History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 36

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 862


USA > New York > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 36


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On his reaching home he gave out that his money had been received and would be paid over as soon as the neces- sary papers and pay-rolls could be prepared. In a few days he completed his arrangements, and started on horseback for Trenton, with his money in a pair of old-fashioned port- manteaus, which were placed in the ordinary way across the saddle-seat. At the several places where he stopped on the way he took pains to announce to the people that he would be back on a given day and pay to such persons as were entitled by their services and vouchers. His appear- ance at the time was natural and careless, too much so, as was thought by some, for a man who was in a position of so much responsibility. But he had been well instructed, no doubt, by his evil genius, and he enacted his part as well as could be expected from a man who was naturally honest, and who was out of his element, and had such a crushing sense of damning guilt resting on his soul.


He reached Trenton, and put up at the public-house owned by Orren Ives, but which was in charge of Henry D. Cadwell, Esq., now of our village. He left his horse under the shed, as though he was going farther, and had him fed, with the saddle and portmanteau all on. He called for dinner, and after dinner he went into the street, and finally to the barn, but soon came in again with haste, apparently in the greatest possible consternation and alarm, bringing the saddle-bags with him, and declaring " that he had been robbed of his money, and intimating that it must


have been done since he was at that house !" Mr. Cadwell tried to convince him that it was impossible, but in vain. He then ran over to Dr. Billings' for advice, not choosing to rest under the imputation of crime, and persuading him to come and examine into the circumstances.


Dr. Billings cheerfully undertook to satisfy Mr. Whittle- sey that whoever had got his money, it was not any person belonging to the house at Mr. Ives'. The portmanteau was exhibited in the mean time, and the slit on the under side, where it was supposed the money must have been ex- tracted, was particularly and critically inspected to see whether it was a fresh cut or otherwise. Mr. Whittlesey's attention was very soon called by Dr. Billings to the fact that the action of the portmanteau on the horse's loins had heated him, and produced a free perspiration, and that the lather thus created had penetrated the slit in the leather, staining the edges, and leaving a gummy substance on the inner surface, which he peeled off with his thumb-nail. The slit was evidently cut, at some tiwc, with a knife, and was seven or eiglit inches in length. There were some packages of old newspapers put in to supply the place, but the money was gone.


He returned home to communicate the terrible catas- trophe to his family, and his two friends who were his sureties, and who must necessarily be involved in the general ruin which seemed inevitable. As a natural con- sequence, the event became the absorbing topic in every family, and the theme of a wide circle in all the counties of the State.


Rewards were offered, and staring hand-bills posted for the apprehension of the bold thief, but all in vain. Messrs. Fairbanks and Keyes conversed with him freely, and without seeming to hesitate in taking his version of the story, which was, briefly, " That the money was all in one package, just as he had received it from the bank ; that he put it in one end of the portmanteau, with some changes of linen in the other end; that he then took them on his arm, and pro- ceeded to put them across the saddle, and immediately mounted his horse, sitting on the bags ; aud he thought he had exercised a very careful supervision over them up to the time when he missed the moncy, after arriving at Trenton village."


He exhibited the portmanteau first to Mr. Fairbanks, and then to Mr. Keyes, at two separate interviews, and each made such an examination of them as they could do without betraying any suspicions that their confidence in the integrity of the Whittlesey family was weakened. Mr. Fairbanks' interview with Mr. W. lasted an hour, during which time the best method of procedure in efforts to detect the thief and recover the money was frcely discussed. With the view of being able to answer the inquiries which would be made, Mr. Fairbanks took an exact diagram of the slit in the bags on a piece of paper, and found the length of it seven and a half inches, with what appcared to be pin-holes in the edges of the cut in the leather, as if they were made by pinning the edges together to keep the slit from being readily discovered.


Wlittlesey told him that the principal reason why he took all the money with him was, " that his women were unwilling that any portion of it should be left with them,


MRS. WILLARD IVES (deceased).


PHOTOS. BY GENDRON.


MRS. WILLARD IVES.


RESIDENCE OF HON. WILLARD IVES.


