Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc., Part 109

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Akron > Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc. > Part 109

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

A MAMMOTH SCHEME .- At the tinie about which we are now writing, the old United States Bank, at Philadelphia, was in full operation, its notes being, like our present treasury notes or green- backs, not only good in any part of the United States, but also current in every country on the globe with which this govern- ment then held commercial intercourse. About the year 1831, the leaders of the fraternity above described had possessed themselves of some very excellent plates of the several issues of United States bank notes, and were preparing to flood the country with the spurious paper.

At this time, the elder of the Brown brothers, "Dan," having returned to Pittsburg, from a successful trip over the mountains, with horses, with the view of resuming his trading operations on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, evolved from his fertile brain a scheme that should entirely eclipse any other financial project,

879

A TRULY MAMMOTH SCHEME.

either legitimate or illegitimate, that up to that time had ever been devised. He accordingly wrote to his brother "Jim," and their most confidential confederate, Taylor, to meet him in Pitts- burg. On coming together, " Dan" unfolded his plan, which was, that instead of placing the spurious United States notes they were then preparing in the hands of their local agents and confederates to be dribbled out at retail, in this country, they should make a wholesale operation of it in the far-off markets of the mercantile world.

EXPEDITION TO CHINA, INDIA, ETC .- This scheme was fully con- curred in by not only the Brown brothers and Taylor, but by such other members of the fraternity as were let into the secret. Pro- ceeding to New Orleans, in the Winter of 1831, '32, a large vessel was purchased and equipped for the expedition. It was the inten- tion to sail directly for China, and from thence to visit the several commercial ports of India, and, with the spurious money, purchase a large cargo of teas, coffees, spices, siiks and other merchandise, to be disposed of in the various ports of Europe and America. Several thousand dollars worth of export merchandise, suited to Oriental trade, was placed on board the vessel, with $1,500,000 of the spurious notes, together with material and the necessary apparatus for turning out $2,000,000 more.

In addition to the owners, and the crew proper, for the man- agement of the vessel, a number of artists, expert penman, etc., were included in the company as "passengers." Everything was in readiness for a start. Passports and the necessary clearance papers had been secured. The vessel had pulled out from the dock and anchored in mid-river, just at night, to be in readiness to start upon her voyage with the out-going tide the next morning. There were no telegraphs begirting the globe, no railroads, no swift ocean steamers in those days, and once fairly at sea, the expedition would be safe from both detection and pursuit, and its final success assured beyond a peradventure.

THE EXPEDITION COMES TO GRIEF .- As several months would elapse before they would again stand upon terra firma, or revel in the delights of city life, the two whilom mercantile partners, "Jim" Brown and "Bill" Taylor, went on shore in the evening to "paint the town red." New Orleans was at that time, as perhaps it still is, a pretty "gay" city-with its gambling houses, bagnios and drinking places, as public as its hotels, stores, etc. Though it does not appear that they became particularly inebriated, or offensively boisterous, in making their rounds, yet their extreme liberality in the dispensation of their wealth, in treating them- selves and others, and certain extravagances of action and speech, attracted the attention of the police. Being thenceforth shadowed, when, late at night, they were seen to row off to their vessel, whose somewhat singular movements had already been observed by the authorities, they were followed by a squad of officers, and a thorough search of the vessel instituted.

Up to this time the true nature of the expedition had not been suspected, but, as piracy and smuggling were then largely in vogue, it was surmised that the parties and the vessel in question, might belong to one class or the other of the contraband operators named. The search, however, revealed the real character of the company, and their probable designs, and the entire number were

880

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

taken into custody, together with their perfected and unperfected "currency," material and counterfeiting paraphernalia.

DEATH-CONVICTION-ACQUITTAL, ETC .- The three principals, only-the two Browns and Taylor-were held for trial. Taylor, through friends in Cleveland, secured bail, and he and one Henry Barrett, agreed, for a certain money indemnity and a deed of the farm owned by the Browns, in Boston, to go bail for them, also. The money was paid over and the deed executed, but the bail never was furnished. The trial was postponed, from time to time, until late in the Fall of 1832, Daniel Brown having in the mean-

time, on August 22, 1832, died in the New Orleans calaboose. General Lucius V. Bierce and Hon. Rufus P. Spalding, as attor- neys, and some 18 or 20 residents of Portage and Cuyahoga counties, as witnesses. were in attendance. Mrs. Lucy Mather Brown, wife of James Brown-a finer woman than whom never existed-clung faithfully to her husband, in the spirit of the couplet :

"I know not, I care not, if guilt's in thy heart,

But I know that I love thee, whatever thou art."

