Getter's Island
island in the Delaware River in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States
Getter's Island, previously known as Abel's Island, is a small island in the Delaware River in Easton, Pennsylvania. It is best known as the location of the execution of Charles Getter, the last person to be publicly executed in Pennsylvania.
History
Execution of Charles Getter
The island is named after Charles Getter, a farmhand who was hanged on the island in 1833 for the murder of Margaret Lawall, a woman he married to avoid prosecution for impregnating her outside of wedlock. Getter's execution was initially scheduled to take place at Center Square in Easton, but it was moved to the island — then known as Abel's Island — to accommodate the crowds.
An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people, some of whom traveled hundreds of miles, gathered in the town to view the execution. An initial attempt to hang him failed, forcing a second attempt, which resulted in his death. A reporter who witnessed the scene was horrified at how little the crowd was affected by the execution, and called on lawmakers to take action against such public executions.
Governor George Wolf agreed with the reporter and signed a law banning public execution on April 10, 1834. As a result, Getter was the last person in Pennsylvania to be publicly executed.
Recent history
In the decades after the execution, Getter's Island was purchased by a lumber company that installed a mill there, while Wilson Dam at the southern end of the island provided a pool of water that was used by young people for swimming.
The public source identifies “Getter's Island” as island in the Delaware River in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Getter's, Island and island.
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This entry incorporates text from “Getter's Island” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.