HON. WILLARD IVES,


of Watertown, Jefferson County, New York, is a man whose history, simple and unpretending, is identical with that of a large class of the most useful members of society. He is, in the best sense of the word, a farmer. Blessed with a competencc which places him beyond the apprehension of want, the owner of extensive and valuable farming lands, lying contiguous to the flourishing city of Watertown, he prosecutes the occupation of agriculture with his own hands, thus giving a practical repudia- tion to the anti-republican assumption, that " labor is degrading and at war with true dignity." That the sympathies of Mr. Ives are pre eminently with the producing classes is evidenced, not, as in too many instances, by mere empty professions, but by the high force of practical example.


The subject of this notice is of New England extraction. His grandfather, Mr. Jothamn Ives, who was of Welsh de- scent, was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, in 1743; removed early in life to Torrington, Litchfield county, where he spent his days almost exclusively in agricultural pursuits. His third son, Titus, was born in December, 1778. In 1801 (at the early age of twenty-three) Titus Ives removed to Watertown


township, New York, which he made his permanent home. The fertile and wealthy region now known as the "Black River country," was at that time an almost .unknown wilderness, and to Mr. Ives belongs the credit of having been one of the pioneers by whose perseverance and energy pleasant fields and thriving villages have been carved out of that unbroken wilderness.


Willard Ives, the subject of this notice, was born July 7, 1806, in the town of Watertown, and lived on the farm taken up by his father, when he first came to the county, until the year 1850. He was limited in the means of education to the indifferent common schools afforded by a new country, and the humble district school-house, with the exception of a short time spent at Belleville and an academy in Lowville. He was married December 27, 1827, to Miss Charlotte, daughter of Samuel and Lucy Winslow, of Watertown, but formerly of Vermont. She was amiable in her disposition, devoted to the welfare of the church she so much loved ; a consistent Chris- tian woman, a faithful wife. Her long-continued ill health finally brought her to a premature grave. She died in the year 1861, aged fifty-five years.


For his second wife he married Miss Lucina M., daughter of Zepheniah and Sally Eddy, of Philadelphia, Jefferson County, but formerly of Oswego county. Her father was a native of Rhode Island. She is a lady of more than ordinary intellectual ability, and shares the happiness and comfort of her husband in the declining years of his life.


Devotedly attached to the faith and discipline of the Meth- odist denomination of Christians, he was selected in 1846 by the Black River conference to represent it in the World's con- vention, held that year in London. In the discharge of the duty so assigned him, he visited Europe, and spent much of the year 1846 abroad. After his return he was chosen presi- dent of the Jefferson County Agricultural Society, a position for which his close attention to agricultural science has pecu- liarly qualified him.


In the year 1840 he was first connected with the bank of Watertown as director, and subsequently as president. In 1848 his friends presented his name to the public as a candi- date for Congress. He was always, from his earliest political action, strongly attached to the principles of the Democratic party, and, like the great mass of that party in this State, found himself unable to concur in the recommendations of the Balti- more convention. The county of Jefferson, forming the Nine- teenth congressional district, is of doubtful political complexion, and had been, for ten years previous, represented more than one- half of the time by a Whig member.


In the campaign of 1848, the supporters of General Cass for the presidency drew off from the old Democratic organiza- tion in the county about two thousand votes ; and yet with this great defection, such was the popularity of Mr. Ives, that he came within less than three hundred votes of defeating his Whig competitor.


In the year 1852, being again placed in nomination by his party to represent it in Congress, he was elected by a majority of some seven hundred votes.


Mr. Ives was the chief instigator in the establishment of the orphan asylum at Watertown, and interested himself largely


in obtaining subscriptions for the same, which, added to the aid afforded by the State, left that institution free from any incum- brance from its beginning.


He has been, and still is, a large contributor to the support of the seminary at Antwerp bearing his name. Mr. Ives was one of the originators and organizers of the Syracuse Univer- sity, and, with Bishop Jesse T. Peck and others, founded an institution destined to be among the first in the United States. He has been one of the trustees since its organization. He has been connected with the Jefferson County Bible Society nearly the entire time since its formation as contributor, and, for the past thirty years, a part of the time as its president. In early life he took a deep interest in Sunday-school work, and has labored earnestly for the propagation of that interest, and also as a co-laborer in the social meetings of his church.


