William Henry Avery (1854 - 1890)

Born 5 Oct 1854 in Ledyard, New York

Ancestors

Died 2 Jan 1890 at age 35 in Fort Collins, Colorado

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Biography

William Henry Avery, born 5 Oct 1854 at Ledyard, New York, was the fourth child of Edgar Avery and Eliza Keith Worthing.

In 1860 William was living with his parents 3 brothers, a sister, and a servant.^[1]

He married on 10 Feb 1876 in Sherwood, New York, Mary Edith Lyon [b. 10 Mar 1859, Sherwood, NY, daughter of Harriet (Valentine) & Col. Alfred Lyon]. ^[2]

William and Mary (Lyon) Avery had one child:

1. Pearle Avery, b. 2 Apr 1877

William H. Avery was a real estate dealer.

In 1880 he was 25 living in Ledyard, Cayuga, New York, USA with Mary and their daughter Pearl.^[3]

William Henry Avery passed away in Cripple Creek, Colorado, 2 Jun 1890. His grave is in Grandview Cemetery, Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado, USA ^[4].

According to the caption in his grave memorial, William Henry Avery's death in Cripple Creek [Teller County], Colorado in 1890 was originally thought to be gastritis, a stomach disorder. But twelve days after his death, his wife Mary, secretly married her lover Frank Millington in Hastings, Adams, Nebraska. Frank Millington was William Avery's business partner. William Henry Avery was worth over $100,000. His body was exhumed and it was determined that he had been poisoned. William had been fed enough arsenic to kill 50 people, according to one expert. Mary and Frank Millington were put on trial in Fort Collins, Larimer, Colorado in 1890.The basis of the Millington's defense was that there was no proof that William had not administered the poison to himself. A chemist testified that William's 14 year old daughter Pearl Avery had purchased a box of "Rough on Bats", which is one-third arsenic. Pearl denied she had ever purchased the poison, the jury took her at her word and the lovers were acquitted.

There is an extensive article that covered the trial for William's suspicios death. The article is almost 2 full pages of Newspaper print. The Larimer County Independent printed the article on March 12, 1891. Here's a link for the clip of page 1. The Larimer County Independent paper continued the story on Page 5.

You can find his obituary on Newspaper.com here^[5]

Sources

FamilySearch Person: LHWK-J7D

1. ↑ 1860 US Census ancestry.com
2. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #12084540
3. ↑ 1880 US Census ancestry.com
4. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #21047645
5. ↑ The Larimer County Independent, June 5, 1890, Page 1. via Newspapers.com

• 1855 NY State Census familysearch.org
• 1865 NY State Census familysearch.org

• The Groton Avery Clan (Avery & Avery, 1912), p. 458, 765, no. 2329: https://archive.org/details/grotonaveryclan01aver/page/458/mode/1up; https://archive.org/stream/grotonaveryclan01aver#page/765/mode/1up