Sunday, November 24, 2019

This Moderate and Less Shamefull Way

I claim William Calvert (c1642/3-1682) as my 9th great-grandfather. Archives of Maryland, Vol. 5 gives title to official position he received in 1670. As the office was conveyed to predecessor (and cousin) Sir William Talbot (c1643-1691):

“ … the Office of chief and principal Secretary of our said Province of Maryland and of all & singular our dominions and Territories thereunto belonging and of the Custody and keeping of the Seals Records and Registerys of the said Office of chief and principal Secretary and of all other the Acts Ordinances Records and Journals & Registeries of our said Province Dominions and Territories and of the Entrings Recording enrolling Registring exemplifying and keeping of all and singular the Acts Ordinances and Pattents Grants Journalls Records and Registries made or to be made within our said Province dominions and Territories thereunto belonging …”

That is quite a title. William Calvert researchers often substitute 'PSOM.' As in 'Principal Secretary of Maryland.'

Cousin James Neal, Jr. (1917-2017) admonished me, after I once disdained Squire Turner's role as Committee Secretary. "They are authors," he countered. "It's often their work product that you find in the written record." Neal also observed Chairpersons are just as likely to play merely titular roles. I'll admit I have since seen Convening Secretaries in particular as well-informed, and intelligently committed to a cause under consideration.

William Calvert's English-born father Leonard Calvert (c1606-1647) died when our subject was but three or four years old. He too had a record as scribe and keeper of files (tasks I can relate to). Leonard had surrendered the Office of Prothonotary and Keeper of the Writs and Files at County Clare in Ireland's Province of Connaught in 1626. King Charles I hoped successors would act "in as ample manner" as Leonard Calvert had. Think of a Prothonotary as Chief Clerk to a law court.

Woodcut depicting George Calvert, First Lord Baltimore, from A Short History of the English People, Vol. 3 (1903), pg. 1048.
Images enlarge when clicked.
No doubt Leonard held what may have been sinecure as result of his father's rank. Before becoming The Right Honourable Lord Baltimore in 1621, George Calvert (1578/9-1632, right) had intrigued discretely and internationally in James Stuart's accession to England's throne. As King James VI and I, he rewarded Calvert grandly: my 11th great-grandfather's fortunes rose following appointment as "Clerk of the Crown" in 1606, around the time of Leonard's birth. George was elevated, to serve on His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, and – ultimately – as James' Secretary of State.

The term 'secretary' rose further in my esteem.


Perhaps with honed administrative skills, Leonard accompanied his father in 1628, as Baron Baltimore took hands-on responsibility as Proprietary Governor of the Province of Avalon. Leonard ventured with his parents to nearly inhospitable Newfoundland. Harsh and barely profitable experience would equip Leonard well.

Charles I succeeded his father James in 1625. George promptly removed himself from the King's Privy Council. After leaving the royal court, George publicly reclaimed Roman Catholic practices of his Yorkshire parents. And yet, ongoing loyalty to the Protestant Crown allowed Charles to cede more hospitable soil to Calvert ... American lands north of the Potomac River, on either side of Chesapeake Bay. Crown seals were applied to the patent five weeks following George Calvert's 1632 death in his mid-fifties. Eldest son Cæcilius ‘Cecil’ Calvert (1605/6-1675), Second Baron Baltimore, First Lord Proprietary, Earl Palatine of the Provinces of Maryland and Avalon in America, appears in The Charter of Maryland "treading in the steps of his Father, being animated with a laudable, and pious Zeal for extending the Christian Religion, and also the Territories of our Empire, [he] hath humbly besought Leave of us, that he may transport, by his own Industry and Expense, a numerous Colony of the English Nation, to a certain Region ... in a Country hitherto uncultivated, in the Parts of America, and partly occupied by Savages having no knowledge of the Divine Being ..."

George's sons Cecil and Leonard had been baptized and confirmed as Protestants. Wilson contended Cecil converted to Catholicism near the time of his c1627 marriage to thirteen-year-old Honourable Anne Arundell (1615/16-1649), daughter of Thomas, First Baron Arundell of Wardour ... and a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. Krugler suspected Cecil (illegally) added Rome to a 1624 itinerary, and may have preceded his father in open practice. Leonard professed his change of faith in 1625 ... again following his father.

Calvert Coat of Arms, 1671 Map of Maryland by John Ogilby. Huntingfield Collection, Maryland State Archives.
Calvert motto "Strong Deeds,
Gentle Words" appears on The
Great Seal of the State of Maryland
Charles I in 1632 constituted Cecil, "the now Baron of Baltimore, and his Heirs, [as] true and absolute Lords and Proprietaries of the Region." They received sole authority for monetary policy, lawmaking, ecclesiastical matters and the "full and unrestrained Power, as any Captain-General of an Army ever hath had" to lord over as many as twelve million acres. Integral to this narrative, Charles conveyed "plenary Power ... to confer Favors, Rewards and Honors, upon such Subjects, inhabiting within the Province aforesaid, as shall be well deserving ..." Cecil was also empowered to execute whomever in Maryland he pleased.

For conveying vast autocratic power – fairly unique in English history – Charles sought annual tribute of two Indian arrows. He retained rights to his royal fish "and also the fifth Part of all Gold and Silver Ore, which shall happen from Time to Time, to be found within the aforesaid Limits."* "There was to be a hereditary feudal monarchy, surrounded by a body of nobility deriving its rank, dignities, and privileges from the prince as the fountain of honour," observed Browne, placing "Cecilius Absolute Lord of Maryland and Avalon" as the Prince.

Portrait of Cecilius Calvert, baron van Baltimore; 1657 - 1690 engraving by Abraham Bloteling; after anonymous. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
As Lord Proprietor, Cecil (left) appointed younger brother Leonard, who had not yet married, the inaugural Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. Marbury also found "Cecilius Calvert, the first Lord Proprietary, appointed his brother, Leonard Calvert, to be Chancellor of Maryland, vesting him at the same time with the functions of Lieutenant General, Chief Justice and Chief Magistrate." Cecil remained in England, devoting no small amount of effort to fending off political and economic intrigue. Leonard led over one hundred adventurers – reported to be evenly distributed between Protestant and Catholic – to Maryland in 1633-1634 voyage.

"There is no reason to suppose that he intended to found a Catholic colony like the Non-conformist colonies to the north," said Browne of Cecil. A body of study has sprung up around 'Maryland designe,' a term derived from edict their Lord Proprietor gave departing colonists. All worship aboard ship was to be a private matter, and to take place inconspicuously or not at all. "Contrary to a misperception common even in Maryland, neither [George nor Cecil] Calvert ever envisioned his colony as a haven for persecuted Catholics," declared Jackson in 2008. There is no doubt that Cecil defended his faith, and doing so came at social and political cost, but the retired judge opined Cecil and his father acted from belief that, "if Maryland was to be a religious haven for anyone, it should be so for all pious Englishmen of any denomination who wanted to be left alone by pious people of other persuasions, and above all by the government."

With the Irish Rebellion of 1641 impeding Charles I's authority, and perhaps Calvert family revenue, Leonard returned to England to confer with Cecil.§ He returned again at outbreak of the First English Civil War. Charles I, denied London by Parliamentarians, not only granted Leonard an audience, on 26 January 1643/4 the King commissioned Leonard to advance upon Virginia and, according to the Maryland Historical Society, "seize all ships, goods and debts, belonging [to] any person from any place in actual rebellion against the King." Half the booty obtained would belong to the King.

Leonard also took an Anne Brent (1622-1646) as his wife.ǂ Our subject William was by this account born at East Sussex, England on 4 Jul 1643. Perhaps among his mother's people. As is contended of William's sister Anne Calvert (1645-1714), the children were more likely born near the Calvert's Yorkshire seat. It seems that Leonard returned to contentious Maryland without his family.

England's Parliament passed an Act authorizing the Lord High Admiral to issue letters of marque. Puritan Ship Master Richard Ingle (1609–1653) appeared in Maryland on 14 February 1645 ... with a grudge and intent to arrest Leonard Calvert ... who fled to Virginia and whose Maryland property was no doubt plundered when Ingle's men occupied and then fortified the Governor's House at Saint Mary's City.

William's mother is to have died in 1646. Leonard was hard-pressed: he solicited a mercenary force, and in December cleared most of beleaguered Maryland of overt Anglo opposition. A summer illness cost Leonard his life the following year. Papenfuse estimated his estate included nine thousand acres, if not patents and certificates for such. Connor claimed "Calvert’s funeral was, by all reckoning, very elaborate, benefiting his office and social pedigree both in England and Maryland." Riordan contended his Administratrix "tried to ensure a traditional Catholic funeral for the governor" but offered, curiously, “there is no evidence of a Catholic priest in Maryland to oversee the burial. All of the Jesuits and secular priests had been scattered or had died during the rebellion." Leonard was about thirty-seven years old; wife Anne had been but twenty-four. William was just a toddler, around the age of four.

Text depicting Calvert v. Stone; Vol. 41, Archives of Maryland Series (1922); Bernard Christian Steiner, editor, under direction of the Maryland Historical Society.
In 1660, while still a minor and apparently in England, our subject "William Calvert Esquier" was represented (right) in Maryland Provincial Court proceedings. "His Guardian the Lord Proprietary demands a writt against Verlinda Stone, Relict and late wife of Capt Wm Stone, deceased, in an action of trespass." In advance of Maryland arrival, William Calvert was introduced as a man of rank. With Baron Baltimore as Guardian. Advantages must have accrued from that.

Capt. William Stone will, from From The Maryland Calendar of Wills, Vol. 1, compiled by Jane Baldwin Cotton (1904), pg. 12.
Puritan refugee William Stone (c1603-1660) rose from humbler beginnings. McCartney found Stone indentured to Virginia investors for six years. Following vital militia service, Cecil appointed Captain Stone as Maryland's third Proprietary Governor (1649-1656). The first Protestant given the role. Stone's 1659 will (right) had emerged from probate the week prior to Lord Baltimore's intervention from afar. Instructions conveyed house and lands at Saint Mary's City to widow Verlinda (Gates) Stone (1618-1675). Only after Captain Stone was dead did Cecil contend Stone had not lawfully obtained property in his brother's estate. It may be that, upon his appointment, Stone occupied the vacated Governor's House ... and took it as a perk to tend his plantation as well. [See Good Luck if it Hits, for more on William Stone ... and daughter Mary.]

Image of William Calvert proof of claim; Descendants of Virginia Calverts (1947), compiled by Ella Foy O'Gorman; pp. 18-19.
Leonard apparently mentioned neither wife nor children in deathbed instructions for disposing of his estate. 1661 testimonial (left) is widely used to establish William Calvert's paternity. By it, proven descendants qualify for membership in The Society of The Ark and The Dove. In it, William was styled "sonne and heire" to Leonard Calvert, Esquire ... when Cecil's Attorney General petitioned his Governor and the rest of his Council for possession of Leonard's town lands, 'The Governor's Fields.'** O'Gorman contended a jury of free men awarded William the land. And the cost of bringing suit.

With but a sole, surviving male heir, Cecil – governing from Kiplin Hall at Yorkshire and a London business office – attended closely to William, the only son of his only brother. Cecil flexed a Guardian's legal responsibility. In advertising his nephew's lineage, while securing planting fields at the Provincial capitol, it seems apparent that the Lord Proprietor was positioning my 9th great-grandfather to ably represent family interests in this colonial venture.

"The Calverts won the case," Newman asserted. William Calvert won something else in short order. The heart (and lands) of Elizabeth 'Eliza' Stone (1643-1707).

Papenfuse had William Calvert arriving at Maryland in 1661. Proceedings of the Provincial Court, 1666-1670 documented "William Calvert of St Maries" on 3 October making indenture to convey an improved "Tenement or plantacon" of "one hundred and ninty Acres more or lesse" at Saint Gabriel's Manor. Rent, of "two henns or Capons yearely," was not to be delivered to Saint Mary's residence ... but "at the mansion house of the said William Calvert in Calverts rest."

Manor Map, based on Peter Himmelheber research, Retrieved from St. Mary’s Families, 19 Nov 2019.
"The whole of St. Mary's County, lying south of Trinity (now Smith's) Creek was laid out for the Governor, Leonard Calvert, in 1639, with the right of Court Baron and Court Leet," proclaimed Leakin. From these lands Cecil derived three baronial estates: Leonard became Lord of Trinity, of Saint Michael’s and of Saint Gabriel’s Manors (highlighted in yellow, left). Permission to establish chapels and conduct his own judicial proceedings was attached. Bestowed almost feudal authority, Cecil's Lords of the Manor were empowered to impose taxes ... and deliver non-lethal justice without resort to Provincial, common-law courts. Contiguous administrative districts of six, nine and fifteen hundred acres were formally laid out in 1641. At times administered by a Steward on behalf of absent investors, Cecil generally required importation of a certain number of servants, within a specific time frame, in writs granting title to a manor.