The silly tradition, however, that Mrs. Brown rode on horse- back from Old Portage to New Orleans, to be present at her hus- band's trial, or that, obtaining access to her husband's cell, in the calaboose, she exchanged clothes with him, thus enabling. him to escape, are simply sublimated bosh-there being, at that time, plenty of steamboats plying between Pittsburg and New Orleans, and escape from prison being no part of his line of defense.

There is no authentic account of the actual proceedings in the case now available, the local papers of the time in this vicinity, now in possession of the writer, being singularly reticent on the subject. General Bierce, in his "historical reminiscences," says: "James Brown was used as a witness against Taylor, who was acquitted, and became a vagabond on the earth," while other accounts state that Taylor was convicted, and imprisoned on Brown's testimony.

Mr. Hiram H. Brown's recollection (though not on the ground himself) is that Taylor arranged with the prosecutor to turn State's evidence against his uncle "Jim," and that his aunt Lucy had come on to Cleveland and obtained a large number of affidavits from well-known reputable citizens, tending to impeach Taylor's character for veracity, with which she was returning to New Orleans, and that Taylor, suspecting her object, being himself at large on bail, intercepted her at Baton Rouge, and, on board the steamer, attempted to wrest the papers from her by force and vio- lence; that both Brown and Taylor were acquitted on the charge of counterfeiting, upon the technicality that it did not appear that they intended to utter their spurious money within the limits of the State of Louisiana or the United States, and that Taylor was convicted and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment for his savage assault upon Mrs. Brown, on the steamer, as above stated.

Whichever, if either, of these theories is the correct one, cer- tain it is that Brown immediately returned to his home in Boston, while Taylor never again appeared in Portage county, nor, as far as known, in Cleveland either; Brown, a year and a half later, commencing proceedings in the Court of Common Pleas of Portage

881

WONDERFUL EQUESTRIAN EXPLOITS.

county, against Taylor and Barrett, non-residents of the State of Ohio, to have the deed given to them, as above stated, set aside, which was accordingly done.

ELECTED JUSTICE OF THE PEACE .- Returning from his long detention in the Crescent City calaboose, to his hotel in Boston, Brown, notwithstanding the miscarriage of his Chinese scheme, was heartily congratulated by his old neighbors, and a good deal lionized wherever he was known. In April, 1834, he was elected justice of the peace for Boston township, which office he is said to have administered with marked fidelity during his three years' incumbency thereof, though, at the same time, well-known to be the very "head center" of the Cuyahoga Valley Syndicate for fabricating and expanding the currency.

Brown became personally known to the writer in the Spring and Summer of 1835, first during his attendance at court, while the writer was temporarily sojourning at Ravenna, and afterwards in his frequent calls at Mr. C. B. Cobb's Pavilion House, where the writer boarded during his first two years' residence in Akron; and from thenceforth, his movements and operations will be written of from personal knowledge, newspaper reports and official records.

TRADITIONARY EXPLOITS .- There are innumerable traditions extant regarding his wonderful powers of endurance and his extraordinary escapes from his pursuers, after the consummation of some clever feat in the line of his "profession;" one, that having negotiated a forged draft with a New England Bank, he had, by riding day and night, through a pre-arranged relay of horses, rid- den to Ohio so quickly, that, on being taken to New England for trial, a perfect alibi was established, the court deciding that, with the fastest mode of travel then known, no living man could have performed the journey in the time intervening between the perpe- tration of the crime there, and his thoroughly proved presence in Ohio. At another time he is reported to have perpetrated a simi- lar "joke" upon parties near Pittsburg, and on his own powerful steed, "Old John," ridden in a single night to his home in the Cuyahoga Valley, and, being seen by the neighbors chop- ping fire-wood at his own door, at daylight the next morning, his defense of an alibi was successfully maintained. Still another exploit is attributed to him to the effect that once, while traveling through Canada, on the same horse, distributing the "queer" among his trusted agents there, the authorities "got on" to his game and gave chase, whereupon, though near the breaking up period, he fearlessly dashed across the lower end of Lake Erie, near Buffalo, upon the ice, thus placing himself beyond the juris- diction of Her Majesty's minions of the law. Whatever the pro- portion of fiction and reality these legends contain, each reader must judge for himself, as the writer has neither positive nor col- lateral evidence to adduce in support of their authenticity. But of what follows substantial accuracy may be relied upon.

