The Death of George Dove

George Dove lived in southern Ontario in 1857. On November 3, he and his daughter were in the horse and buggy taking a drive. As they drove along Paris Road between Paris and Brantford, Ontario, they were terrorized by three drunks who were driving a team and wagon.

It seems when George and his daughter Harriet came up behind the wagon, that it was driving rather slowly. When George tried to pass, the driver of the wagon blocked the road. When George finally was able to pass, the drunks hollered and hooted as they passed.

A few minutes later, as Harriet would later testify, the drunks moved their team up behind George's buggy going at a rapid pace, as they held their hands in the air and yelled. The team, not under control by any of the men, careened wildly from one side of the road to the other. Before George could pull his horse off the road, the wagon bumped against the buggy and tipped it over. Both George and Harriet were thrown into the ditch. George lingered close to death for over a week and finally succumbed to his injuries.

Harriet later told the coroner that she felt the three men intended their wagon to hit George's buggy. The jury found the driver of the wagon, Daniel Golden guilty of manslaughter. He was arrested and held in the County Jail for trial.

Four months later, on March 19, 1858, Harriet was the first to testify at Golden's trial. She said that when she and her father first approached the wagon, that Golden slowed his team. When George tried to go around it, Golden zigzagged his team across the road. When her father finally made it past the wagon, Golden galloped his team up behind the buggy. He was standing in the wagon, whipping the team unmercifully.

Harriet told the Court that she had lost consciousness for a few minutes after being thrown out of the buggy. When she came-to, she saw her father lying very still nearby. Help arrived and he was taken to a tavern and was moved to his home later in the day. He had died on November 9, 1857.

The next witness to testify at the trial was Jeremiah Roberts. He had been riding his horse on the Paris Road when the collision had occurred. He testified that he had seen the front wheel of the wagon catch the rear wheel of the buggy. Golden just kept going.

George Martin owned a blacksmith shop on Paris Road. When he heard the commotion, he ran out of his shop in time to see an overturned buggy and Golden's team running wildly toward him. Martin and a group of others ran to the accident scene. They carried George and Harriet to his house and sent for the doctor, who said George had a fractured skull.

The two men that were with Golden on the fateful day testified that Golden never meant any harm, but that they were all liquored-up when the accident occurred.

The jury deliberated for about a half hour before finding Golden guilty of manslaughter. However, they recommended mercy because this was Golden's first run-in with the law. The judge sentenced Golden to eight months of hard labor while George Dove was sentenced to death for taking a buggy ride with his daughter.