By Muriel Bristol | May 3, 2026
This is really a Rochester story. It concerns Andrew Howard’s robbery murder of Miss Phebe Hanson, at her home in the Meaderboro part of Rochester, i.e., out on the Meaderboro Road.
Milton residents appear here only peripherally, as members of an “indignant” crowd of 10,000 onlookers, who were present in Dover for the originally-scheduled 1845 execution of the murderer.
Phebe and Jacob Hanson were children of the late Jacob and Phebe (Jenkins) Hanson of Rochester. By the terms of their father’s 1815 will, the son Jacob, Jr., inherited the family farm, while the daughter Phebe inherited a life-estate in a bed-room of the house, most of the furniture, an annual food and flax allowance, a cow, and some sheep.
… I give and bequeath to my Daughter Phebe one Cow and two sheep, to be kept on the farm so long as she shall remain single, and if she marries to be her property. And six bushels of Corn & six pounds of Flax, yearly, with a sufficient Quantity of Sauce and vegetables (such as the farm produces) for one person. Likewise, the middle back room in the house, with a reasonable privilege in the kitchen, cellar, well, &c. And that row of Apple Trees by the cross road from the bars Northeasterly – So long as she shall remain in a single state of life – to be done and performed by her brother Jacob. I also give my above named daughter Phebe all my household goods & furniture of every kind & to her heirs forever – Except one good feather bed, with suitable bedding and furniture for the same, which I give to my said son Jacob (Strafford County Probate, 12:53).
Jacob Hanson headed a Rochester household at the time of the Sixth (1840) Federal Census. His household included one male aged 50-59 years (himself), one female aged 60-69 years (his sister, Phebe Hanson), and one male aged 20-29 years. One member of the household, presumably Jacob Hanson, was engaged in Agriculture. (Ten years later, Jacob Hanson was a farmer, with real estate valued at $1,600).
MURDER IN ROCHESTER, N.H. A little past 12 o’clock, [P.]M. of Tuesday last, a Miss Phebe Hanson, a maiden lady of between sixty and seventy years of age who resided with a brother, an old bachelor, in a part of Rochester called Mederborough, was discovered lying in the front entry of the house dead from gun shot wound in the neck. A trunk was found a few rods from the house broken open and rifled of its contents. This circumstance, added to the current opinion of the neighborhood that Miss Hanson and her brother were in the possession of a considerable sum of money, led to the opinion that she had been murdered and the house robbed. Suspicions pointed to a family of Howards, of rather disreputable fame, who lived at Dry Hill, a short distance from the Hansons. A warrant was accordingly procured and put into the hands of an officer to search the house, of the Howards, the male members of which family, discovering the; approach of the party accompanying the officer escaped from the house and fled. Two of the brothers Howard on the following morning were arrested in this town and taken to Rochester for examination; one of them, Andrew Howard, by name, made a full and free confession of his guilt; entirely exculpating his brother and all other persons from any participation therein. Andrew, who is a single man of some three or four and twenty years of age, it seems that he did not live at home at Dry Hill, but resided with another brother in the lower part of Rochester towards Great Falls; where he left on Tuesday morning, with a gun, as he says, for the purpose of procuring Hanson’s money; that finding Phebe at home and her brother absent, he asked for a drink of water and after remain[ing] a few minutes, left the house – soon returned – met Phebe in the entry – shot her down – took the trunk from the house – broke it open and took from it twenty-seven dollars in bills, two dollars in silver, thirty-six cents in cents, a pocket knife, and a piece of tobacco. The money he said he had hidden – the cents and the knife in Rochester, near his brother’s, and the twenty-nine dollars in bills and silver in the stable of the Eagle Hotel in this village. He was fully committed for trial, and on his way to the jail showed the officer and his keeper the places where he had hidden the money and knife which were found precisely as described by him. The money, we are told corresponds with the money which Jacob Hanson, the brother of the murdered woman, says that the trunk was found, broken open near his house. Another of the Howards, whom Andrew had informed of the murder previous to his arrest, was ordered to recognize in the sum of $200, for his appearance at the next common Pleas Court as a witness, in default whereof he also has been committed (Middlebury People’s Press (Middlebury, VT), October 4, 1843).
Attempted Suicide. The Dover Gazette says: We learn that Andrew Howard, the unfortunate young man who is confined in the jail in this town, for the murder of Miss Phebe Hanson, a few weeks ago at Rochester, has made several unsuccessful attempts to commit suicide since his confinement. On Tuesday last, however, he came very near being successful in hanging himself, as when found life was nearly extinct (NY Tribune, October 31, 1843).