North and East Elevations, Calvert’s Rest; Saint Mary’s County, Maryland; November 1999. Photo: Kirk Ranzetta. Retrieved from Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties, Maryland Historical Trust 19 Nov. 2019.
Calvert's Rest applies to an outpost of Flemish bond brick (some glazed) at a Potomac River landing ... where Calvert Creek empties into Calvert Bay. Our subject seated himself on fourteen hundred acres spilling from Trinity into Saint Gabriel's Manor. Eight miles south of the capitol, just less than halfway by trail to "Point look out," at the tip of the cape (and beneath the word 'Trinity' on the map above). On what is today Curleys Road. In this 'mansion,' two chimneys served a pair of ground-floor rooms, and attic chambers above. Leakin gets me: "His home is still standing," she wrote in 1911, "from which many of the proclamations relating to the colony were issued by him, as its Secretary ..."

Discovery surprised me, that our subject, upon attaining his majority, promptly wed William Stone's eldest surviving daughter Eliza. Courtship would have been brief. (Perhaps union had been prearranged.) Charles, first child born to William and Eliza, is here given a 3 October 1662 date of birth. Enmity over 1660 reclamation of Stone's property at the capitol was not broad, nor long in duration. Eliza's brother Thomas Stone (1635-1676) by 9 September 1663 appointed William Calvert his attorney. In the Archives, Thomas described his sister's husband as "brother." It may have been wise practice, to advertise family relationship to reigning aristocracy. Catholic William's marriage allied him with a Protestant family having a history of robust colonial leadership.

William Calvert exercised another boon provided by his Lord Proprietor. In 1662, and perhaps arriving with it, our subject held license to trade with tribal peoples. A Calvert detractor would in 1667 petition Charles II for redress: among the Puritan's grievances was a trading-post working a market he coveted. "They had no grant of land," declared Virginia-based William Claiborne (1600–1679) of Maryland competitors, "but merely a license to trade; nor did the settlers raise their supplies, but depended for these upon traffic with the Indians ..." O'Gorman acknowledged William's license provided "a profitable source of revenue." In turbulent times at remote location in the realm, capacity to flex trading sinews no doubt advantaged William. Secure relationships with sea captains and well-resourced trading houses at London gave the young man some muscle. Good will among Native traders might have given him a sense of security ... derived from in-the-field intelligence.

Undated image; Calvert House Excavation Site; Town Center, Saint Mary's City. Courtesy Historic St. Mary's City.
Calvert no doubt established himself upon The Governor's Fields, a hundred-acre tobacco plantation. In 1662, Maryland's provincial government pur-chased the "large framd howse" Leonard had died in (and William may have just taken title to). Maryland's Assembly used the manse, one of the largest timber-frame houses then standing in Maryland, as a statehouse. (It would operate as a tavern when the Assembly was not in session.) Saint Mary's County freeholders elected William as a Burgess to the Lower House of the General Assembly of the Province of Maryland in 1663-1664 and 1666 sessions. He would attend to those responsibilities in what had been his father's residence.

On 4 November 1663 Winganetta, "King" of Nangemy Peoples (also seen as Nanjemaick), acknowledged in open court he had received "full satisfaction" for land that had been in William Stone's estate. It is elsewhere described as a five-thousand-acre parcel. 1660 probate had conveyed twenty-one hundred Nangemy acres to Stone's heirs, six hundred of them to Eliza. The bride also brought to her marriage nine hundred acres at Bustard's Island on the Patuxent River.

Cecil appointed William to be his Attorney-General in 1666. He would hold that office for three years.

My 8th great-grandfather, George Calvert, was born in 1668. Purportedly to William and Elizabeth (Stone) Calvert.†† William that year began a three-year stint as Alderman of Saint Mary's City: despite Leakin's reverie, Calvert's Rest may not have been the family home. 1664 contract between a London merchant and Saint Mary's planter occurred "at the now dwelling house of William Calvert, Esq." I suspect it would have been challenging to practice law lucratively ... while ensconced at a remote plantation.

William tread in his grandfather George's grand footsteps. By "special writ" Cecil brought him into the General Assembly's Upper House in 1669, in which the Governor and his Council were then sole office-holders. William held this office for the rest of his life. According to the Archives, on 27 May 1669, Cecil – as Lord Proprietor – appointed “one of my deputies” William Calvert as a “Judge in Testamentary business.” Cecil on 28 July 1669 authorized son Charles Calvert (1637-1715), then a Deputy Lieutenant Governor, "to admit his Lordships dear Nephew William Calvert Esqr. … to be of his Lordships Council and Justice of his Provincial Court.” Our subject received express preference: it was “his Lordships further Pleasure … that his said dear Nephew William Calvert do take his place in the Provincial Court and Council next to the Chancellor.” Philip Calvert (1626-1682) held the post. And rank. Philip was younger half-brother to Cecil and Leonard.
[A family tree chart at conclusion below graphically represents pertinent sons and grandsons to the First Baron Baltimore.]

William Calvert, then in his mid-twenties, gave his oath and took his seat 22 October. A Wikipedia contributor observed “From 1669 to 1689, of 27 men who sat on the Governor's Council, just 8 were Protestant. Most councillors were Catholics, and many were related by blood or marriage to the Calverts, enjoying political patronage and often lucrative offices ...”

Archives are vague. It was in perhaps January 1670 when Virginia Gentleman James Clifton (c1640-c1714/5) appeared before “William Calvert, Esqr., one of his Lordships Privy Council.” Clifton allegedly “did Maliciously and Traiterously Utter publish and declare divers Traiterous words of Concerning and Against the Majesty and Person of our Royal Sovereign King Charles the second King of England … to wit that the King was a Son of a Whore and owed him one thousand pounds and never paid him nor never would.” A witness testified Clifton may have been speaking of an Indian King. Clifton was released.

On 20 July 1670, Monatquund, Speaker for Piscattoway Peoples, along with Tribal Councilors Unnacawsey and Mappassanough, appeared before William Calvert, Esq., and another “Deputy Lieutenant of this Province of Maryland.” Native representatives may have been summonsed. Monatquund is to have testified he and Councilors came “to revive the League between the said Pascattoway Indians and the English.” He appealed “first in the name of the Boys, next in the name of the elder Persons; that they might eat drink Sleep and play in quiet; the women in like manner, desire the peace.” Translation avowed “The old men desire it that they may sleep by their wives quietly and take their Tobacco.” Colonial administrators sought reaffirmation of Maryland’s “Lord Proprietary for their Lord and Protector.”

The parley was anchored in transaction. It had been some time since Piscattoway Peoples could afford to offer gifts: “They came to keep in memory the peace ... now they are reduced to a small Number and therefore they cannot present any thing Considerable." William himself may have produced written record which observed, "Lastly from the miserable Poor they desire that hereafter when their Nation may be reduced to nothing perhaps they may not be Scorned and Chased out of our Protection.”

'Nation' is a key phrase: I will set William's later conduct within that worldview.


Deputy Lieutenants responded “that as they desired to Continue in Amity with us so did we Assure them that we should not break the Articles made & Confirm’d by Act of Assembly between the Lord Proprietary and them.” The Deputies made demand of their counterparts. “We do hope they will be mindful and wary to preserve every of the said Articles and that so long [as amity continues] we should not scorn or Cast of the meanest of them.” Quid pro quo, they sought an Indian who had stroke a colonist be delivered to them ... contending Benjamin Price had died of the blow. “To which they replied that Price died not of the Blow but was in health twenty days after and that the said Price was swimming and diving in the presence of Mr. Chandlers Children at Port Tobacco and came out of the water sick of an Ague and vomited and of the said sickness died.” Complexity – and detail – of language recorded in counter-contention indicates to me that a certain fidelity with proceedings emerged in the written record.

Deputy Lieutenants desired the Pascattoway Emperor appear at October convening of the Privy Council. “To which the Speaker answered the Emperor was at the Sasquehanoughs [Sussquehannock Nation] and that it was not in his Power to promise that he should come.” He suggested, “for Clearing the Business,” that Price’s “head might be Searched.” The Lieutenants agreed, and ordered two surgeons “do view the head” the following month, and that Monatquund be present when officials “Certify what their opinions are, touching the death of the said Price.” It was further ordered “that there be given to the said Monatquund Unnacasey & Wappassanough three Match Coats and two Gallons of Rum.”

Charles Calvert was Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor by 22 July 1670 when, following safe arrival in England, he bestowed right to act in his capacity to three men, including “his dear Cozen William Calvert Esqr.” William was in a small circle, possessed of substantial power. Upon concurrence of any two of them, they were authorized “to Muster and train all sorts of men … in Case of Insurrections or approaching of any Enemy or Enemies, Pyrate or other Robbers, to make War against them & to pursue Enemy or Enemies … as well by Sea as Land and to Vanquish and take them and being so taken to put them to Death by the Law of War or to save them at their pleasure and to do all and every thing … likewise in Case of any Rebellion Tumult or sedition … to exercise martial Law against all Rebellous mutinous and seditious persons of those parts.” Our subject, as one of a trio of Deputy Lieutenant Governors, oversaw levy and collection of taxes as 1670 harvest came in.

“When he became the principal secretary on March 16, 1673/4, William Calvert took an oath to keep all articles of “One certaine act of Assembly,”” Krugler discovered. Calvert no doubt publicly vowed he would hew to Cecil's 1649 Act Concerning Religion. Legislation mandating religious tolerance that William had enforced as the Province's Attorney General, 1666-1669. On 1 August 1764 he signed himself “William Calvert Esqr Principal Secretary of this Province.”

Archives depicted administrative responsibilities. Talbot identified William's offices as “Secretary or Publick Notary of the Province” and “chief Judge for Probate of wills.” As did the prior office holder, Calvert likely conveyed potentially very lucrative right to establish Plantations. The Principal Secretary acted in complete subservience to the Lord Proprietor, however: “You shall apply your self wholly to his Excellency and strictly follow such Orders Rules or directions as he shall Give you in any Business whatsoever.” Calvert kept a "Booke of Secrys ffees." A sixth and final directive distinguished a secretarial role: “You shall once in every month wait upon his said Excellency and give him an account of all Business that shall be transacted by you and also pursue his Excellencys Commands, as well in doing the Business of the Office, as in giving him an Account of the fees or what else his said Excellency shall please to intimate to you.”

Upon the 1675 death of his father Cecil, Charles Calvert returned to London. Where he was elevated as Third Baron Baltimore. Charles inherited the Province of Maryland. While there, a fifteen-page “Complaint from Heaven with a Huy and crye and a petition out Virginia and Maryland” was presented to Charles II and his Parliament in May 1676. Our subject was identified in a hotly damning document: “Wee must annatomize owr present provintiall Court and Assembly … that England may see who are owr Governors and chief rulers, and thereby measur the exactnes of the legalls; viz … William Calvert, nephew ...” Our subject is but one of Cecil Calvert’s “generall kindsman” singled out, “besides the secret Councell of priests and Natlyes with perhaps a son in law or kindered more stronge papists besids … with som protestants for fashion sake.”

Much has been made of anti-Catholic sentiment in this era, but the list of grievances is long. An early complaint over funding frontier defense will reappear as a refrain in run-up to Revolutionary War a hundred years later: Cecil, instead of following royal command to form a defensive league with New York, “raysed the People in Armes for his privat gaine and Interest onely to oppress the king's subjects with great taxes in his and own creatures pokket as principally may appear out of the leavy laest year … and perswaded afterward the Assembly men, not to call him to an account for it, but to give it him. So did hee likewise in the [1669] Indian Wiccomisso Warr, when they tooke all the plunder from the poor souldiers and sent the Indian prisoners to Barbados for Negros, but forced the poore inhabitants to bear and pay all the charges.”‡‡

We will revisit the Wicocomico.


