How History Unfolds on Paper: Important Americana from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part X

Lisbon, New Hampshire: W.B. Gleason, ca. 1867. Group of three cartes de visite, of George Maxwell, Samuel Mills, and Moses Sargent; each with printed captions (Maxwell on recto, Mills and Sargent on verso). Scattered soiling.

A group of three cartes de visite showing murder victim George Maxwell, his murderer Samuel Mills, and the detective that brought him to justice, Moses Sargent.

Samuel Mills murdered George Maxwell in Maxwell's Franconia, New Hampshire home the night of December 8, 1866, purportedly after attempting to seek shelter. Mills then stole Maxwell's horse, and fled first to Montreal and then elsewhere in Canada. New Hampshire authorities hired Boston private detective Moses Sargent to track down the assailant, who traced him to Canada and then proceeded to trail him through the provinces. Eventually, on January 20, 1867, Sargent arrested Mills in Galena, Illinois and returned him to New Hampshire where he stood trial. In April of 1867 he was found guilty of murder in Haverhill, and sentenced to death. On May 6, 1868, in the last public hanging in New Hampshire, Mills was executed before a crowd of thousands. His last words were "Samuel Mills is guilty of this crime, and I have made my peace with God..." Following mounting criticism of the public practice of execution, within a year the New Hampshire legislature passed a law mandating that they be carried out only within prison walls, resulting in Mills being the last convicted felon in the state to be publicly executed.