Move of historian’s office unearths burial permit for woman killed in brutal murder in 1894
Photos from Orleans County Department of History collection: This leather pouch contains burial permits.
By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian
“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 6, No. 27
CARLTON – Thanks to the Orleans County Department of Public Works crew, the Department of History collection has been moved to its new location at 162 South Main St., Albion.
The process of packing and unpacking invariably reveals some overlooked items, such as the soft leather pouch pictured above that is filled with papers. Upon examination, it appears that these are Burial Permits, that final document in the paper trail of life.
The handwriting on the first permit is somewhat difficult to decipher, but the stark word which follows the phrase “the cause of death” fairly leaps from the page: Murder. This document is none other than the Burial Permit for Emma Louise Hunt, whose murder was described in the Buffalo News on October 20, 1894 as “the most horrible thing that has ever happened in Orleans County.”
This burial permit was issued for Emma Louise Hunt, October 20, 1894.
Twenty-one year old Emma Louise Hunt was employed as a domestic by Joseph Van Camp, a Carlton farmer who lived on the east side of Sawyer Road in the town of Carlton. William Lake, aged 24, was a hired man also employed by Van Camp. William was enamored of Emma but she did not return his feelings.
After supper on Thursday evening, October 18, 1894, the Van Camp family went out to collect a relative and left Emma and William at the house. William asked Emma to accompany him to an I.O.O.F. oyster supper, she declined. She told him he was “a loafer and a drunkard.” Enraged, he went to the barn for a hammer and proceeded to kill her in a brutal and frenzied manner. We will spare you the gory details of the crime and of the subsequent autopsy which were reported in full in the newspapers of the day.
Lake was apprehended within a few days. A letter of confession which he had written before he murdered Emma was found in his bedroom. He was arraigned before Judge W.C. Ramsdale. Attorney Thomas C. Kirby was appointed to represent him.
Supreme Court Judge Henry A. Childs presided at the trial which was held at the Orleans County Courthouse from Feb. 13-15, 1895. Attorney Kirby claimed that his client was insane, but the letter of confession written prior to the crime was damming. Lake was convicted of murder in the first degree and was given the death sentence. He was removed to Auburn State Prison where he was electrocuted on April 4, 1895.
The Burial Permit was signed by Isaac N. Stebbins, Justice of the Peace. The undertakers were Mathes & Onderdonk who operated a furniture store at 48 N. Main St, in Albion. A large crowd attended the funeral on Saturday, October 21, 1894, when the mangled remains of Emma Louise Hunt were buried in the East Carlton (Kent) cemetery, less than 48 hours after her murder.