Charles II’s Privy Council directed Charles Calvert to respond to Anglican complaints made against him. "Calvert's council hanged two of the would-be rebels," asserted Brugger. In written reply, Calvert contraried Charles II: he re-asserted Maryland's religious tolerance, confiding Maryland settlers were "Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, and Quakers, those of the Church of England as well as the Romish being the fewest ... it would be a most difficult task to draw such persons to consent unto a Law which shall compel them to maintaine ministers of a contrary perswasion to themselves." Virginians Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and my 4th great-grandfather Andrew Tribble would draw the same conclusion, when advancing A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1779.

Image of Clayborne's Trading-post, from A Popular History of the United States (1876), Bryant & Gay, editors; pg. 500.
William Calvert was signatory to – if not draftsman of – a 4 March 1681 letter from Lord Baltimore and his Council. In language distinctly superior to the 1676 Complaint, supplication went to the Governor of New York. “In behalf of the inhabitants of this Province, alike subjects to His Majesty the king of England with those of Delaware and New Yorke.” Maryland's Provincial Council were concerned by “northern Indians” whose depredations at Delaware had ceased when New York prohibited trafficking with Native People in shot and powder. Trade restored after negotiation, indigenous warriors began plundering Maryland plantations. Calvert’s men sought “that you will now prohibit any further correspondency with those Indians in a way of Traffick and supplies, unless they will also desist from any acts of hostility against us, and proceed to maintain and keep that league of peace and amity with us made.”

Our subject, “the Secry of the sd province by name Will: Calvert Esqre putt his hand to a pass or writteing under the lesser seale the sd province.” At May 1681 convening of Maryland’s Provincial Court, William gave Christopher Rousby, “his Majestyes Collector” of revenues, "license" to depart the Province. Rousby was perhaps being shoved out: the Lord Proprietor, retaining authority over internal taxation, had it in for the King's man Rousby.§§ Complaint of “Insolent and unwarrantable proceedings of Christopher Rousby the collector … tending greatly to the discouragement of the Trade, diminution of his [Majesty’s] Customes, and disturbance of the peace and Quiett” had been sent to the Crown. Endorsers indicated their religious affiliation: “William Calvert Esq. Secretary R[oman] Cath[olic]” was one of three confessing to the faith: the other five were Protestant. Later in May proceedings, our subject was further described as “William Calvert a R. Cath.” and as a Colonel in command of foot forces at St. Mary’s County ... in which Maryland’s vital seat of government was situated. Six of the ten Maryland counties were commanded by Protestant Colonels.

"There were Seaven people killed at Point Looke out," as tribal warriors harassed the Province generally in September 1681. The Privy Council met and proposed "a Letter be writt to Sr Henry Chickley his Majties Governor of Virginia" soliciting coordinated response. Authorship can be inferred. On 13 September a General Assembly gathered. Our subject appeared in two, distinct initiatives. It was "Ordered that The honble William Calvert Esqr Principall Secry of this Province be the person Especially appointed by his Ldspp to goe ... to the Governor of Virginia." Our subject was styled Colonel William Calvert of Saint Mary's County when inhabitants under the charge of several militias were commissioned to "stand upon their guard and posture of Defence" on 15 September.

William Calvert was in his Provincial Court seat for the 15 November 1681 trial of Josias Fendall, Gentleman (c1630-1692). Fendall had served Cecil as Maryland’s Governor, from 1656 until Cromwell’s Puritan government fell in London four years later. "Traytor" Fendall was indicted for mutiny and sedition. Additional accusations were more personal: Fendall was charged with plotting to employ “force and armes to attempt the securing” and imprison the Lord Proprietor and two cousins ... including our “William Calvert Esqre principal secretary of this Province.”

According to Wikipedia contributors who did not provide sources, “Rumors circulated in 1681” that Fendall and Maryland Assemblyman John Coode planned moving their families temporarily to Virginia. Upon hearing this, Lord Baltimore had them arrested, fearing the men were fomenting rebellion. “It is very doubtful that a rebellion was actually under way." The contention was supported by out-of-state actors: "Virginia observers felt that Lord Baltimore's charges against the two men were unsupported and “of little weight.” Some suggested the arrests were merely an attempt to prevent participation by either Coode or Fendall in the upcoming session of the Assembly, which already promised to be a heated confrontation over defense policies.” And funding said policies, I suspect.

The pair's trial was supposedly flawed in several respects. “For fear that Fendall would have time to influence the people who charged him, he was not allowed by the courts to enquire into the evidence of his crime." He was allowed to screen jurors, dismissing Catholics and retaining Protestants. Coode was acquitted, and advised to "keepe a Guard upon your Tongue." Following substantial witness testimony, jurors found Fendall guilty of attempting to raise a mutiny, and sedition through utterance of "malicious words against the government." Fendall was fined forty thousand pounds of tobacco, followed by banishment from the province. “The sentence is as favourable as could be expected,” our subject declared at sentencing. “The Law of our Province would have allowed boaring of the Tongue, cropping one or both Ears, and other corporall punishments; but wee have forbourne that, and taken this moderate and less shamefull way of [punishment].”

Our subject is seen, in standard English, as 'William Calvert, Esquire, Colonel' on a 28 April 1682 solicitation by Maryland's Upper House appearing in Maryland Archives, Vol. 7. "The Honourable the Secretary" was dispatched to the Lower House ... seeking bicameral conference; a "Consult of the Northern Indian Affairs;" and response to a letter received from New York's Acting Governor Anthony Brockholls. Success in implementing the Lord Proprietor's program would require utmost diplomatic skills. Counterparts included New Yorkers over whom they had no direct, political influence; as well as sovereigns among non-English-speaking and much more culturally distinct Susquehannah, Pisscattaway and Nanticoke Peoples, let alone further removed and lesser-known 'northern' Omeydes (Oneidas) and Onondagoes. William Calvert embarked on international affairs among what are plainly described as "Indian Nations." He appears to me as emulating his grandfather's service to James I ... as Secretary of State.

While the Assembly addressed a half-dozen issues, including acts encouraging "making Linen and Woollen Cloth" and "Sowing and making Hemp and flax," the Committee of both houses met daily. Until, on 4 May, they offered "their Advice and Report." Their clerk noted "the Pisscattaways became Enimies to the Susquehannahs meerly upon the Score of Articles made with the Honourable Leonard Calvert Esqr at first, and after by Assisting us against them in the year 1676," and "if we Abandon the Pisscattaways they must incorporate with the Northern Indians, and in that Case become another Enraged Enemy." The Committee proposed some Assembly members "be sent to New York to treate with all the Northern Nations of Indians, and to make peace for Our Selves and all Our Neighbour Indians," and that "the Pisscattaway Indians be protected in the meantime with Arms Ammunition and Men (if need require)." They also suggested "Eastern Shore Indians be Supplyed with Ammunition if they desire it." In the interim, Military Officers should conduct "frequent Musters and Appearances in Arms of Our English," and "Commission for a Defensive Warr."

On 9 May 1682 "The honble William Calvert Esqr Secy" was one of five seated in Council as warrant was issued. “Whereas his [Lordship] and Councill have been informed that Two Indians … under Subjection of the King of Wicocomico, [are] guilty of hogstealeing." Prior demand – that the pair be delivered up to English justice – had been unmet. Another militia Colonel was ordered “to take with you twenty men in Armes well mounted on horse back and … Demand peremptorily the Delivery of the sd Indians to be proceeded against according to Law.”

William Calvert's rank in Saint Mary's County Militia appeared in a 13 May remonstrance by twenty-five prominent Church of England Members. As did his religious custom. Calvert was identified as one of "onely three of the Romish perswasion" serving as "Colonells or principall officers of the militia ... in like manner all other officers and places of honor or profitt within this Province, Civill or Military, [are] impartially and equally if not for the most part on Protestants conferred. This not only in vindication of his Lordshipp's honor, and this his government, but also for the Publick Interest ..." Declaration published "to the world" cited "the general freedom & priviledge which we and all persons whatsoever Inhabitants of this Province, of what condicion soever, doe enjoy in our lives, liberties and estates under this His Lordship's Government." The testimonial was certainly a tool the Lord Proprietor could use to quell discontent in Charles II's Privy Council. I find it affirming that a cadre of Protestants "observed his Lordshipp's favours impartially distributed, and Places of Honor, trust and profit conferred on the most qualified for that purpose & service without any respect or regard had to the religion of the participants ..."

Our subject last appeared in Council Proceedings on 9 May 1682. "In Complyance with the vote of both houses of Assembly for makeing peace with the Northern Indians for ourselves Virginia and our neighbouring and ffriend Indians," Charles Calvert sought "Emperors of Nantecoke and Assateague, and the severall Kings under them" know "his Ldspp intends very speedily to send Agents to New Yorke to make peace with the Northern Indians for our selves and all our ffriend Indians." Idea had arisen in the Lower House that indigenous leaders "(if they see good) send with ours some Agents of theirs who may be Spectators of our honest endeavours for them, and (if need be) Ratifye and confirme the peace (if any to be procured)."

The Calvert Genealogy Group contended our subject "drowned when his boat capsized while crossing the swollen Wicomico River." A sloop did appear in inventory of William Calvert's estate, along with a dozen slaves, eight Whites remaining in servitude, fourteen hundred acres, eight thousand pounds of tobacco, an impressive twenty-eight books ... and nearly a thousand pounds sterling. Papenfuse, who provided this inventory, wrote Calvert "drowned while trying to ford the swollen Wicomico River" ... and gave 26 May 1682 as date of Calvert's death.

'Wicomico' is constant in more intimate accounts of Calvert's death. Though some contend the waterway on which he died was in Charles County, no account further details the event ... or provides witness testimony. I will quickly observe Maryland's Council had only weeks before "peremptorily" demanded two Wicocomico nationals be brought by force of arms.

Final reference to William Calvert was recorded postmortem, 12 October 1682. Thomas Perry deposition exposed Fendall (at whose trial and order of banishment Calvert sat in judgement the previous November) plotting to "secure my Lord the Chancelor, the Secry, and Coll Darnall." Following his intended kidnapping of our subject, Fendall had asserted, "the rest would fall" ... meaning the Calvert government.

Lythgoe found "Josias Fendall, Gent." and wife Mary ... then living in not-too-distant Westmoreland County, Virginia ... in Charles County, Maryland records for 28 April 1683. The Fendalls conveyed fourteen thousand "acres on Wicomico River" to William Digges, a Charles Calvert son-in-law. Who, with our subject, had sat in judgment over Fendall. The Colonial Encounters project included history when describing a Josias Fendall archaeological site: "Fendall had settled at a plantation between Hatton and Charleston creeks on the west side of the Wicomico River." (They also cited Palmer when contending widow Mary Fendall sued Digges in 1688 ... for eighty thousand pounds of tobacco.) The rebellious Fendall had many adherents along the swollen Wicomico at the time of our subject's demise; it's not precisely clear how soon following 1682 banishment he left the area.

William Calvert, former Chief Judge for Probate of Wills, died intestate. 13 July 1682 inventory of his estate depicted (debts of £662.18 and) Elisabeth Calvert as Administratrix/Executrix. Accounting seemed to follow rhythm of the seasons. Archives noted the Provincial Council on 2 March 1685 found ten thousand pounds of tobacco were due Calvert, "prooved by the said Calverts Booke of Secrys ffees." More than forty creditors were declared satisfied on 30 April 1686.

Calvert had likely been less than forty years old at his death. Besides widow Eliza, he left – by my account – four sons and a daughter. None of the children had reached their majority.

Detail from chart, 'Prominent Members of the Calvert Family,' from The Calvert Papers: Calendar and Guide to the Microfilm Edition, edited by Donna M. Ellis and Karen A. Stuart, (1989); pg. 17.


NOTES:

Particularly when events fell in close order, Double Dating between Julian and Gregorian calendars vexed research. My practice was to present dates as they appeared in a record.

* In Shoemaker v. United States (1893) the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed gold deposits in private land Congress condemned for Rock Creek Park at the District of Columbia became United States property. Evidence presented in District Court tended to show certain lands; which the court held to be subject to a reservation of "royal mines" in a patent granted by Maryland's Lord Proprietary in 1772; were conveyed by Charles I grant of patent to Cecil in 1632. "The royalty of one fifth part of the gold and silver reserved to the King" became, "by the Revolution," vested in the state of Maryland. "Consequently the United States succeeded to the state's title by the act of cession of 1791."

