Fall River: An Authentic Narrative by Catherine Williams, A Review

by Kat Koorey

First published in May/June, 2007, Volume 4, Issue 2, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.

Fall River: An Authentic Narrative by Catherine Williams, 1833,
edited by Patricia Caldwell, Women Writers in English, 1350-1850.
Oxford University Press, 1993. 192 pages. 

ISBN-10: 0195083598

Anyone interested in old Fall River and true crime will be delighted with this “Authentic Narrative,” written in 1833, by Catharine Williams. It is remarkable that not only has this author’s work been preserved and reprinted in modern times, but that a woman of that era would and could involve herself in the sad and sordid story of the murder of a young lady, Sarah Cornell, with all the attendant unpleasant details, while maintaining a genuine activists’ stance on her subject.

The book begins with the statement of the author’s intent in the Preface, where we first encounter the pleasant and interesting cadence of a well-educated woman writing in the 1830s. We next encounter a section that describes the history of the area and its inhabitants. Directly we are taken out of this bucolic interlude and plunked down into the time period between October and December, 1832, when Sarah Cornell first consults the Doctor who becomes involved in her sorry story, through to the finding of her poor, pregnant frozen body hanging from a haystack in a Durfee field in the winter of old Fall River.

In the following days, suicide is overruled by murder and there is the inquest upon her death and the probable culprit discovered. We follow the conspiracy of the “Methodists” to shield their own Minister, Reverend Avery, and the shambles of a trial that ends in his acquittal. There is the moving description of the “Life of Sarah Marie Cornell,” and then the character of the man Avery is explored. 

Returning to the poor victim, the author has gathered her letters home to her sister and mother and presents them as the testimony of the girl herself, about herself, in her own words, so as to give the victim a voice. Sarah claims her itinerant status is wholly satisfactory as long as she can keep her faith alive and growing—though she admits to dissatisfaction at times and wonders what is the ultimate purpose of her life.

The author next delves into the underhanded, cruel and illegal conspiracy of the friends and church leaders of Rev. Avery to protect his character and name, while maligning the victim and all the witnesses for the prosecution who spoke in Miss Cornell’s favor. The author is incensed at the cover-up and speaks out critically of the outcome, demonstrating to the reader her opinion that this was a foul hypocrisy by these church leaders and members of Avery’s community.

At the last, there is a first-person, candid, inside look at a traveling camp meeting of Methodists that strike the author as raucous, indecent and with the potential to ruin a girl’s reputation. Williams tries to rehabilitate the victim’s reputation and explain her unusual life-style that was sadly not unique. She asks for justice for this wronged young lady who was admittedly led astray by a man of power—destroyed by him with no legal censure or blot on his name other than the narrative of this activist.

The author leaves us with a deeper interpretation of the character of this person, Sarah Maria Cornell. In 1833, though still buried frozen in her grave, Sarah is metaphorically resurrected to becomes a flesh-and-blood human being, described as living a life devoted to her God, with a precious yearning to be loved and attached to another human being. Sarah Maria (pronounced Mariah) is depicted as a daughter and a sister, a future mother, and a transient community member whose life was brutally stolen by a lying thief who should have been pledged to her protection.

It is an enlightened, profound, well-intentioned book, which seems almost modern in its approach to the reportage of a true crime.

The book is available for sale at the Fall River Historical Society.