At the general conference held in Brooklyn, New York, of the Methodist Episcopal church, the first in which lay members had a representation, he was a delegate. He was one of the incorporators of the "Thousand Island Camp Meeting Asso- ciation," which in so short a time has become a place of great religious interest, and since its organization he and his wife have spent much time at that popular resort. His zeal seems not to wane so long as he can assist in putting forward any enterprise looking to the building up of good society, and the propagation of Christian principles among men. He is identified with the Agricultural Fire Insurance Company, of Watertown, as a director ; also director and president of the Watertown Fire Insurance Company ; and is also president and one of the stockholders of the Merchants' Bank, of Watertown, and holds the same position in the Davis Sewing Machine Com- pany, of the city of Watertown.


It is seldom the biographer is able to record the sketch of a man whose life seems so wholly devoted to the best interests of his fellow-men as does Mr. Ives', and to the rising generation many useful lessons may be given by a careful perusal of this brief biography of one of Jefferson County's citizens.


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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.


for that they would be all the time fearing that they might be robbed in his absence." His story was uniformly con- sistent with itself, and was undoubtedly well eonned. Mr. Keyes, in the mean time, had been sent for. Mr. Fair- banks met him on the way, and passing him requested him to eall at his shop as soon as he should have closed the interview at Mr. Whittlesey's.


When they met an hour afterwards, and compared notes, they found themselves perfectly agreed as to the probability of Mr. Whittlesey's guilt in the matter, and they decided at onee on their course, which was to seem to have the mnost unqualified confidenee in the truth of Whittlesey's statements, and of his honesty, and then trust to time and their ingenuity to unravel the plot and to seeure the money.


Another objeet which they eoneeived to be important to them, in the relation they sustained to the government, was to persuade Mr. Whittlesey to seeure them with his real estate, so far as it would go, against their liabilities ; on the principle that it was only just to them that he should freely yield up what he had, to make up so large a sum, and which was above their ability to meet. They met a day or two afterwards at Whittlesey's house, and suggested the above matter of a eonveyanee of his property to them; to which he very eheerfully agreed, thus con- firining them very much in their suspicions that he had that large sunt, which he supposed he was going to fall baek upon, and with which his little property seemed of very little moment in the comparison. It was a eireum- stanee that they weighed well. The security amounted to about $2000 in cash value, though Mr. Whittlesey esti- mated it as high as $5000.


After they had effeeted their objeet in seeuring them- selves as far as could be done out of Whittlesey's property, they made their arrangements for the most perfeet espionage upon the movements of the Whittlesey family, for the pur- pose of obtaining some elue to the present whereabouts of the money. A part of the plan was to spend most of their evenings at Whittlesey's, in mutual plans for ferreting out the rascal who had so successfully robbed him, and thus ruined them all. They soon discovered that the sleeping- room of Whittlesey and wife was in a chamber on the back end of the house, and that a position on the roof of the wood-house, where it united with the house, would possi- bly give them favorable opportunities for eavesdropping. Fairbanks had a light, short ladder, which he proenred for the purpose, with which one or the other of them climbed to the position selected, while the other kept them oeeupied in the passage-way to the front door in leave-taking, or after-thoughts and suggestions which had oeeurred to him.


After a while it was arranged that Fairbanks should go to New York, ostensibly to take a prisoner to the State's prison, but more particularly for the purpose of aseertain- ing from the officers of the bank what sized package the $35,000 made, so as to form a better eonclusion whether such a package eould by any possibility pass through such an aperture as was made in the portmanteau. Another ob- jeet was to see Chauncey Whittlesey, the eldest son of the family, and ascertain by an interview with him why he was in New York at the time his father was there, he being at the tiule assistant-surgeon, or surgeon's mate, in the United


States navy. He ascertained to his satisfaction, however, that he was ashore on leave, while his vessel was on a short eruise ; and that he was quite short of pocket-money ; and that he was in no way connected with the plot.


Mr. Fairbanks then came home and had an interview with Mr. Keyes, who had kept a regular watch on the roof of Whittlesey's wood-shed during his absence, and had overheard enough to satisfy himself that their suspicions of him were well founded. There was no question of the money being in the possession or under the control of Mr. and Mrs. Whittlesey.


In the mean time Whittlesey and his wife had been busy in efforts to get small pareels of these bills into the hands of various individuals,-innocent parties,-with a kind of vague, indefinite hope that it might be found upon them, and thus have a tendeney to divert public attention from themselves. With that end in view they made small de- posits of that particular money on the premises of various individuals.