1865 reprint of Frontispiece; 1634 text, 'A relation of the successefull beginnings of the Lord Baltemore's plantation in Mary-land; being an extract of certaine letters written from thence, by some of the aduenturers to their friends in England;' retrieved from The Library of Congress.
 Hawley (a merchant) and Lewger (a Calvert investor who would be first to hold office as Principal Secretary in the Province) authored A Relation of Maryland, printed at London in 1635. The 103-page pamphlet depicts Leonard settling into "a very commodious situation." He established Saint Mary's City at Yoacomaco Peoples' principal village. For trade goods and cloth, Native leaders "freely gave consent that he and his companions should dwell in one part of their town, and reserved the other for themselves." First Peoples, dwelling in what became the English part of the town, "freely left them their houses and some corn that they had begun to plant." Yoacomacoes agreed at the outset "that, at the end of harvest, they should leave the whole town." And depart what would become The Governor's Fields.

Dowdy warned, in her excellent thesis (2019) 'Robinson Crusoe as Promotion Literature: the Reality of English Settlement in the Chesapeake, 1624-1680,' "It is unclear how much of what was reported to have taken place actually happened. This is a published English interpretation, probably made in order to reassure investors that local tribes in Maryland were peaceful." By 1637 Leonard referenced his dwelling place as a "ffort." Feasibility study for Friends of the John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail (2009), with tribal assistance detailed inter-tribal complexity at the time of contact.

 Krugler's The Calvert Vision: A New Model for Church-State Relations offered deep insight on religious tolerance, baked into Cecil Calvert's “Maryland designe." My post Another Tongue o' Clishmaclaver attends to church-state constructs in this period at The Colony of Virginia.

§ Cecil and Leonard's Irish religiopolitical ties – if not actual landholdings – were in jeopardy. Their father, then Knight of Danbywiske, Yorkshire; and Clerk of the King's Privy Council; had been youngest among a quartet of ministers James I dispatched to Ireland in 1613 ... to examine Catholic grievances. It confused biographers that George then helped draft recommendation for compulsory Church of England attendance, and suppression of "Popish" schools and priests. On 18 February 1621 James granted royal favor for political deftness: Baltimore Manor on twenty-three thousand acres in County Longford, Ireland were conveyed to George Calvert, Knight.

"These lands were held under the condition that all settlers upon them should take the oath of supremacy and "be conformable [to the Church of England] in point of religion." Calvert four years later professed Roman Catholic faith: "He surrendered his patent and received it back with the religious clause omitted," William Hand Browne conveyed, in George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert: Barons Baltimore of Baltimore (1890). A few weeks before his 1625 death, James I "created the aforesaid George Calvert, Knight, unto the estate, degree, dignity, and honour of Baron Baltimore of Baltimore, within Our Kingdom of Ireland."

'Baltimore' is thought by some to be Anglicization of Irish 'Baile an Tí Mhóir,' meaning "town of the big house." Alternate theory connects the placename to Celtic 'Baal Tine Mor,' "the great fire of Baal."

ǂ In A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789 (1979) editor Edward C. Papenfuse acknowledged William Calvert as born to Leonard and Anne, c1642/3. He then cryptically asserted Leonard "returned to England in 1641/42 and 1643/44, during which time he fathered his two children, who were probably illegitimate." Family history researchers tended to posit that Catholic marriages of the period in England were likely secret and unrecorded. Illegitimacy might have prompted Cecil's 1661 testimonial, declaring William's paternity.

 Note the testimony of "Margaret Brent" in the image depicting 1661 restoration of Leonard Calvert's property. Some contend she was elder sister to Leonard's wife Anne: the pair were quite likely cousins of some sort. Margaret Brent (c1601-c1671) never married. Notably styled 'Gentlewoman,' she was allowed to own property in her own right. Loker contends Brent "worked as an attorney, even a prosecutor under Lord Calvert, and is recognized by the American Bar Association as the first female attorney in the United States."

"6 howres before his death" on 19 June 1647, Leonard verbally instructed Brent – as his Executrix – to "take and pay all" from his estate. He had hired mercenaries to take Maryland back from rebellious Puritans. Uncompensated, the men loitered menacingly at Saint Mary's City. Planters had fled two-year rebellion; meager harvest forecast food shortages. Lacking clear authority to act on the Governor's wishes, Brent appeared before the Provincial Court for unique authorization to dispose of Leonard's cattle, thus enabling her to feed and pay disgruntled 'militia.' Without waiting for transatlantic instruction. (Interestingly, House of Names links surname 'Calvert' to Calvehird: "It is a name for a person who tended cattle.")

Bozman imagined Brent "to have possessed a masculine understanding." After presenting a novel case, the court adjudged Brent, as Administratrix of the Provincial Governor's estate, held power of attorney in his affairs. Seemingly in the absence of an Attorney General, the court ruled Brent within her authority to also act as the Lord Proprietor's personal attorney-in-fact, "as governor Calvert had been." She immediately granted herself permission to act.

Brent expended much of our subject's inheritance. She placated the mercenaries and protected Calvert holdings, nudging a complex and tenuous balance of power at a critical juncture. Brent almost immediately lost favor with a suspicious and far-removed Lord Proprietary. "We do Verily Believe and in Conscience report," the Maryland Assembly retorted to Baron Baltimore; after his brother's death, "it was better for the Collonys safety at that time in her hands then in any mans else in the whole Province ... for the Soldiers would never have treated any other with that Civility and respect." According to Archives of Maryland, Vol. 1, "She rather deserved favour and thanks from your Honour for her so much Concurring to the publick safety then to be justly liable to ... bitter invectives you have been pleased to Express against her."

On 21 January 1648 and still wrangling with state finance, Brent petitioned Maryland's Acting Governor and Provincial Assembly to admit her with two votes, one as a free landowner in her own right, and another as Lord Baltimore's acting personal attorney. Refused, she departed with disruptive protest. Sturgill contended Brent thus "became the first woman in the New World to request the right to vote."

Having moved across Chesapeake Bay to found a community called 'Peace' on Virginia's Northern Neck, Brent left a thousand Maryland acres to her nephew James Clifton in 1671. He whose allegedly "Traiterous words" had brought him before William Calvert the year prior.

Until 1670, "Maryland allowed all freemen" (any man who was not indentured), "regardless of color or religion, to participate and vote in the colonial assembly." According to Historic Saint Mary’s City, coastal trader Mathias de Sousa is offered as "the first man of African descent to participate in an Assembly in English America." He was elected in 1642 to the Lower House of Maryland's General Assembly.

** "From the very beginning, titles or distinction in social status in Maryland were religiously employed," found Newman in 1961 study of the Province's social structure during formative years. "At the time Lord Baltimore was formulating plans" for a Province beyond the seas – a project some agrarian-minded English called "western planting" – "the feudal age was still lingering and had not altogether given way to the materialism of commerce which was then dawning in 17th century England. Many of the conservative younger sons at that period, who still regarded the cultivation of the soil as the rightful pursuit of a gentleman, looked upon the Colonies as a medium for the life befitting their birthrights."

The Lord Proprietor assured William Calvert would arrive as 'Esquire' ... “ceremonious title for the squirarchy.” Perhaps holding less land, 'Gentry' were accorded lower rank. 'Gentleman' was highest title accorded freemen of lower-status Yeomanry. All perceived themselves as proprietors over their plantations, above servant and artisan classes. In grave departure from English custom, African slaves would supplant bond servants in Cecil's tenure. Our subject certainly qualified in this assessment: "Many of the squirarchy were descended from the younger sons of the peers or had peerage connections." They were often referred to as "the untitled aristocracy."

Newman also observed religious influence on societal standing: "The magnanimity of the Calverts was their undoing. By the complete tolerance to all Christian doctrine, they invited the Puritan, the Quaker, and the non-Conformist ..." In most instances, "Dissenters of the first generation could not and would not conform to the pattern of the Maryland squirarchy and county gentry."

†† On ancestry of my 9x great-grandfather. Papenfuse (1979) unequivocally depicts "George (1668-aft. 1739), who married Elizabeth Doyne" as third son born to William and Elizabeth (Stone) Calvert. Ella Foy O'Gorman, compiling Descendants of Virginia Calverts (1947), was particularly rigorous, expertly sourcing her work. In delightful, self-questioning banter at the Foreward, she concluded "With so many Stafford County [Virginia] records missing, it seems futile ever to hope to make conclusive proof of the parentage ... of George Calvert of Stafford County. In deference to this seemingly universal tradition of their descent from Lord Baltimore by these Calverts of Prince William and Culpeper counties, the compiler is letting it stand that George Calvert of Stafford County was a son of the Hon. William Calvert of St. Mary's and Charles counties, Maryland."

"Half of Stafford’s historical records were taken as souvenirs or destroyed when Stafford’s Courthouse was looted and later partially burned" contended Virginia's Stafford County Historical Society. In 1862, Brigadier General Daniel Sickles’ Excelsior Brigade conducted two, devastating raids on the courthouse and clerk’s office.

The Calvert Surname Y-DNA Study, acknowledged George (b 1668) "is accepted, but unproven with primary source documents, to be the son of William Calvert, Esq." They went so far as to attempt derive proof from a Philip Calvert, descendant of my 7th great-grandfather John Calvert (c1692-1739). "Philip Calvert's remains were used to attempt to extract DNA. However the attempt was not successful."

"Hopefully, someone – maybe you – will discover the missing link proving this family’s heritage," the Calvert Genealogy Group testified, in 'Who was the First George Calvert of Stafford County, Virginia?' Thirteen-page, scholarly treatment in The Prince William Reliquary, Vol. 9, No.2 was highly collaborative. And innovative ... proposing a land-mapping project. It would most certainly have tickled my hundred-year-old cousin James Neale, Jr. (cited at the outset) to learn that William and Eliza (Stone) Calvert's proven daughter Elizabeth (b c1666) married a James Neale, Jr. (1660-1727).

‡‡ Marye, in ‘The Wiccomiss Indians of Maryland’ for American Antiquity (1938), placed the tribe north of Choptank River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. “The Wiccomiss Indians (Wicomese, Wicomick, Wickamiss, Wiccomisso, etc.) were persecuted and dispersed by the Government of Maryland,” he noted early in his account. He cited a 1635 source, depicting the tribe as enemies of the Sussquehannock. By 1648 the Wiccomiss had become “forced auxiliaries” of the tribe. Sussquehannock overlords in 1652 ceded “the whole of the Eastern Shore as far south as Choptank River” to the Government of Maryland. Marye wrote “When Maryland was prosecuting its final war against the Wiccomiss it was reported [in Maryland Archives, Vol. 2] that these Indians “have drawne [the Delaware Nation] into League with them.”

§§ Even a royal official required permission to leave the Province. As with Cecil visiting Rome in 1624 without his King's consent, contemplation of Article 13 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights might prove rewarding. Persons have the right to travel.

The Murder of Christopher Rousby: Part II offered interesting account. A George Talbot, “first cousin of Lord Baltimore [whom] Baltimore had appointed as Surveyor General of Maryland in 1683,” stabbed the revenue collector to death on All Hallows Eve; 31 October 1684.



Sunday, November 3, 2019

Heirs Were Hunted Up

It's often luck of the draw, as to whose exploits are retained in written records. The Oklahoma Historical Society preserved issues of the Fallis, Oklahoma Gazette. An institution digitized them; newspapers.com indexed them. Read Finding Everett: Fallis has not always been a ghost town. Given that civilization departed, I feel fortunate that Fallis society columns are even available to researchers.

Clipping from 7 Nov 1913 - The Fallis Gazette (Fallis, Oklahoma); front page, cols. 1 & 2.
Images enlarge when clicked.
Front page of the 7 November 1913 issue several times made specific reference (left) to my direct ancestors. Grandfather Roy David Hardesty (1891-1970) dined with his grandfather James Lewis 'Jim' Hyde (1834-1917).

One hundred and six years ago, this week.

'Hyde,' that's a surname to retain in this accounting. As in Hyde Park, New York.

The Gazette observed Roy's father, Oliver Ellsworth 'O. E.' Hardesty (c1867-1943), took dinner that Sunday with men friends. Roy's sister Hallie Hardesty (1893-1980) is twice mentioned: she associated with an aunt Guffey .... and a Calla Guffy.

Hallie had returned from visiting 'Mrs. G. W. Guffey' at Shawnee, Oklahoma. Cassandra Ann (Hyde) Guffey (1857-1934), also seen as 'Cassa' and 'Cassie,' was sister to Roy and Hallie's mother, Addie May (Hyde) Hardesty (1870-1938), who, for all I know, had her own dinner plans ... obliging Roy and husband O. E. to find their supper elsewhere.

