Edith Floyd Clark, Alexandrina Clark’s [future inhabitant of 5 Alexandra] step-daughter, living at 69 Adelaide Road, died 29 Nov 1905. Edith’s cause of death is not noted on her death registration, which I found odd, but it is noted in Brenan’s Funeral Home records which indicate Edith died from “abortion by Dr. Preston” and “Dr. Preston on trial for murder”. I contacted the New Brunswick Archives and requested the coroner’s records to discover that the coroner’s inquest records were either lost or destroyed. However, local newspapers covered the trial extensively and note that Dr. Edward Preston was tried in 1905 and acquitted in Jan 1906 for malpractice related to performing an illegal abortion – all in less than 2.5 months. What does appear clear is that Edith died and she was pregnant and unmarried. Dr. Preston did provide medication to Howard for Edith, the purpose of which was debated at trial.
Howard Camp, Edith’s purported fiancé of 6 months, was charged with manslaughter with the charges later dropped. Howard Camp was the son of Solomon and Jane Spence. Howard worked as a welder and lived most of his early life with his widowed mother Jane Camp nee Spence on Paradise Row in Saint John.
Jane Spence married Solomon Camp in 1868. They had at least two children: George and Howard. In 1874 Captain Solomon Camp was mortally wounded on the Anne B. bound from Portland, Maine to Saint John by Charles Tilton Robbins. Robbins attacked three men and fatally injured Camp who died on 28 May 1874 in Rockland, Maine. Camp’s body was brought back to Canada and he was buried at St James Anglican Church, Queens County in Lower Jemseg, NB with his son George who died in 1885. The United States of America refused to extradite Robbins. Robbins was found by a jury to be insane and stayed in the Insane Hospital from 1874 until release in 1876. Jane Spence Camp, of 85 Paradise Row, died in 1918.
I wonder how Howard’s life later unfolded after so many early tragedies.