History: Gothic Tale of a Port Jeff Horror in 1885

In 1885, a little girl in Port Jefferson took a fishing knife to her baby sister, cutting and stabbing her while she lay in her cradle, according to reports in various newspapers back then. Madison Lewis and his wife (whose name was not given in the accounts) were out of the house when their 4-year old daughter committed the heinous act against her sibling.

In the New York Times the account was given a small paragraph under the headline “A Long Island Horror.” In that story the paper says that the baby may recover.

The Chicago Tribune reported in a story titled “Fiendish Act of a Child” that “the probabllities are that the little one will not survive its injuries” in May, 1885.

The most detailed account came from the Evening Post in July, 1885 in a story titled, “A Four-Year Old Girl Attempts to Kill an Infant.” That story in a New Zealand newspaper gives many more details than the rest and makes for a read almost like a gothic tale of horror. Details include the fact that Lewis was a laborer and left home early in the morning to go to work, while his wife was a washerwoman who also sometimes left their home to work, leaving the children to fend for themselves in their small frame house on the west side of Port Jefferson Harbor.

The paper quotes the girl saying to her brother, “Let’s kill the baby, will we?” before taking the fish knife to the sleeping baby. The paper also concludes that the girl is “evidently insane.”

The image of the Port Jefferson harbor taken in the late 1800s in this article is courtesy of the historical section of the Port Jefferson village website. For more information about this photo and to find many more historical photos visit the digital archive in the history section of the website.

Please note: the image was cropped to better fit the dimensions of this article. The full panaoramic view of the photo can be seen on the village's website.