Having returned from Shawnee, Hallie, who would be in her parents' household until the close of 1914, is reported – with sister Gertrude – as hostessing 'Calla Guffy' as a guest for three nights. Ila Calla Guffey (b1896) was maternal first cousin to Roy, Hallie and Gertrude (right). Calla's mother, Mary Ann 'Annie' (Hyde) Guffey (1864-1953), was sister to Cassie and Addie May; all were daughters of Jim Hyde and the former Mary Ann Pace (1837-1910).

We can almost pivot from Guffeys: Addie May (Hyde) Hardesty's sisters married Guffey men in Nemaha County, Kansas; born in Ohio and Iowa, they may not have even known they were first cousins, once removed.

I say 'almost' because figuring out how all these Guffeys were related took me to a most interesting transcript. (Graphics below depict family relationships.)

I like that the document is called "A True Statement." As to exploits circuitously appearing online, Ila Faye (Murphy) Combs mailed photocopy of a hand-written document before her 2012 death.* Alice Gleason Gould apparently transcribed the True Statement ... along with bits of Combs' 1980s correspondence ... and posted text to ancestry.com in 2008. "Enclosed is my grandmother's statement regarding ... the Hyde Park fable," wrote Combs. "My cousin found the story in his mother's papers. As you can see, it was deteriorating with age ..." And, indeed, Gould's text lurches around gaps. "We don't know when grandma wrote the story, but it must have been in the late 1940's," continued Combs.

'Grandma' was Annie (Hyde) Guffey, mother to our Calla. "In a nutshell, I believe ... grandma was saying that the Hyde Park land had been rented or leased by the state for New York for 100 years. Its hard to tell, but I think she believed that – in the 86 years that the land had been leased – the rent had amounted to 20 million dollars."

I realized the Hyde Park Fable deserved looking into.

"Near 1907, a man in a New York government office found on record the unclaimed Hyde Park estate deeded to Jacob Scott by his father who sailed across the waters to America to see his son Jacob Scott, but failed to find him, and bought this land Hyde Park 86 years before the Heirs were hunted up. This New York man married one of the cousins. They looked for all of the heirs and found them and had all of them make an affidavit that they were legal heirs of Jacob Scott and send the affidavits to them."
"Grandmother ... lived in our home most of the time that I was growing up," wrote Combs. "I have been intrigued by the tale since I was a little girl." Understandably, revelation of her grandmother's True Statement has spurred effort to run our Scott ancestry. I can say "our" because Annie, in the now-deteriorated document, identified her mother: Mary Ann (Pace) Hyde. She is my 2x great-grandmother. Dead forty months, she'd been wife to Jim Hyde, with whom my grandfather was reported as taking Sunday supper in 1913.

Twenty million dollars. That is some incentive. "I have been anxious to pass the Scott legend on to you," wrote Combs. "It is said that the Scott's arrived in New York very early. I think the immigrant grandfather's name was John & he was from Scotland?? His land grant was along the Hudson River in Dutchess County & its present day location would be Hyde Park, NY, home of the Roosevelts. When John Scott died, the land was to go to his sons which included Jacob."

And, sure enough, I have a Jacob Scott (perhaps 1778-1824) in my database. As Mary Ann (Pace) Hyde's maternal grandfather. My 4x great-grandfather. Combs' Grandma Annie also identified three Pace siblings already in my files. These are my people.

"The legend claims that a lawyer was commissioned to go back east & check on the situation. Grandmother says he was never heard from again & they suspected that he had been paid off or met foul play. In 1909 the family tried again. I do not know how many of the family members were in on the deal but my great-grandmother Mary Anna (Pace) Hyde obtained an affidavit ..." in what appears to have been the year before her death.

Gould also transcribed the reverse side of Annie (Hyde) Guffey's tattered but True Statement ... as best she could.

"affidavit out at Fallis, Okla. Amanda Pace Lewis at Walnut Iowa. Harvy Pace at Council Bluffs, Iowa"

With "affidavit out at Fallis, Oklahoma," we circle back to the above Fallis Gazette reporting. The Hardestys lived in those specific environs for a brief time. At Finding Everett I describe the end of Gertrude's short life there in 1916. Roy David, my then-unmarried paternal grandfather, carried U.S. mail from Fallis until at least 1917. Great aunts Gertrude and Hallie entertained Calla Guffey, daughter of the True Statement's authoress, at Fallis. In the home that Mary Ann (Pace) Hyde's daughter Addie May (right) shared with O. E. Hardesty. It's exhilarating to think my great-grandmother wanted the unidentified man once holding a "New York government office" to know of our ancestry. (Demonstrable reverence for historic predecessors is scarce, among sub-sequent generations of my Hardesty kinsmen.)

Gould knew – and annotated the True Statement to reflect – Mary Ann (Pace) Hyde's mother was Sophronia (Scott) Pace (1813-1853). In 1917, and almost assuredly unbeknownst to Combs and Gould, the Springfield Missouri Interstate Historical Society published The Ozark Region, Its History and Its People, Vol. 2. Sophronia is depicted in recountal of a prominent, Aurora, Missouri mine owner. As well as her parents, including her namesake: "Among the first of this energetic family to come to this country was old Jacob Scott, born in 1778 on March 19th, and his good wife Sophronia (Stedman) Scott, born on Christmas day, 1779. This ambitious couple had the strength and hardihood to not only make a success in conquering adversity in the country but also to rear a thriving family ..." which included my 3x great-grandmother, Sophronia (Scott) Pace. "Jacob Scott died after a most useful life on October 24, 1824, and was followed to the other shore by his faithful wife on April 22, 1850, and lies buried at King Hill cemetery, near St. Joseph, Concordia, New York." I felt compelled to get to another shore ... and assert Jacob Scott's paternal ancestry.

I grew reasonably certain of my descent from dispossessed heir, Jacob Scott (1778-1824)! "As we know, Jacob came west," wrote Combs, correct where the above biography is problematic. "It was never explained what happened to Jacob's holdings but the family apparently felt that they had been hoodwinked out of a fortune."

It is time to rectify that injustice.


In 1897 Jim Hyde relied on O. E. Hardesty's father David Hardesty (1836-1903) when he "proved up" forty Oklahoma acres he'd homesteaded. Witness testimony secured title to that land. With an eye to owing a slice of Hyde Park, New York, I launched into my own proofs. When Combs wrote "I just hope some clues can be gleaned to give us something to go on for our research," I knew what she was talking about.

Facts sorta peter out. "Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]" is typical, in meager online trees bearing Jacob Scott's profile. Wife Sophronia (Stedman) Scott was likely baptized in the Spring of 1780. At the still-standing First Church of Christ, Congregational meeting house in Farmington, Connecticut. (Thank you Connecticut State Library, for transcribing those records in 1943.) Chalkley does identify a Jacob Scott as an orphan of John; but as the fellow was age sixteen in 1764, I find this Virginian particularly unlikely as candidate for a New York inheritance. That Jacob Scott had a guardian ... and legal representation.

I'm more certain Sophronia and a young son are anonymously enumerated in the Jacob Scott entry on an Oxford, New York tax list from 1800. From that also-true document, one might appreciate "conquering adversity" lauded in the Aurora miner's hagiography. Scott paid a mere 6¢ tax on his farm and house near the Chenango River: there was no value to his personal estate. Scott's standing seems quite distinct from an international traveler who can pluck up a New World land grant and sail off.

I had been no more successful at fortune hunting than Jim Hyde's daughters. Simply because her meditative countenance seems to convey consternation I have on this matter, I post a c1922 photograph of paternal great-grandmother Addie May (right). In Oklahoma barrenness.

Before I leave final observation to Combs, I must introduce Amanda Jane (Pace) Lewis (1835-1926). Sister to Jim Hyde's wife, Mary Ann (Pace) Hyde, "Aunt Amanda" appears in Guffey's True Statement. She's been challenging to inquire into. After marriage, census records place siblings and various nieces in her household: despite perplexing my research, I admire that Amanda likely knew how (and accessed sufficient resources) to keep family knitted together following loss of a parent. Combs wrote "My great-grandmother Mary Anna (Pace) Hyde obtained an affidavit & sent it to Amanda & Amanda hired their cousin, John Scott, attorney, to see what he could find out. Amanda payed his fee. I guess John Scott came up empty handed as the story ends with him."



NOTES:

* Combs was no doubt named – in part – for Ila Calla Guffey, seen in the above society page. Combs' mother was born within a year of Hallie Hardesty ... her maiden name was Mabel Hallie Guffey. Hallie (Hardesty) King (1893-1980) and Mabel Hallie (Guffey) Murphy (1892-1969) were likely named for their maternal aunt, Hallie Maud (Hyde, Morrow) Conwell (1876-1959). Jim and Mary Ann (Pace) Hyde gave the name to their youngest surviving daughter.

  Teetotalism played a role in my last post, I Cannot Enjoy Reading Bad News. I feel compelled to note Sophronia was in 1832 an inaugural member of the Mount Vernon, Illinois Temperance Society. She had married physic Joel Jackson Pace (1813-1846) four months earlier: Pace was the organization's inaugural Secretary. Johnson, who culled Pioneer Association archives, was published in 1893: "As they were all akin to us, I have a mind to [name] the whole outfit."

 I found no such cemetery. A King Hill Cemetery is "arguably the second oldest cemetery in St. Joseph," Missouri, reported the St. Joseph News-Press. Find A Grave bears no memorial to Jacob Scott. They also disclose only 58% of King Hill markers have been photographed by volunteers.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

I Cannot Enjoy Reading Bad News

It startles me. When – after being offered seemingly benign intelligence – meandering around in research can lead to stark portrayal of poignant death.

Image of The Platt Hardesty Wedding Invitation Sent In 1887, offered by 'Pastime Jwls.'
Jason Lombardi, President of the Malvern Historical Society, thought I might be interested to learn a rather pristine, 1887 invitation (right) to the marriage of Caroline 'Carrie' Frances Platt (1859-1919) and Gue C. Hardesty (1860-1895) is available on ebay. I was gratified to see 'Gue' in print: I was unsure I'd entered this first cousin's name correctly in my database. (I found it memorable and tantalizing that, as a newborn, he was enumerated as 'Confucius' in the 1860 census.) [Images enlarge when clicked.]

I was intrigued by mention that the newlyweds would be 'at home' in Leoti City, Kansas ... following nuptials at the Naples, New York home of the bride's brother, Reverend Ward Platt (1853-1916).* I'd not yet associated this Hardesty with a Midwest locale pronounced "Lee-OH-Tah" and alluding to Wichita/Kitikiti'sh People's Caddoan expression for prairie flower.

Accounting for Gue C. Hardesty blossomed grandly, following newfound geographic association.


Coverplate, Illustrated historical atlas of Carroll County, Ohio: from recent and actual surveys and records (1874); H.H. Hardesty (Firm).
Hardesty's profile primarily existed in my family tree as adjunct to that of his father, my purported 4th great-uncle, Hiram Hubbard Hardesty (1833-1898) ... the only son of Malvernians Louisa Knauff (1782-1850) and Reverend William Hardesty (1776-1846) not to "follow the pursuit of their father" and operate their own grinding mills. (See my post Wild Confusion in Every Direction.) H. H. Hardesty & Co. published dozens of historical atlases between 1870 and 1894: his biographical data informs many who today research family history.  [My timeline, anchored on William Hardesty and Methodism, can be found here.]

I say 'purported' as I've long been suspicious that Lousia would have been more than fifty-one years old when Hiram was born ... and that last-born Hiram was almost a decade younger than his next-eldest sibling. My suspicion is enhanced: this branch of my tree played loose with stated marital status. Gue's parents divorced before 1876. His mother, German-born Amelia C. (Paessler) Hardesty (1833-1916) – by the time of Gue's 1887 marriage – portrayed herself as widowed.

Gue was youngest of three sons, and born to Hiram and Amelia at rural East Townsend, Huron County, Ohio. Ninety miles northwest of Malvern. Firstborn Lorin Quimby Hardesty (1854-1908) studied at Oberlin College. He surveyed Ottowa County, Ohio for his father's 1874 atlas of that locale before hanging out a law shingle. Lorin had married an Ohio schoolteacher educated at his alma mater and located at Mitchell, South Dakota by the time Gue and Carrie's invitations went out.

Second-born Emile F. Hardesty (1857-1886) attended Oberlin and the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. He and Gue left teaching and – with their mother – relocated to Wellington, Kansas c1884. The brothers likely read law and were admitted to the bar together shortly after their arrival. "“E. F. Hardesty came to Wichita county in the summer of 1885 on a prospecting tour to seek a location for the firm of Hardesty & Pelham, of Wellington," reported the The Leoti Transcript, referencing partnership with Thomas Walter Pelham (1861-1945).

