Claudius Smith; or the Orange County Tories
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     During the period of his incarceration at that place, both before his trial and while he was awaiting execution, Claudius Smith lived in hopes his men would undertake his rescue.  Even when he was being led to the scaffold he was observed to cast furtive glances over his shoulder towards Slate hill, where about a mile away was a cave which was said to be a rendezvous of the robber gang.  But he was so strongly guarded that no attempt at rescue was made, and would doubtless have failed if undertaken.  One of the guards was stationed at all times at the “grief-hole” opening into his cell, with a loaded musket, with orders to shoot him dead if any attempt was made on the jail by his friends outside.
     The fated hour arrived, and Claudius was led out of his gloomy prison and permitted to take his last look upon earth.  He walked up the steps of the scaffold with a firm tread.  He had dressed himself with scrupulous neatness, in black broadcloth with silver buttons, and white stockings.  This was in the days of public executions; and he looked from the scaffold into the faces of thousands who had gathered there to see him die. He smiled grimly as he spoke to several men in the crowd below whom he knew.
     Before the final adjustment of the noose Claudius stooped to remove his shoes. When asked why he did so he repeated the words of his mother that he would die with his shoes on, and added that he “wanted to make her out a liar.”  He was interred near the scaffold.  Years afterwards a gentleman by the name of Wood, as he stood conversing with an acquaintance on the village green at Goshen, happening to press upon the greensward with his cane at a certain spot, found it would easily pierce the soil as though there was some sort of hollow underneath.  A slight examination of the place showed it to be a shallow grave, and that the bones of a human skeleton lay entombed there.  Further inquiry proved the remains to be those of the noted bandit chief, Claudius Smith.
     Scores of people were attracted to the place, and some of the more curious carried away portions of the skeleton as souvenirs.   Orrin Ensign, the village blacksmith, made some of the bones into knife-handles; doubtless some of them are still doing duty in that capacity.  It is even believed by many of the people of Goshen that the skull of Claudius Smith is embedded in the masonry over the front door of the present court-house in that place.




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
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