It was almost 6:00 in the evening and 13-year-old Gertrude White was bored with making castles in the sand pile near Harvey’s Boiler Shop in Johnston. She suggested to her two-year-old sister Florence and her 10-year-old friend Sadie Ann Longbottom that they do something else.

“Let’s make believe it’s snowing and throw the sand up in the air and let it fall on us,” she said. It was July 30, 1891, a beautiful summer day and months away from any real snowfall so all three girls liked the idea. They began scooping up sand as 18-year-old English native William Fielding walked by. He suddenly stopped and looked at Gertrude.

“What did you just say to me?” he demanded in a pronounced English accent.

“Nothing,” Gertrude replied.

“You’re a liar,” William charged. He then looked at Sadie. “What did she just say to me?” he asked. “Repeat it.”

Sadie explained that Gertrude had simply said something to her about the game they were playing.

Certain that he’d heard Gertrude insult him, he kicked her. All three girls got up and began running. William pulled a long carpenter’s chisel from his pocket and raced after Gertrude, finally plunging the tool into her back.

She continued to run, following Sadie and Florence who were screaming and racing toward the boiler shop. William escaped into the nearby woods.

Before reaching the shop, Gertrude fell to the ground bleeding heavily, the chisel still embedded in her back. As she lay screaming, a man named William Watts approached and she told him she’d been stabbed. He carefully placed her in his wagon and sped to the nearest location where a doctor might be – Schofield & Company Undertak-ers.

Gertrude, who lived on the Waterman homestead on Hartford Avenue with her parents, Alfred and Gertrude (Kee), described the man who had attacked her. The chisel was so deeply lodged in the muscular tissue just below her left shoulder blade that it took all the doctor’s strength to pull it free with both of his hands. The chisel was about an inch and a half wide and extremely sharp. It had penetrated her ribs and angled downward, causing severe lacerations. After examining the wound, the doctor announced that Gertrude probably wouldn’t survive.

Because her parents were away on a Knights of Pythias outing, Gertrude was taken to the Plainfield Street home of family friend Isaac Howland. While the police made a professional search for the attacker, the men of Johnston formed their own search parties, determined that justice was going to be served in a different way.

In the midst of the search that evening, police learned that a fight was in progress on the Budlong farm in Cranston. William, who lived with his father at 192 Manton Avenue and had been employed by Budlong for about a week, had instigated a brawl with Budlong’s son by picking up a board and smashing the boy over the head with it.

The morning after William was arrested, his father called the judge and asked him to please be lenient and give William one more chance. Mr. Fielding was an invalid and much-liked by everyone in town. The judge told him he’d consider it.

However, not long after, two boys arrived at the police station and reported that they’d seen a man breaking into Thomas Harvey’s shop and stealing tools. When they described the man, police knew they already had him in custody.

At noon on the day Gertrude was attacked, 11-year-old Emma Hoar was taking lunch to her father Thomas, who worked as a canvasser, when a strange man began speaking to her and following her as she neared Union Bridge on Lowe’s Avenue. She ignored him and walked faster but he caught up to her and knocked her down. Tearing her clothing and shoving a large rock into her mouth, he violently attacked her until she began to lose consciousness. Upon seeing two people approach, the man ran off. He wore dark clothing and a derby hat and carried a whip.

Police took William to the Hoar home on North Road in Johnston, and asked Emma if this was the man who at-tacked her. She said it was and that he was simply wearing a different hat.

Word spread fast and about 700 local men lined up in front of the courthouse brandishing shovels and pickaxes. Every available police officer was called to ensure the safety of the accused as he was led into the courthouse to go before the judge. His father soon arrived.

“Did you do this thing?” Mr. Fielding asked.

William dropped his gaze to the floor and didn’t answer.

“Did you do this awful thing?” his father repeated.

When still no answer came, his father began to cry.

“If you did, even though you are my son, you ought to be killed.”

Mr. Fielding then exited the courthouse.

William first answered to the charge of battery upon Mr. Budlong’s son. Then he was taken to the White home.

“Do you know this man?” Gertrude was asked.

She turned to face him.

“Yes. That is the man who stabbed me in the back.”

“What do you have to say to that?” the officer asked William.

“The girl tells the truth. I did stab her,” he answered.

“Why did you do it?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

During the trial, William demonstrated with both hands how he plunged the chisel into Gertrude’s back. His attorney asked the judge to be lenient and claimed the charges were exaggerated. He explained that William had already spent time in an English reform school.

Those called to testify included a man who bought a whip from William on July 30. He stated that William had told him that he’d just assaulted a little girl.

Facing three charges; two for assault with intent to rape and one for breaking, entering and larceny, William’s attorney told the judge that he would plead nolo to all three if the ‘intent to rape’ clause was removed and if it was agreed that he would only face sentencing for the attack on Gertrude. The offer was accepted.

William was therefore found guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon and sentenced to serve two years in prison. He was incarcerated while Gertrude lay waiting to die. Only she didn’t.

The White family returned to their home state of Maine after only having been residents of RI a short time. Gertrude worked at a rubber factory and married twice. She died in Los Angeles on June 10, 1965 at age 87.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.