Image of Thomas Walter Pelham (1861-1945).
Pelham (left), according to an 1892 genealogy, "upon attaining his majority," pushed on from teaching in New York State. For Denver. Perhaps to take advantage of the August 1882 opening of The National Mining and Industrial Exposition. Credibly, Pelham entered service as a railroad conductor, prior to superintending the Denver Circle Line within three years. He resigned in June 1885. Lenders foreclosed on the Denver railway in 1886.

Hardesty & Pelham embraced land speculation. Emile "traveled over the southern tier of counties, but finally decided to identify himself with Leoti and its then proposed town company. He became a member of the company, was appointed secretary, and looked forward to an eventful career incidental to the settlement of a new county." Vast, nearly timberless prairie – that would become Wichita County on Christmas Eve, 1886 – had but seven households when Hardesty scouted the area.

Emile did not survive to attend the Platt/Hardesty marriage.


"Being in delicate health, [Emile] returned to Wellington, to sojourn through the winter, and in the spring of 1866 he manifested considerable anxiety to be in Leoti early in the season. The journey to Leoti exposed him to the inclemency of our spring storms, and contracting a severe cold, his delicate physique succumbed in a few days after his arrival in Leoti. His grief-stricken mother was summonsed just in time to receive his last wishes and to close his eyes" read a subsequent tribute, penned more than a year following his death. It went on, to evoke particularly dramatic phrasing: "E. F. Hardesty was the first martyr to the cause of Leoti." I suspect his remains were the first interred in a cemetery two and a half miles from the hamlet. But something allusive may have lain beneath observation that "the people of Leoti ... looked up to him as one of the ablest champions of Leoti’s claims for county seat honors."

Sketch of Hotel Vendome, from The Great County Seat War: Coronado vs. Leoti, by Steve Harkness.
Emile had good cause to attend to Leoti Town Company plans during March storms. Only four shanties had been erected by November 1885. In February 1886 a Coronado Town Company completed Hotel Vendome (right) three miles distant. Within weeks, structures sprouted up around it. Adjacent townsites became bitter rivals for eventual designation as the seat of Wichita County. A 1911 account described legal wrangling, voter intimidation, bogus balloters, a horsewhipped newspaper editor and hired gunmen shooting up the town. Strife culminated with a shootout on 27 February 1887. Well, sorta: prior to a final ballot, there would be more shooting, an attempted lynching, militia called up, and rifle pits at public wells in both villages.

Emile died intestate. Gue administered his brother's estate ... in Ohio and Kansas probate courts ... from May 1886.

Gue immersed himself in business.
More poignant death was in the offing.


McNeal in 1922 – a bit grandiosely, no doubt – surmised the business plan: he estimated the Leoti town site "which perhaps cost the founders all told three or four thousand dollars, would sell within a few months for more than half a million." I feel it's imperative to quickly reflect that Reverend William Hardesty, pioneer miller, had modeled this career choice. He had financed a survey, and platted out streets and lots for Troy, Ohio in 1834. Speculative investment that would become the village of Malvern.

With natural inclination as a promoter, Gue Hardesty began appearing regularly in the Kansas press. The Republican at Wellington noted in April that “Gue Hardesty has returned from the west where he has been attending court in Meade county, in which he had several cases, as an attorney. He expects soon to remove to Leoti ... where he will practice his profession besides engaging in the banking business.”

Image from Fifth Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture … for the years 1885-1886 (1887), pg. 580.
1886 map, Wichita County, Kansas
Our subject moved swiftly. The following month he and his brother's former partner Pelham announced prospective formation of The Wichita County Bank, capitalized with $25,000. Friends, neighbors, associates and family members no doubt bought underlying shares in the bank's stocks. "Leoti is a rapidly growing town, located in the geographical center of the county, and the prospective county seat. The boys will have the pioneer bank of the county, and will undoubtedly make a good thing of it as a result of their priority of location." Cornado men established a bank of the same name later in 1886. (See the map legend, right.)

“Gue C. Hardesty went to Ohio this week presumably on business," reported The Republican in June. Likely to settle Emile's estate. "Rumor says he went to do what Solomon commanded all men to do: Take unto himself a wife. We shall know more about this when he returns.” Native New Yorker Carrie Platt had attended Oberlin ... perhaps concurrently with Emile Hardesty. She had been teaching school at East Townsend since at least 1880. The above invitation depicts marriage sixteen months following whatever errand Gue Hardesty advanced upon.

Boom! Boom!


Advertisement, 30 Sep 1886 - Leoti Lance, pg. 3.
The 30 September 1886 Leoti Lance becomes typical ... for the number of times Hardesty's name might appear on a single newspaper page. He remained back east "on business." A two-column advertisement promoted "Hardesty & Pelham, Dealers in Clothing" on a prime, Main Street lot. Another block ad (left) screamed the bank was doing business, with Hardesty as President and Pelham, Cashier. Just in time for Christmas, the promoters informed Lance readers in December that “Hardesty & Co’s is the place to get your underwear,” and “Ladies shoes at cost.”

“No enterprise in the history and progress of our rapidly growing city deserves more credit than that of Messrs. G. C. Hardesty and T. W. Pelham of the Wichita County Bank," gushed the Leoti Transcript in early April, 1887. Hardesty had been newsworthy. “On Friday our enterprising townsman ... hearing that a party of surveyors were at work in the vicinity of the Whitewoman and that they were heading for Leoti, drove out about 6 ½ miles from town and found a strong corps running lines near the Sinns’ ranch." Now dry, White Woman Creek can be seen draining south and east on the 1886 map (above).§

"In conversation with Mr. Curtis, who has charge of the survey, Mr. Hardesty elicited the following: corps ... in the employ of [The Denver, Memphis and Atlantic Railway] had started from Pueblo [Colorado], running east and arrived in Wichita county two days previous and that it was the object of the survey to approach Leoti and run a line as close as possible through the center of the city ..." Vitally, to a townsite booster, "Mr. Hardesty believes that it is the object of the D., M. & A. to run a line closer to the center of city than has been done in any previous survey.”

Still under westward construction, the Missouri Pacific Railway took possession of the D. M. & A. the following month. The first steam locomotive attained Coronado from the east on 28 July 1887, "where a depot, machine shops, pump house, well and water tank were all in place," according to the Wichita County Historical Society. Leoti 'City' could but claim a depot and freight yard when locomotion presented itself. Chicago, Kansas & Western Railway Company announced plans to make Leoti a terminus for their west line the following month, however. That enterprise would soon belong to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

Image of train engine Chautauqua #4, originally posted by William Bottorff.
Chautauqua, one of two engines built in 1886 for The Denver, Memphis and Atlantic Railway.

"Hardesty & Pelham are erecting palatial residences on their addition to the city," bragged The Leoti Transcript at the end of April 1887. Hardesty & Pelham (at times partnered with Pelham's wife) had engaged in $8492 worth of real estate transfers in the previous seven days. Partners' similar economic feats followed for weeks in succession throughout this period. In early May, while tensions simmered following Coronado gunplay, Hardesty and Pelham contracted for erection of a large, two-story brick hotel. "The boys" solidified themselves in a community ... of influence. In October “The third story of the new brick building of Hardesty & Pelham was built at the request of the Masonic members here," declared the Wichita Standard.

26 May 1887 clipping from The Leoti Transcript (Leoti, Kansas), pg. 5, cols. 1-2.
Malvern Historical Society members might be gratified to learn that, in May 1887, Hardesty's maternal uncle, Theophilus Herman Paessler (1840-1926), arrived in Leoti "with a view to investing." Paessler would be interred at Bethlehem Cemetery in their environs. Malvern's one-time Postmaster & Dry Goods Merchant would also migrate through New Mexico and Oklahoma holdings, to Malibu, California. Hardesty that month became attorney for the Wichita Land & Loan Company ... in an ever-crowding field of local lenders. At the end of the month, the Leoti Transcript revealed other likely hotel guests: “Messrs. Thompson and Rogers, from Malvern, Ohio, friends of Gue C. Hardesty, are in town. Mr. Rogers has determined to locate in the city.” A W. H. Rogers was – with Hardesty – in December elected a steward of Leoti's Methodist Episcopal Church. I think the Reverend Hardesty would be gratified his Methodist legacy endured.

Hardesty was on the make. “The Halcyon town company met at the Wichita County Bank Friday evening and elected Gue C. Hardesty president. Active measures will be taken at once to boom the town and promote its prosperity" reported the Transcript in early July. More important locally was this note in the same issue: “G. C. Hardesty & T. W. Pelham among six elected directors of The Southwestern Kansas Development Company.” The Leoti City Town Company was reincarnated. A financial measure the partners would often replicate.

Hardesty continued efforts to accrue confidence in his social standing. “After the morning exercises on the Fourth [of July], W. R. Gibbs and Jo. M. Kendall accepted an invitation from President Hardesty, of the Wichita County Bank, to his handsome new residence where they partook of a repast that was only excelled by the kindness of Mrs. Hardesty and her worthy son.” Entertaining in his own home was apparently important to semi-public Gue.

Investors had staked the Halcyon Town Company with $10,000 in capital. And declaimed loudly that the site on the eastern edge of Wichita County did not aspire to county seat honors. Though it already had a schoolhouse, selling point for the enterprise centered on purported appearance on three railroad surveys. Backers in June 1887 petitioned county commissioners for $35,000 in bonds, to finance the Missouri Pacific's D. M. & A. Railway ... in exchange for a freight and passenger depot at or near embryonic Halcyon, as well as economic spur for rail investment at Coronado and Leoti.

Our subject's love life continued to elicit comment. That October, “Gue Hardesty boarded the Mo. Pacific, last night, for a trip east. He is supposed to be going after Mrs. Hardesty.” By the invitation above, Carrie would not earn that title for thirteen days following Wichita Standard projection. The couple were married on 26 October. Pelham's wife died 8 December 1887, at Leoti. It was likely around this time that the partners gave up retailing: A "new Hardesty & Pelham brick on S. Main" would be a launch pad for further financial endeavor.

Advertisement, 1 Nov 1888 - Western Farmer, pg. 1.“The Wichita County Bank, the oldest banking institution in the county, will be transformed into the First National Bank of Leoti, about the first of march, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars,” crowed the Leoti Standard in February 1888. Directors Hardesty & Pelham carried on as President and Cashier, respectively. “This is another feather in Leoti’s headgear, and the enterprising gentlemen who are at the head of it should have proper credit.” So noted.

Also in February, a Transcript headline thumped: "Boom! Boom! Leoti’s Wide-Awake Citizens Meet to Devise the Best Methods of Advertising the Best Town and County in Western Kansas.” Leotians, huddled at the courthouse, were keen to refute "slanderous reports circulated by eastern journals, relative to freezing and destitution in western Kansas." Amid broad effort, Hardesty was appointed to a committee to correspond with St Louis railroad officials.

May 1888 rail timetable, The Leoti Transcript, front page, col. 1.
Santa Fe boarding times were
more convenient for Leoti residents.
“Scarcely realizing that the town was only in its third year of settlement I found it making progress when other towns were standing still,” journaled a Wichita, Kansas reporter touring Leoti in July. Hardesty & Pelham’s building, in which a physician had just begun practice "up stairs," was one of two brick structures noted. Five thousand had settled in Wichita County, a thousand in Leoti. As Hardesty foresaw, The Missouri Pacific in fact bisected the county seat. (Depicted on the company's map, below.) Wichita Commercial extolment continued: "The First National Bank ... is the oldest bank and has the largest paid-up capital in Wichita county. The bank was organized about the time Leoti was platted and has developed into one of the strongest financial institutions in western Kansas. It was incorporated as a national bank in the spring of 1888 with a paid-up capital of $50,000, and has since added to its capital a surplus of $2,500. Its officers are men of large experience in the banking business and have the unbounded confidence of the citizens of the county.” Stout competition had emerged: The Bank of Leoti City commenced, backed by $60,000 in capital.

