100 years ago
Refusing to name the man responsible for her condition or the doctor who attended to her, Troy native Mildred Jayne Smith, 26, died at Chapin Memorial Hospital in Springfield, Mass., following an illegal operation. For the previous two years, Smith had been a stenographer for millionaire Horace A. Moses of the Strathmore Paper Co. in Springfield.
The Hampden County district attorney’s office and the Springfield police opened an investigation into the woman’s death, intent on uncovering the names of the other parties involved, but were hampered in their efforts by the fact that she died without revealing either man, and only saying the doctor was from out of town.
The cause of death was blood poisoning and the two doctors who treated her once it had set in, and who fought for several days in an attempt to save her life, said they had no idea who the original physician was. Smith and her family once resided on River Street in Troy, although her relatives later moved to a new home on Sixth Avenue. It was said that Smith was popular in both Troy and Springfield…