Howard’s first trial ended in a hung jury. The hold-out juror may have hoped that capital punishment would have been abolished before Howard could be retried. (If so, he was wrong).
Disagreement of a Jury. In the case of Andrew Howard, tried for murder last week at Dover, N.H., the jury could not agree. He will be tried again in January (Buffalo Daily Gazette, August 27, 1844).
Correspondence of the Boston Post. Dover, N.H., Aug. 17, 1844. The jury in the case of Andrew Howard did not agree. They stood, I understand, eleven to one – eleven for conviction of murder in the first degree, and one for murder in the second degree. The prisoner will be tried again in January next. The conscientious scruples of one juror probably saved the prisoner’s life, as capital punishment will probably be abolished in November next (Liberator, August 31, 1844).
Howard was found guilty at his second trial, in February 1845. His lawyer filed a motion that delayed sentencing for four months until August 1845.
FOUND GUILTY. We learn from the Dover Gazette that the trial of Andrew Howard, which had been in progress for more than a week, closed on Friday evening, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. Howard’s counsel made a motion in arrest of judgment, which defers sentence until August, if it has no other effect. – Manchester N.H. Argus (NY Evening Post, February 14, 1845).
Sentence of Death. Andrew Howard, convicted of the murder of Phebe Hanson, has been sentenced by the Court of Common Pleas at Dover, N. Hampshire, to be hanged the 12th of November. The prisoner is said to have received his sentence with apparent indifference (NY Evening Post, August 15, 1845).
A large crowd of at least 10,000 people gathered outside the Dover jail for Howard’s execution.
Respited. The execution of Andrew Howard, which was to have taken place at Dover, N.H., on Wednesday, has been respited till the 8th of July (NY Evening Post, November 14, 1845).
The Exeter News-Letter says that the gallows had been erected and preparations all made for the execution of Andrew Howard, at Dover, (N.H.) before the Governor arrived with a reprieve. The people who had come from Barrington and Bowpond, Squannemagonic and the Dock, the Three Ponds and Crown Point, Barnstead and the Bear country, to see the sight, were very indignant at the interference of the Governor. The Dover Gazette estimates that there were 10,000 strangers in that town on that day (Weekly National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), November 29, 1845).
MISCELLANEOUS. The Manchester American says that a number of Democrats in Deerfield, N.H., on Tuesday, made an effigy of Governor Steele, and hung it upon a tree, with a cowskin about the neck. the cause of this outbreak of indecent spleen was that the Governor did not hang Andrew Howard in Dover last week (Liberator, December 5, 1845).
EXECUTION OF ANDREW HOWARD AT DOVER. We learn from a correspondent in Dover N.H., that the execution of Andrew Howard, for the murder of Phebe Hanson of Rochester, in September 1843, took place in the jail yard, in Dover, yesterday. He was resigned to his fate as far as he comprehended the responsibility for his own action, blaming those who had care of his education and earlier years more particularly. Elder Elias Hutchins attended him on the scaffold & every attention was paid him by Mr. Hanson, the jailor. After taking leave of the sheriff, (Colonel Hoyt) and several friends, the prisoner stepped upon the drop with considerable firmness. Every thing being in readiness he gave the usual signal, and he was launched into eternity at 20 minutes before 2 o’clock. After hanging 35 minutes, his body was taken down and delivered to his friends who conveyed it to Rochester, the place of his nativity, for interment. Daily Mail. July 9 (Vermont Union Whig (Rutland, VT), July 16, 1846).
Savage Curiosity. The Dover, (N.H.) Gazette, extra, in giving an account of the execution at Andrew Howard, says that crowds of people, of both sexes, poured into the town during the forenoon of Wednesday, and surrounded the precincts of the jail in almost solid and compact masses, vociferously demanding to be indulged with the sight of the spectacle of a fellow creature suffering the awful death of the gallows! Among this mob were hundreds of individuals whose standing in society was deeply disgraced by their conduct on that day. Men from whom the public have a right to expect better examples were there urging the more reckless and irresponsible to demolish the fences of the jail yard that all might see the dying struggles of the criminal; and even ladies, or beings clad in the dress of ladies, were offering to assist to pull down the fence (NY Evening Post, July 16, 1846).
References:
Find a Grave. (2022, October 27). Jacob Hanson. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/245083966/jacob-hanson
Find a Grave. (2015 March 8). Andrew Howard. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/143525017/andrew-howard
Milton Observer 