5 Jul 1888 clipping from The Leoti Transcript (Leoti, Kansas), pg. 2, cols. 3-4.
"Hardesty, Pelham & Co., real estate agents, commenced business in January, 1888, and succeeded the old firm of Hardesty & Pelham, who were the pioneer banker and loan agents of this county” the report continued. “This firm is doing a very extensive business in this and adjoining counties and have direct communi-cation with eastern investors to whom they sell the greater number of their loans. They also represent thoroughly reliable companies, through whom they place loans. The firm is very sound financially and is entirely reliable." The Southwestern Development Company was noted as "a prosperous town company,” and yet an ominous chord was struck: “The rainfall this season is only an average but it is enough to inspire confidence in the future. Many of the people had intended to make this the best year and have exhausted every means to produce such a crop as would redound to their credit and put at rest the evil reports that have been made of this country.”

Hardesty's voice was no doubt just one, in a chorus of popular boosterism. “It is claimed that [Wichita] was settled quicker and by a better class of people than any county in the state.” An unnamed source declared “Leoti is the boss town.”

Detail of 1888 Missouri Pacific Railway System map; Kansas Historical Society.Our subject remained competi-tive, even as European bankers established a presence at Leoti. “Messrs. Hardesty and Pelham also have a bank at Eads, Colo., and are largely interested in other financial institutions and have large real estate interest in Leoti and elsewhere.” Eads and Halcyon are depicted on a Missouri Pacific Railway map (right) in use at the time ... Eads being eight stops west of Leoti, and Halcyon just beyond Coronado to the east.

The 1888 Bankers Directory reported the Eads bank, then in Bent County, Colorado, was backed with $5,000 in capital. Having already doubled the capital behind the First National Bank at Leoti, owners declared $5,000 in undivided profits there. Pelham took on an Assistant Cashier. Chase National Bank at New York acted as their clearinghouse, for transactions far from home.

Clipping from 21 Feb 1889 - The Leoti Transcript (Leoti, Kansas), pg. 4, cols. 5-6.Hardesty-Pelham Loan and Investment Company, "negotiators of farm loans," succeeded Hardesty, Pelham & Company in October. Though the name change did not reflect it, Pelham advanced to the brokerage firm's Presidency. Gue C. Hardesty served as Vice President. Five partners capitalized the Leoti venture with an impressive $100,000.

8 Nov 1888 clipping, The Leoti Transcript (Leoti, Kansas), pg. 4, col. 6.
Outlandish boast (right) the following month may have been Pelham's. He returned to New York and re-married that month. The Hardestys lost their first child that year. Likely stillborn, a Leoti grave bears initials 'G. D. Hardesty.'

Hiram Hardesty was but thirteen months old when his father congregated a family-based Temperance Society at his Malvern homestead. At the close of 1888, like-minded Gue became a Trustee of Leoti's Methodist Episcopal Church; he was appointed to serve on Church Extension and Temperance Committees, 1889-1890. On New Year's Day 1889, Hardesty's bride Carrie (on the Music Committee) opened their home to the Leoti Chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Later that January, Hardesty proceeded five hundred miles north. To visit brother Lorin at no doubt frigid Mitchell, South Dakota. He may have solicited financial backing for a new endeavor.

Hardesty picked up stakes. High stakes.

9 May 1890 clipping, Allegany County Republican (Wellsville, NY), pg. 2, cols. 7-8.

“Mrs. Gue Hardesty left on Monday last to visit her husband in New York state. Mr. Hardesty is establishing a bank in Angelica, N. Y., which he will run in connection with the First National of Leoti,” the Transcript disclosed on 21 March. Fellow Methodist Church Trustee and Temp-erance Committee member, James Henry Rook (1857-1936) also ceded recent church appointment and relocated from Leoti to Angelica. By May (see right), Hardesty was installed as President of the Bank of Angelica, and Rook as Cashier. Both served as Directors. Upon her final departure, news report bemoaned Carrie's leave-taking. On behalf of Leoti aid societies, through which she'd aggregated charitable contributions.

Partnership simultaneously unfurled into Colorado. May 1889 reporting by The Sheridan Lake Times neatly documented partners' holdings there ... as the pair replicated pioneering success: "The advent of the Kiowa County Bank, which occurred this week, is the most encouraging acquisition the new county-seat has thus far received. Messrs. Hardesty & Pelham, the bankers, are gentlemen of ample means, large experience and liberal spirit, well and favorably known in financial circles throughout the entire country. They advertise individual responsibility to the amount of $2,000,000, and they will improve important factors in the upbuilding of Sheridan Lake and Kiowa county. In addition to their new bank at this place these gentlemen are largely engaged in banking enterprises elsewhere, conducting with marked success, the First National Bank of Leoti, Kansas, the Bank of Angelica, at Angelica, N. Y., the bank at Eads in this county, and the Hardesty-Pelham Investment Company of Leoti." Rhodes' Journal of Banking disclosed in July that "Hardesty & Pelham are doing business under the style of Kiowa County Bank, capital $50,000." They also recorded Pelham stepping up as President of their Leoti bank, and Hardesty moving to Vice President of that firm as well. I will footnote observation regarding Sheridan Lake Times' conclusion: "The high financial standing and superior business qualifications of Messrs. Gue C. Hardesty and T. W. Pelham are sufficient guarantee of the advantages which must accrue to Sheridan Lake by reason of the establishment of their bank at this place."ǂ

Cracks in the foundation.


Hardesty & Pelham were soon afterward named as defendants in at least one Wichita County foreclosure. Then – on the 4th of July – a Sheriff's Sale at the courthouse door apparently auctioned off a different, 160-acre parcel.

Hardesty & Pelham, and their financial backers, suffered their first significant reverse near the end of 1889: The Western Farmer quietly declared “The Halcyon Town Company’s suit against the R. R. company for damages in crossing the town site, was lost,” in November. Hardesty no longer representing them locally, the partners' lawyer was unsuccessful in defending them in legal action by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Some portion of investors' property had been condemned, for right of way. Halcyon Town Company went into receivership. Their remaining landholdings were sold at a Sheriff’s Auction, 3 May 1890. Halcyon, Kansas does not appear on any contemporary map.

The partners, and thus the story itself, diverged – geographically – from Leoti in 1890. "The boys" looked eastward. The American Bankers Association reported the Leoti bank profitable, holding a surplus of $4,250, with $25,000 in deposits on hand. The Angelica bank reorganized and began operations regulated by state charter at the first of the year: Hardesty officiated as President; Pelham, Vice President; and Rook as Cashier. It was capitalized with $25,000. "After being without local banking service for four years, due to the closing of the First National Bank, the business men of the village welcomed the new bank," allowed Herrick, in A Century of Banking in Allegany County. Partners' investment was certainly manifest: "The original bank vault was lined with steel plate and a modern five and a half ton door installed." It also cultivated an air of respectability: "The office and lobby plaster walls and ceiling were replaced with decorated metal, completing an attractive banking office.” Hardesty appreciated that appearances built confidence.

Rook would remain Cashier until 1927. Pelham was apparently out of this bank by the end of 1890. Hardesty, though he initially remained a Director of the State Bank at Angelica, would be replaced as President in a decisively important 1891.

Pelham set up at Abilene. The Leoti Transcript observed Pelham "returned from the east" in December, "where he has placed $100,000 of the bonds of the Garden City Irrigation Co. and the Southwestern Irrigation Co., of both which companies he is president, their combined capital being half a million dollars." As Pelham presided over Hardesty-Pelham Loan and Investment Company and First National Bank of Leoti, New York State records declare the Abilene-based loan company sought examination, to do business there. It did not receive a license. Pelham promptly appeared as President of the New York Loan and Trust Company ... at Buffalo.

In place of Hardesty, Edward Campbell Little (1858-1924), “one of the most brilliant young attorneys and among the most entertaining public speakers in Kansas," according to the Abilene Weekly Reflector, "accepted the attorneyship of Hardesty-Pelham Loan and Investment Company ... at a fine salary," in March 1890. Little had represented the firm in district court the past fall: with appeal of another suit wending its way to Kansas' state supreme court, it was time to make an associate of up-and-comer Little.

The big time.


In September 1890, at age thirty, Hardesty became member of – and major stockholder in – the Marion Land and Park Association. New York speculators formed a company for the purpose of buying and selling land on outskirts of Marion, Indiana. I did not discover the value of stock sold, but $4,200 was invested in 37 ½ acres at Grant County.

Buffalo Evening News report on Hardesty was prominent on 22 November 1890. In column one of the front page, under the headline “They Select a Bank Site Today," came excited announcement that “Directors of the new Queen City Bank meet this afternoon." "About $300,000 of the $600,000 capital stock has been placed with Eastern capitalists.” Another Director-in-waiting ten days later confided to a Buffalo Courier reporter "It appears to be understood that Mr. Hardesty of Angelica, the gentleman who was mainly instrumental in the organization of the bank, would be selected as cashier."

Lorin visited brother Gue at Buffalo in January 1891. He returned to Mitchell with tales of investors willing to stake up to half-a-million dollars in a South Dakota irrigation scheme. Credibly, "L. Q. Hardesty, Esq." partnered up, locally. By July he and fabricators had submitted schematics for a Drill-Operating Device. To the U.S. patent office.

Pelham arrived in New York in February. Upon return a month later he told the Abilene Weekly Reflector "I was very successful in my ventures."

‘Foot of Ferry, 1896.’ Image from The Buffalo History Museum. Retrieved from The Public.
The 'Gay Nineties' were on an upswing. Gue rode it: he was among two dozen "Buffalo Men" to purchase McComb House on Grand Island, twelve miles outside the City. "It is proposed to organize a family club with a membership limited to 100, and the hotel and grounds to be used as a summer home for the members and their guests,” announced The Buffalo Commercial in March 1891. The sixty-thousand-dollar deal included a ninety-five room hotel, seven acres of grounds, cottages, docks on Niagara River frontage ... and the steamer Huntress (above). The high-society retreat became known as the Island Club.

These must have been glorious times for the Hardestys. Son Faustus Platt Hardesty (1891-1948) was born to them in August. On Delaware Avenue – in Buffalo's upscale 'Midway' neighborhood – the family took up residence among luxurious Georgian Revival-style row houses, freestanding mansions and social clubs.

Image of interior, Queen City Bank. Buffalo 1893, a descriptive and statistical sketch of the city of Buffalo and its suburbs, by George Milroy Bailey (1893), pg. 44.
State banking records indicate the $600,000 had been raised when Queen City Bank was organized, 20 April 1891. They opened doors to Main Street on 2 May. "The bank is centrally located, audits counting room and offices are elegantly fitted up with tile floors, bronze railings, mahogany fixtures, electric light, etc., in keeping with its high class patronage," observed Buffalo of To-day. Vaults had been fire- and burglar-proofed.

18 Aug 1891 clipping from Buffalo Courier (Buffalo, New York), pg. 3, col. 4.
Pelham and Hardesty both served as inaugural Directors. Hardesty held the Cashier post. Growth was rapid. The bank ended September with over a million dollars in outstanding loans, up twenty-five percent over the initial quarter. “Our success has been much greater than we anticipated,” President William Henry Johnson (1843-1923) informed The Banker's Magazine, in October. Deposits-on-hand, as much as $670,000, had already exceeded first-year expectations. “There has been some stringency in the money market, but all indications point to good times coming. Our tariff laws are favorable, crops abundant, and there is, I believe, a general feeling of security,” the officer disclosed. New York's Superintendent of Banking listed Hardesty as both Director of the bank at Angelica and Cashier for the Buffalo bank on 1 October 1891.

Faltering began.


Meanwhile, back in Leoti, exposé broke in the 28 May 1891 Western Kansan. "About the first of the present year several incidents occurred which seemed to convince parties who had money deposited in the bank that it was more unsafe while deposited there ..." Before again relying on The First National Bank of Leoti as depository, Wichita County Commissioners required .5% interest on their deposits, and that a new bond be posted. "On the old bond of twelve thousand dollars eleven names appeared, while on the new, which is twice is large, only five names are to be found." And they were all members of the bank. Pelham and Hardesty included. Mood varied widely from earlier, all-out boosterism: "Banks often go to the wall, and suppose that would occur here; where is the security?” The bank placed a rather large ad on the front page of the next Western Kansan issue ... boldly declaring a $4,500 surplus.

27 Mar 1891 clipping from The Buffalo Commercial (Buffalo, New York), pg. 6.
We may be witness to partisan press ... and persuasion's role in confidence manipulation. The Leoti Standard published Hardesty's private communication to them in August. His subscription request carried ominous undercurrent. “Gue C. Hardesty, well and favorably known to all our old settlers ... says: “The east is looking back to Kansas again. I have always been interested, but must say it looked dark at times. Like human nature I cannot enjoy reading bad news as I do good, hence I have not been so anxious to get Leoti papers, but now I would like you to send me your paper. I am enjoying a good business. The Queen City is not six months old, with a deposit of $600,000.”"

