"The community around Oyster Bay are greatly excited over an abortion case that has been brought to light." The woman in question was identified only as Miss Bertram.
Miss Bertram was engaged to a New York man. The wedding was to take place on July 4, 1875. However, she became pregnant before the wedding. She purchased an abortifacient which didn't have the effect she desired, so she took some other sort of abortifacient.
This second abortifacient did the job, leading to the birth of a near-term infant, which was buried in a potato patch.
Miss Bertram herself took ill and died a few days later -- mere hours before her scheduled wedding. The physician who was attending her declared the cause of death to be the abortion.
Miss Bertram's fiancé denied being the father of the dead baby. "There is a suspicion entertained of another young man". Police began an investigation into who he might be, and into who sold the young woman the fatal drugs.
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Source: "A Case of Malpractice at Oyster Bay," The Brooklyn Eagle, June 26, 1875
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