CHANGES HIS BASE .- In the Winter of 1837, '38, having disposed of his hotel property, in Boston, to Mr. Henry Wadhams, Brown moved his family to Akron, at first occupying a house on Howard street, about where the Arcade block now stands. At this time he also bought the hotel property on West Exchange street, called the Summit House, a portion of which building is still standing upon the south end of the same lot. Though he did not run the

882

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

house himself, it was for several years general headquarters for himself and his "friends." Early in 1839, Brown built for himself a family residence, on the southwest corner of State and Bowery streets, some two or three years later transferring the property to William S. C. Otis. Esq,; the house, while unoccupied, being destroyed by an incendiary fire, April 12, 1843; loss $1,000 with no insurance. In the early forties the family moved on to the 300 acre farm now owned and occupied by the heirs of the late James R. Brown, Esq., in Northampton township, the title thereof then being in Daniel M. Brown, eldest son of the subject of this sketch.

HIS "PERSECUTIONS" BEGIN .- Notwithstanding their efforts to ameliorate the monetary stringency existing at that time-1837, '38-largely through the influence of a little paper published by the writer, called the Buzzard, an active campaign was inaugu- rated by the law officers of Portage, Medina and Cuyahoga counties, against the blacklegs, counterfeiters and thieves, then infesting this vicinity; the more active, in what is now Summit county, being Prosecuting Attorney L. V. Bierce, Sheriff George Y. Wallace, Justice Jacob Brown, Marshal Ithiel Mills, Constable Warren H. Smith, of Akron, and Justice James W. Weld and Constables Alonzo Culver and John E. Hurlbut, of Richfield. Hitherto, since the collapse of . his Chinese enterprise, Brown, in the varying vicissitudes of the gang, had managed to keep out of the clutches of the law himself, but now immunity and impunity both receive a sudden check.

ANOTHER MAMMOTH SCHEME .- In February, 1838, "Jim" was arrested in Akron, charged with being concerned in an adroit forgery by which the plates of the bank of Lexington, Kentucky, were obtained from the Union Bank in New York, and from which a large number of bills had been printed, the fraud fortunately being discovered before they had been delivered to the gang; and also for being implicated in extensive forgeries of mortgages on real estate in Buffalo, it likewise transpiring that Brown was about starting the Farmer's and Merchant's Bank at Burlington, Wis- consin (then a territory), confessing to Marshal Mills that he had some $200,000 of the bills in his possession not yet filled out; there being found in the trunk of a confederate, here, a large amount of money ready for circulation, purporting to be on the "Exporting, Mining and Manufacturing Company," at Jackson, Ill., together with several thousand dollars of the Buffalo mortgages above spoken of.

On the first named charge "Jim" Brown was taken before Jus- tice Jacob Brown, who, to give the complainants time to procure testimony from New York, postponed the hearing until March 17, the accused entering into bonds in the sum of $6,000 for his appearance at that time. For some unexplained reason the New York witnesses were not forthcoming, and Brown was discharged, his connection with the other matters not being sufficiently apparent to base a prosecution on.

AGAIN ARRESTED, TRIED AND CONVICTED .- Among others arrested by the officers at this period, March, 1838, was one Jona- than DeCourcey, a tavern keeper at Johnson's Corners, in Norton township, and one of the Brown's most trusted lieutenants. Finding himself fairly in the toils, DeCourcey sought immunity

883

FIRST START TOWARDS THE "PEN."

by turning informer against his principal. Brown was accord- ingly arrested by Constable Hurlbut, of Richfield, and examined before Justice James W. Weld, of the same township, in the Court . House at Medina, on the 10th day of April, a large number of wit- nesses being in attendance. The charge was having $10 and $50 ·counterfeit bills on the bank of Rochester, N. Y., in his possession with intent to pass the same, and of having offered to sell De Courcey $6,000 thereof.

