On this day in 1912 the Reverend W. D. McFarland, pastor of the United Presbyterian Church Missionary in Greene County, Tennessee, was arrested and placed in the Greene County jail in Greeneville. He was charged with causing the death of Elsie Dodd Coe by criminal operation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
For nearly 10 years Rev. McFarland had been the head of the academic department at Pittsburgh’s Central High School and Ms. Coe was his secretary. In 1910 he felt a calling to preach and so he left the school and staff and came to Cedar Creek, Tennessee, and the United Presbyterian Church.
McFarland, though, maintained his ties with Ms. Coe and when she asked for his help he obliged.
Ms. Coe had apparently had an affair with a young man named Ronald McConnell, by whom she found out she was pregnant. She did not want the child and asked Rev. McFarland to help her. He attempted to find a doctor who would perform an abortion, illegal at the time, but had no luck. So, on October 15th, he did it himself.
Complications set in and McFarland performed a second operation on January 6, 1912, during which she suffered peritonitis. The next day she was taken to a local hospital, where she later died. Before she died she implicated Rev. McFarland as the man who performed the operations and Mr. McConnell as being the father.
McFarland was transferred to Pittsburgh to stand trial in March. The jury found him guilty on March 17th and he was sentenced to one year in prison, which was shortened to 10 months for good behavior.