Marked bills amounting to $400 had been dropped on the road to Saeket's Harbor, and were found by a Mr. Gale, who counted and sealed them before witness ; and after the disclosure brought them forward. Marked bills had also been left on the premises of Mr. Chillus Doty, of Martins- burgh, at whose place Mr. Whittlesey stayed overnight on his way to Trenton with the money ; and after- wards-when he had been foreed to disgorge the large balanee-he proceeded on horseback to repossess himself of it ; as he reluctantly admitted to the late Dr. Amasa Trow- bridge, who insisted on knowing where he had been riding so hard as to jade his horse so much. Marked bills were also found on the premises of Joseph Shelden, who kept a tavern in Martinsburgh, and which were afterwards returned to the sureties.


It was also during the absence of Mr. Fairbanks in New York, with the State's prisoner, as before related, that Cap- tain Seth Otis, of this town, disclosed to Mr. Keyes the faet that he had received of Whittlesey $100 in bills of the same bank, in payment for that amount of money which he had some time before loaned, on call, to him. He stated that he had at first felt unwilling to give them up, because he did not feel able to lose that amount of money. But Mr. Keyes very soon made him easy on that seore, assuring him that they would give him their equivalent iu gold ; for that they were the only clue that he had been able to get to the missing money ; charging him, however, as he valued his friendship, not to divulge a syllable to mortal man or woman on the subject.


This last faet, together with little nameless appearances of the guilty parties, added to what had been gained by eavesdropping, had had the effect to confirm them in the belief that they had the money, and henee that there was no time to be lost in an effort to " circumvent the eunning old serpent," who was the chief plotter in all this complicated ruin. But precisely where the money was was the great question.


Keyes had overheard enough to satisfy himself that any effort to recover it must needs be made very soon, as they were evidently coneocting a plan for flight to parts unknown, within a very short period, and he had heard noises that


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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.


indicated the boxing up of goods in the house at late hours in the night.


A number of schemes were proposed and discussed be- tween them, having reference to operating on Mr. Whittle- sey's fears, in order to frighten him into a disclosure of the place of deposit ; but there were objections to each and all, until Keyes suggested that in his experience as a raftman he had found that nothing seencd to take the pluck and courage out of a man like partial drowning; and he had come to the conclusion that it was a kind of torture they could graduate and protract at their pleasure, by selecting a pit filled with water for the purpose. He had just such a place in his mind, on his own farm, as would answer their purpose. They proceeded together to the place, and made their preparations accordingly. Their scheme succeeded admirably ; they got Whittlesey to the place without ex- citing his suspicions, and charged him with the theft of the money.


Whittlesey surveyed his two friends with calmness and seeming self-possession, and calling God to witness the truth of his allegations, he proceeded to reiterate his oft-told tale. Keyes thereupon seized him, and, with a little of Fairbanks' help, placed him in the water. After being strangled a little they allowed him to scramble out. Being again in- terrogated, and assured if the money were restored no legal proceedings would be instituted, he again protested his innocence most solemnly, and with a calmness most unac- countable.


They proceeded to plunge him in a second time, and held him there until to their amazement he appeared dead ! They however succeeded in restoring him to consciousness, and then repeated to him that they had availed themselves of means of knowing for a certainty the fact of his having the money under his control, though they could not lay their hands upon it. They told him that their minds were fully made up, and that it depended entirely on himself whether he survived the process to which they had resorted, in their desperation, to save themselves from ruin. After prolonging this kind of talk until he had so far recovered as to make it safe to repeat the process, Mr. Fairbanks turned to Mr. Keyes and said, "You help me put him in once more; then give me what money you have got,-take care of yourself for your family's sake. I have no family and want no witnesses of the concluding part of this pro- cess. I will write you from Kingston and tell you where to direct a letter to mne." They then shook hands and ten- derly took leave of each other, when Mr. Keyes gave Fair- banks some $90 and walked off. Fairbanks informed his sub- ject that his time had come. His arms were pinioned behind him in such a way that he could offer no resistance, and finding things looking desperate and himself sinking again in the water, he cried out, "I'll own it ! I'll own it!" Keyes was immediately called back, and they proceeded to put him in a position to give them the information they so mueh coveted.


He said the money was in his wife's possession, and either under a tile in the hearth of a chamber, which he described, or in his wife's bed-room in another chamber; that it had been sometimes in the cellar in a place which he deseribed, but always in her custody and under her special control.