He was held to bail in the sun of $10,000, and at the June term of the Court of Common Pleas for Medina county, was duly indicted for the offense. The trial was postponed until the Octo- ber term, Brown's $10,000 bonds being renewed, with Alonzo Dee, William T. Mather and William King, as sureties; De Courcey also being indicted and held to bail in the sum of $3,000, with Abel Dickinson as surety, for making and counterfeiting a Mexican dollar. Both cases were again postponed until the March term of the court, 1839.

TRAITOROUS DECOURCEY .- As the day for the trial approached, an effort was made by Brown and his friends to ged rid of De- Courcey, and his damaging testimony. He was offered $400 in money, a well-secured note for $200, and a gold watch, with the promise of indemnity for his bail, to "absquatulate" to Texas. This proposition the old sinner pretended to accept, but after get- ting possession of the money, watch and note, and just on the eve of starting for Texas, under the escort of one of Brown's trusted henchmen, William Hicks, of Canal Fulton, he managed to give the officers the wink, and both DeCourcey and his escort were overhauled and brought back to Medina and lodged in jail in time for trial; Brown also being taken into custody on a Bench war- rant, and lodged in jail.

CONVICTED AND STARTED FOR THE "PEN."-The trial of Brown finally came off early in March, 1839, and though the most eminent counsel of the time were employed in his defense, and though every effort was made to break down the testimony of DeCourcey, and the collateral evidence by which he was supported, the jury after a very brief deliberation, brought in a verdict of guilty, and he was immediately sentenced to the penitentiary for the period of seven years.

AN EXTRAORDINARY RIDE .- The sentence was pronounced . about the middle of the afternoon. In anticipation of the result, a bill of exceptions had been prepared, with which William T. Mather, the brother-in-law of Brown, immediately started on horse- back for Rocky River, near Cleveland, to secure the allowance of a writ of error, and a stay of proceedings, from Supreme Judge, Reu- ben Wood. The writer happened, on the same afternoon, to be riding in the same primitive manner, from Brunswick to Medina, meeting Mather midway, about an hour before sunset. The clay roads of that vicinity were then almost impassable, making travel- ing very slow, and on my suggesting that, as they would probably start Brown towards Columbus early in the morning, he could hardly make it, he replied that he had relays of horses provided, and would be sure to get back to Medina before daylight the next morning.

I rode into Medina just as the sun was setting. A few minutes later, from the hotel window, I saw a stage coach stop in front of

884

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

the county jail. Falling in with the crowd; which immediately began to gather in front of the jail, but a few brief moments- elapsed before the colossal form of Brown was seen to emerge from the building, with his hands and feet thoroughly ironed. He was assisted into the coach by the officers, and, with the sheriff and two assistants, immediately started for Columbus. Simul- taneous with the starting of the coach, another swift messenger, on a fleet horse, was started towards Cleveland, to admonish Mather of the action of the authorities, and, if possible, accelerate his speed.

MATHER TOO MUCH FOR THEM .- Notwithstanding their hot haste, the officers were destined never to reach Columbus with their distinguished prisoner. Mather, having secured Judge Wood's signature to his document, at once started upon the back track, reaching Medina about one o'clock in the morning. After a brief rest and partaking of refreshments, mounting a fresh horse he started toward Columbus, overtaking the stage just as it was pulling out of Loudonville, a little after daylight the next morning-an equestrian feat nearly, if not quite equal to those attributed to old "Jim" himself, as above related.

NEW TRIAL-FINAL ACQUITTAL .- The discomfited sheriff and his assistants, could do nothing less than to "about face," and wend their way back to Medina, where they arrived at just about the same hour of leaving the evening before ; the writer meeting and "greeting" them about midway between Medina and Seville .. The proceedings in error were argued before the Supreme Court, in Cleveland, August 7, 1839, and a new trial granted. At the Sep- tember term of Medina Common Pleas, thecase was again called for trial, but the main witness for the State-the slippery DeCourcey- was found to be non est, having finally been "spirited away," re-

sulting in a continuance of the case, until the March term, 1840, when it was nollied. The case against DeCourcey had been con- tinued from term to term until his non-appearance at the Septem- ber term of the court, as aforesaid, when his bail was declared forfeited, and, so far as the writer is advised, Jonathan DeCourcey has never again been seen in Ohio, and has, in all probability, long since gone to his final account.

