as follows: "The trouble with the family began a few days ago when the family moved from my tenement in Woodbury's village to the house where they now live in Wilkonsonville. They left owing me $11 rent. I was owing Miss Gaynor $7 for labor, and instead of paying her I turned it over to the account of the Baker family, as Mrs. Baker was taking her wages for board. I told Mrs. Baker, yesterday, what I had done. I also sent the younger boy, Willie, home yesterday as he was spoiling too much cloth. I could not stand it. So I let him go. When he left the year, he turned around and said 'I will get even with you,' adding several curses. I told him then, never to put his foot on the premises again. Today, when he and his mother came into the office, I was busy and did not see him until he was nearly at the door opening into the mill. I stopped him, and asked him if he had not understood what I told him yesterday. Mrs. Baker then wanted to know what I meant by speaking like that. I told her thatn I had ordered the boy to keep way from there. I then put the boy out, and the mother interfered. When I took hold of the boy to put him out, he hauled off and struck me on the head. Mrs. Baker then hit me over the back with a chair, but the chair was too heavy for her, and she began to look around for something lighter. I took her by the arm and led her to the door and part way down the steps. I told her to get off the premises, and I gaver her a slight push. She slipped on some ice on the steps, and fell. The older son then appeared on the scene, and wanted to know what I knocked his mother down for. I told him how it all happened.

"About this time the older boy came back through the mill yard gate with one hand behind him, as though about to draw a knife. THis he did, and came for me with the knife upraised and struck at me. I put up my hand to ward off the blow, but the knife caught me on the nose. I then drew my revolver and he struck me again, making a slight scratch on my hands.

"Both boys then grappled wiht me, and I pulled the trigger of my self-cocking revolver, thinking a shot would scare them off. I pointed it low, but in the scrap Albert's hand came in front of the pistol barrel, just as I fired. I think the bullet must have hit his hand, then entered his hip, as I was told that was where he was hit. They ran away after I fired the shot."

"Did you fire more than one shot?" asked the reporter.

"No." was the answer. He then said: "The boys and their mother ran out of the yard, then turned around and one of them said: "The Bakers are too much for ALdrich. We told you we would get even with you, you old __ of a __:' and they used other vile and profane language. This was the last I saw of them.

"I went to my house with my wife, and began to get ready to go to Worcester to enter complaint, and have them arrested. I was changing my clothes when Officer Austin came in. He asked me what the trouble was and I told him the story just as I have told you. We then drove to Worcester and went to Deputy Sheriff J. M. Drennan's office.

"He advised me to have the cut on my nose attended to, and I went to Dr. Wesley Davis, who dressed the wound.

"From there I went to the office of Brown & Hopkins, and Clerk JOhn A THayer of the Cetnral district court made out bail papers for me, my wife giving bail for $1000 for me to appear Wednesday, February 26."

"Who arrested you?" asked the reporter.

"I was never arrested. Nobody set hands on me. I simply went the the office with Mr. Austin. I am lame? over," said Mr. Aldrich, "and I ? drive home."

The case will be called in the Central district court next Wednesday, at which time Clerk Thayer says he understands that Aldrich will be charged with charged with an assault with a dangerous weapon, unless Albert Baker is unable to be present, or unless something unfavorable in his condition manifests itself.

Tonight the victim of the shooting was much more comfortable than could be expected under the circumstances. But the doctors fear trouble when inflammation sets in.

Charles T. Aldrich, Jr., has had trouble with his help on prior occasions and only a few months ago he was in the court on account of a fight with a man who had worked in his mill. At that time he was acquitted of the charge of assault.

Sunday Telegram
Worcester, Massachusetts
February 23, 1896