He said he. never should have been guilty of this wicked- ness but for the fact of his having been robbed at Schen- ectady of $8700, for which he was wholly unable to account, and which he had never spoken of before or advertised, because his wife had persuaded him of the impossibility of satisfying the public that any robber would have taken only part of an entire package of money and left the largest share.


After Whittlesey had made this disclosure, it was agreed that Keyes should go to the house and get possession of the money, while Fairbanks should stay in charge of the cul- prit; that if Keyes did not find it he should come back, and, from a corner of his barn, which could be seen from their position at the water-hole, give a signal which would be understood, after which, " dead men tell no tales." After Keyes had gone for the purpose of seeing whether the money was where he had described, Fairbanks asked the old man whether he had sent him on a fool's errand, but was answered that he had told all he knew. He protested that there was the $8700 spoken of before, which he knew nothing about, and inquired anxiously whether they in- tended to hold him responsible for that sum. In about an hour Keyes came back and released his friend and their prisoner. Whittlesey begged hard to be released on the spot, and Keyes was disposed to let him go, but Fairbanks was determined to restore him back to his own dwelling where he had taken him from. Keyes proceeded imme- diately again to where he had left the money, with Dr. Paul Hutchinson and John M. Canfield, while Fairbanks and Whittlesey proceeded more deliberately through the main streets, Washington and Court, to the residence of Mr. Whittlesey, which was directly opposite the Clerk's office on Court street.


We now go back to say that Mr. Keyes had procured the assistance of Messrs. Hutchinson and Canfield as he went to the house for the purpose of an interview with Mrs. Whittlesey in order to get possession of the money. Seeing them approach she fled to her chamber, and on their knocking for admission, she replied that she was ehanging her dress and would meet them shortly. As it was not the time or place for much etiquette, Mr. Keyes rudely burst open the door, and on entering found her reclining on the bed, and disregarding her expostulations of impropriety, proceeded to search, and soon found between the straw- and feather-beds upon which she lay a pair of quilted drawers, when she exclaimed, " You've got it! My God ! Have I come to this?" The drawers bore the initials of Colonel Tuttle, of the United States Army, who had died a short time before in that house under very suspicious circum- stances. They were fitted with two sets of buttons, for either herself or her husband to wear, and contained about thirty pareels of bills, labeled, " For my dear son.C., 250 of 5's ; for my dear daughter E., 150 of 3's," etc., amounting to $15,000 for her five children, the remainder being rc- served for her own use. The garment also contained a most extraordinary document, which might be called her will, and about which she expressed the most urgent solicitude, imploring that it might be destroyed, by the earnest appeal that " You have children as well as I." It was soon after published in the papers, and was as follows :


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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.


" It is my last and dying request that my children shall have all tho money that is contained in the papers which have their names on,-which is $3000 for each, and let there bo pains and caution and a great length of time taken to exchange it in. God and my own heart knows the misery I have suffered in consequence of it, and that it was much against my will that it should be done. I have put all that is in the same bank by it, that I had from prudence and a great number of years been gathering up, and when I used to incet with bills on that bank in your possession, or whon I could I used to ex- change others for them, as I supposed it was the best and most per- manent bank. . You know tho reason of your taking this was that we supposed that from the look of the small trunk being broken, and the large one being all loose and tho nails out, that we were robbed on the road of $8700. You know that I always told you that I be- lieved that it was done in the yard, where you, as I told you then, put the wagon imprudently in Schenectady. Oh, how much misery alu I born to sco through all your improper conduct, which I am forced to conceal from the world for the sake of my beloved offspring's credit, and whereby I have got enemies undeservedly, while the pub- lie opiniou was in your favor ! But it fully evinees what false judg- ments the world makes. Oh! tho God who tries the hearts and searches the veins of the children of men knows that the kind of misery which I have suffered, and which has riled and soured my temper, and has made me appear cross and muorose to the public eye, has all proceeded from you, aud fixed in my countenance the mark of an ill-natured. disposition, which was naturally formed for loves, friendships, and all other refined sensations. How have I falsified tho truth that you might appear to every advantage, at the risk and ill-opinion of the sensible world toward myself, when my conscience was telling me I was doing wrong; and which, with everything else I have suffered since I have been a married woman, has worn me down and kept me ont of health; and now, oh now, this last act is bringing me to my grave fast. I consented because you placed me in the situation you did.




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