[Dr. A. E. Ewing relates the following ancedote in connection with Brown's Medina trial: Constables Culver and Hurlbut had but one horse between them, on which to return to Richfield, which was the property of Culver, and who generously proposed to " ride and tie," telling Hurlbut to ride on until he got tired, then hitch the horse by the side of the road for him to take his turn at riding when he came up. Hurlbut, being fond of practical jokes, failed to get tired, until he reached Richfield, leaving the owner of the horse to foot it the entire distance, some fifteen miles.]

A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE IN PORTAGE COUNTY .- In June, 1838, Marshal Mills arrested, near Buffalo, a resident of Akron by the- name of Willard W. Stevens, for passing or dealing in counterfeit money, and lodged him in jail at Ravenna. After getting behind the bars, Stevens turned informer against his principal, "Jim" Brown, directing where a quantity of spurious money, purchased by him from Brown, could be found in the cellar of the house then occupied by his family, on Howard street, in Akron. Finding the money as indicated, Mills, under a warrant issued upon the affidavit.

885

IN THE GRIP OF " UNCLE SAM."

of Stevens, arrested Brown, who was held to bail by Justice Jacob Brown in the sum of $9,000 to answer to the charge before the Court of Common Pleas, Stevens, meantime, in view of his · valuable service to the State, being released from jail on his own recognizance to appear as a witness in the case.

An indictment was duly found, and the day for the trial fixed. A jury was impaneled and the witnesses were called, all of whom responded but Mr. Willard W. Stevens. The main witness for the State had "mysteriously" disappeared and the memories of those who were to corroborate him had mysteriously failed, thus leaving the overconfiding officers again in the lurch, and scoring another triumph for the greatest "financier" of his time, "Jim" Brown. Stevens never again returned to Summit county, but spent sev- eral years in Georgia, afterwards rejoining his family in Western New York, where the writer met him, the industrious tiller of a farm, in 1846, and who is now, at about the age of 84 years, a res- pectable citizen of one of Western counties of Ohio.

IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY, ALSO .- Contemporaneous with the cases above written of, Brown was arrested by the officers of Cuyahoga County, upon a similar charge, and held to bail in the sum of $1,000, slipping through the meshes of the law in about the same manner as in the two instances above named, thus demon- strating the great danger of public officers and courts of justice relying upon confederates in crime for evidence to convict their fellows.

UNCLE SAM GRAPPLES WITH HIM .- His immediate active coadjutors-Ashley, Latta, De Courcey, etc., and a large number of lesser lights, having been driven from the neighborhood, out of the business, or into the penitentiary, " Old Jim," as he was then familiarly called, remained comparatively quiescent for a number of years, being elected Justice of the Peace for the township of Northampton in October, 1845; though events to be hereinafter narrated will abundantly demonstrate that for a considerable period, he continued to maintain his high standing as chief of the Bureau of Bogus Banking, in the West, if not of America.

Though he was observed to have many mysterious visitors, both at his Northampton home and in his local haunts, no further overt act, either by himself or those under him, had attracted the attention of the authorities, until the summer of 1846, when he was again arrested for counterfeiting United States coin. In the meantime the new county of Summit had been erected and organized, and at the date mentioned the late William S. C. Otis was prosecuting attorney, while the late Judge Samuel .W. McClure, then living at Cuyahoga Falls, was a United States commissioner for Summit county. Otis was energetic and persevering in pursuit of crime, and McClure was prompt and decisive as a magistrate and judge. The examination was held at the Court House, occupying several days, with a large crowd of spectators constantly in attendance. The prosecution was fought inch by inch by Judge Rufus P. Spalding, attorney for the defense. But the evidence was so conclusive that Commissioner McClure held Brown to bail in the sum of $20,000, to answer to the United States District Court for Ohio, at Columbus.

[A day or two before his arrest on this charge, a civil suit was tried before him, as a magistrate, in which McClure was one of

886

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

the attorneys, and on which he had reserved his decision. After his arrest, and before his examination, as above, McClure called at. the jail to ascertain the result of said civil suit, whereupon Brown pronounced judgment in favor of McClure's client and quietly expressed the hope that the forthcoming examination before- Commissioner McClure might be equally favorable to him.]

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905 Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department Number of Pages: 1228

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228