(Rochester, NY) UNION SUN AND ADVERTISER Feb. 3, 1858 --Arrest of a Woman in Genesee County with Poisoning Her Husband and Six Children-- A correspondent of the Democrat, writing from Alabama, Genesee county, 30th, gives the following account of the investigation into a horrible poisoning case which has just come to light in that locality. Some time in July, 1856, Henry HOAG, a respectable citizen of this town died quite suddenly. About six weeks after his death a little daughter five or six years old, died after an illness of only twenty-four hours. Suspension of foul play was suspected by some at the time, but no action was taken in the case. Last spring, an infant child -- born subsequent to Mr. Hoag's death, died after a short illness. Suspicion was again aroused, but nothing was done. Last fall another child, some two years old, died under still more suspicious circumstances. A postmortem examination was had, but the chemist to whom the child's stomach was sent neglected to analyze its contents. But the community had become satisfied that the death of so many members of a family, under such circumstances, required further investigation, and the bodies of all of them were exhumed, and the stomachs of the three first, and a portion of the abdomen of the last secured, and upon analysis, arsenic was found in them all. Suspicion at once pointed to the wife and mother, as the person who administered the poison and she was arrested and is now in our county jail at Batavia, awaiting the action of the Grand Jury which is next week Since her husbands death she has been married again to a man by the name of FRISCH, who lived with her but a short time -- some difficulty having arisen between them. Some years since three other of her children died suddenly with symptoms almost precisely similar to the last ones, and it is inferred that she poisoned them also, from the fact that she confessed that she had poisoned the first one, but that she did it accidentally and through mistake. Altogether this is one of the most horrid cases on record. That a woman would poison her husband may not be incredible, but that a mother would poison deliberately, one after another, six of her own offsprings, seems too inhuman for belief. I will give no opinion of her guilt or innocence, as her case will soon be brought before the proper tribunal for investigation. *** (Note: Her second husband's name was Otto Frisch. He went to a doctor accusing Polly of trying to poison him too. The doctor gave him an antidote and he left right after for parts unknown.) submitted by Cindy Amrhein Town of Alabama Historian Genesee Co., NY ********************** Historian's Page - Alabama, NY http://www2.pcom.net/cinjod/historian/ Experience the town of Alabama in Genesee County, New York. History, tombstone inscriptions, census records, history of the Tonawanda Seneca Indians and the Iroquois. Enjoy a good murder mystery? Read about the murders of Polly Frisch. APHNYS (The Association of Public Historians of New York State) http://www.tier.net/aphnys/ Genesee County, NY website. Includes History Department, (under "Historian") http://www.co.genesee.ny.us/ The Genesee Area Genealogy Society lists the names and addresses for all the Genesee & Wyoming County Historians http://www.rootsweb.com/~nygags/hist.htm