Directors removed Hardesty's name from Hardesty-Pelham Loan and Investment Company in September. Pelham consolidated his large irrigation interests within the new construct, renaming it the New York Loan and Investment Company. The principle office remained at Abilene; the firm staffed satellite offices at Buffalo, Hartford, Connecticut and New York City as well.

The Marion, Indiana land deal went awry in January 1892. Lenders foreclosed on investors, who had by then platted out 240 town lots. Mortgagees generally became the purchasers when a Sheriff auctioned the property in April.

Someone in the household modestly reported Hardesty as a Buffalo "Bookkeeper" in a February 1892 census. In their 19 March 1892 report to Poor's Hand Book of Investment Securities, the Queen City Bank listed no Cashier (only an Assistant). Pelham remained Director ... of a corporation that loaned out nearly a million and a half dollars in its first year. "While he was cashier of the Queen City Bank ... he had a very bad attack of nervous prostration," contended Lorin, of his younger brother.

Lorin's wife died in South Dakota that year, and the attorney followed in his weakened sibling's wake. ... styling himself 'Judge' Hardesty. Rhodes' Journal notified readers in May that officers had changed at The First National Bank of Leoti: "L. Q. Hardesty, Vice-President in place of G. C. Hardesty."** Pelham continued at the helm, but the Kansas bank's Cashier was simultaneously replaced.

Lorin, at Abilene, further integrated himself in his brother's former Kansas affairs. Perhaps to protect his investment. Pelham's entry in the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1899) proclaimed a million and a half Midwestern acres ultimately went into his irrigation scheme. “During the past two years Mr. Little’s time has been so occupied by the extensive legal business of the Hardesty-Pelham Investment (sic), Irrigation and other companies that he has had very little opportunity for other practice,” the Enterprise Eagle disclosed. Little partnered with Judge Hardesty in April. The busy Republican left the firm, and brief law practice with Lorin, in mid-November. When President Benjamin Harrison appointed Little as United States' Consul General for Egypt.

The bounce.


It is difficult to comprehend the scope of Hardesty's next venture. He was identified prominently as one of five 'incoporators' of the Gatling Town Site Company when disclosure broke in the Buffalo Evening News on 29 December 1892. As was Richard Henry Gatling (1870-1941), son of inventor Richard Jordan Gatling ... he of the 1861 Gatling gun. Partners had been surreptitiously contracting with farmers, for rights to a solid block of property nearly two square miles in area. The Gatling Ordnance Company – with government contract to manufacture heavy ordnance under patents held by Gatling, Sr. – had apparently legitimate cause to establish a "manufacturing suburb" near Hamburg, New York. Six thousand one-hundred-dollar shares in the Gatling Town Site Company had been sold: partners were on their way to raising $1,100,000 in capital ... to surround a proposed Great Gatling Steel Plant with roads, rail sidings and switching facilities; a water supply and drainage capacity. Complexities of cross-ownership existed in the scheme: Hardesty was also listed in the 1893 Buffalo Directory as Secretary and Treasurer for the Gatling Ordnance Company.

"The City of Gatling was to be a model industrial town," noted Andrle at his comprehensive Great Gatling Land Boom. Planner's vision manifest Hardesty values: "No liquor was to be sold within its limits and every deed was to contain a clause forbidding forever the sale of liquor on the premises." Judicial review approved temperance deed restrictions. Liberal spirit was plainly evident: "Land will be freely donated at the start for parks, school and church sites."

"The J. J. George Furniture Company, of Buffalo, N. Y., has been formed," the United States Investor alerted in January 1893. Some of the Gatling partners, including Hardesty as Treasurer, arranged for the firm to be capitalized with forty thousand dollars.

Evidence of Hardesty's legal prowess became apparent at the end of March 1893. He understood Indiana law allowed deeds sold under foreclosure to be bought back within a year. “Mr. Hardesty knew that the land would soon rapidly increase in value, and being the owner of the majority of shares, desired to redeem the land,” the Buffalo Courier confided. With just weeks to spare, he gave “his personal note” to the Queen City Bank, in return for $5,200. Terms were certainly suspicious. Lenders retained $1,000 of the loan, as a 'bonus.' He not only gave the bank a deed to all Indiana land thus freed of encumbrance, he deeded a home and lot on Park Street, at Buffalo ... to “a friend of the bank.” He may have staked his and Carrie's residence as collateral.

Work began on rail yards and the steel plant in April. Hardesty, as a Director of the enterprise, was one of five financiers to near-simultaneously organize the innovative Beecher Single Rail Railway Company of Buffalo. Investors ponied up $400,000 in capital. The firm proposed to manufacture, sell and lease "all kinds of electric motive power, locomotives, railroad and street cars, gas and compressed air motors,” according to the popular journal Electricity. Directors promptly announced plans to establish their manufactory at Gatling Town.

Promotional image, Gatling Lots Auction!
I leave it to Andrle to describe the frenetic, weeks-long campaign preceding Gatling Town dedication ceremonies on 3 June 1893. (Which included firing five hundred blank rounds from a Gatling gun, as alert that a special train would depart Buffalo's Central Depot.) Turnout was spectacular. A circus-like atmosphere ensued. Beecher's Railway Company – with prospects to transport eventual commuters – ran a small, sample car on a wire spanning Eighteen Mile Creek gorge. "Bids came quickly and over 30 lots were sold in [the first] hour and a half, at an average price of $215 per lot or almost $2400 an acre for farmland that had been purchased for as little as $95 an acre only six months before."

Panic broke out.


I describe crippling effect brought on by "the great panic of 1893" at my post, A Race of Extraordinary Goodness. Maternal great-grandfather, James Monroe Leer, Sr. (1841-1894), was ruined by international financial collapse, following a cascade of railroad bankruptcies ... beginning in January. Economic historians contend financial meltdown had roots in the protectionist McKinley Tariff of 1890.

"By the end of June, rumors had started that the Gatling Ordnance Company was in financial trouble," Andrle explained. "Little or no payments were made on the land contracts and many of the farms remained uncultivated during the season, the farmers not knowing whether they owned them or not. Stock in the Gatling Town Site Company soon became worthless." I found no further mention of J. J. George Furniture Company or Beecher Single Rail Railway Company.

The Queen City Bank collapsed on the last Monday in June. “They Are Not Involved," asserted the The Abilene Weekly Chronicle at month's end. "The failure of the Queen City Savings bank ... for two million dollars, and in connection with which the names of the Hardesty-Pelham Loan and Investment company and T. W. Pelham, of this city, are mentioned, has caused considerable talk locally." Their source, likely Pelham in an adjoining building, massaged truth in damage control (italics mine): "THE CHRONICLE knows it to be a fact that neither Mr. Hardesty nor Mr. Pelham are now in any way connected with the broken institution. Mr. Hardesty retired long ago, and last April Mr. Pelham sold his $20,000 of stock in the bank. Therefore neither of the parties named nor the Hardesty-Pelham company are or can be affected by the failure.”

Hardesty was greatly affected.


Gue was no longer listed as a Director of the Buffalo bank when investors announced intention to reopen at the end of August. More than a dozen foreclosure notifications, concerning various Hardesty-Pelham ventures, sprouted in Kansas newspapers of 1893. As drought spread, capitalists' collateral evaporated. Hardesty and Pelham were, of course, not alone: each Leoti issue bore as many as sixteen notices of pending Sheriff's auctions. Hardesty's elder brother Lorin braved it out. It seems The First National Bank of Leoti had been reorganized by May ... reduced to $10,000 in capital ... as the First State Bank of Leoti. Pelham remained President. Lorin replaced Gue as a Director, and apparently all managerial ties were severed between the bank and our subject.

The German American Bank at Kansas City had acted as clearinghouse for Hardesty and Pelham's Eads, Colorado Bank. Five years later, in August 1893, the Buffalo Courier observed the Kansas bank had obtained a judgment of $524.29 against Hardesty and another partner ... "the amount of an unpaid promissory note.”

Many are subsequent 1893 real estate transactions, whereby Hardesty liquidated Buffalo property for a symbolic dollar. He apparently scrambled, offering up his holdings, in attempt to make good among those who had trusted his counsel; investors whose capital had been forfeited.

For Hardesty, the bottom fell out completely. The United States Investor reported the Abilene business of Hardesty-Pelham Loan and Investment Company was, on 1 October, turned over to an unidentified company attorney, "... who will settle up the business of the company as rapidly as possible and protect the interests of both investors and the company. The failure of Kansas City banks, in which the company had a large portion of its cash deposited, seriously crippled it; but matters have been satisfactorily arranged with those directly interested." Leading investors "agreed to the new arrangement as the most satisfactory and economical plan for realizing the greatest possible amount out of the company's loans. Its guaranty was suspended two years ago, so that investors will only realize what is represented by their securities." As with Kentucky harvest that fateful summer, "Had crops been good in western Kansas, where nearly all the company's loans are located, there would have probably been no difficulty in pulling through, but the total failure made returns small."

Troubles edged closer to home in April 1894. Overtly. At Buffalo. "Gue C. Hardesty and Carrie F. Hardesty" were prominent in public notice of a Superior Court case brought by Francis Spencer Hubbard (1865–1921), son of a successful drug wholesaler based at Syracuse, New York. Also noted among a raft of defendants were Rook, the Bank of Angelica and The German American Bank.

Perambulation, in search of relief from the bust.


It was in this period that Lorin, who had followed his sole, surviving brother to Buffalo, observed "business troubles" burdened Gue. "My brother's mind has been affected ever since his illness when he was connected with the Queen City Bank," Lorin later told a Buffalo Commercial reporter. Gue "went West" in the summer of 1894. For his health.

He would have probably avoided Leoti, our entry point to this storyline. Almost monthly, local papers printed official notice of new legal proceedings against him and Pelham, Hardesty & Pelham Real Estate Company, Hardesty-Pelham Loan and Investment Company, The First National Bank of Leoti and ... just slightly less frequently ... The Southwestern Kansas Development Company.

Image of Bust-Enhancer, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, v.70, Jan.-Mar. 1895, pg. 209.Hardesty was not idle. From Chicago, on 27 September 1894, he filed for patent on a Bust-Developer (left). It may be simply sufficient to observe that – the following January – Hardesty received the right to exclude others from manufacturing the uncomfortable-looking-device.

Dense reporting, under stacked headlines “Mr. Hardesty Against the Queen City Bank” and “Very Complicated Deal,” allows compassion for our subject. Hardesty contended his forecast had proved right: demand had risen for vacant lots near Marion, Indiana. As if trying his slow-moving lawsuit for $32,000 in the press, Buffalo Courier narrative of November is sympathetic. Without his knowledge, consent – or any legal proceedings – his lenders "began to sell lots with indifference." Eighty-eight sub-lots were sold “for inadequate prices.” Not only had discounted conveyance depressed potential speculative reward, Hardesty asserted bank sales returned revenue and securities which “far exceeded” money Hardesty owed one-time Queen City Bank companions.

Often given the title of "Ex-Judge" in eastern reporting, Lorin was busy ... and prominent in the press as well. For three weeks in March 1895 he served as lead defense counsel in the sensationalized murder trial of Charles and Sadie Robinson. "It was assumed that the jury would find the Robinsons either guilty or not guilty of first-degree murder, but they surprised everyone including the defense attorney when they found Clarence Robinson guilty of second-degree murder and Sadie Robinson guilty of manslaughter," testified Wilhelm at his 2019 post The Delaware Avenue Murder. A legal team "had saved the Robinsons from the electric chair." Clarence was sentenced to hard labor in prison for the rest of his life. Sadie received a twenty-year sentence.

Gue Hardesty departed for Detroit in May 1895. To attend to business interests, "which, in spite of his reverses here, were quite large in other cities," reported the Buffalo Evening News. He was in Toledo, Ohio by mid-month. And then his family lost touch with him. "Ever since Gue left Toledo, I have sent inquiries to every city where I thought he might be, to get some trace of him if possible," Lorin told the reporter. He confided that Gue had acted peculiarly after Queen City Bank "went to the wall." The Buffalo Courier asserted Gue's brother, "and his wife, whom he left in Buffalo, were nearly distracted by his sudden and mysterious disappearance."

Carrie acted upon her concerns. "Mrs. Hardesty is in Rochester, where she went a short time ago to endeavor to straighten up some of her husband's affairs before he returned, thinking by so doing to relieve the pressure upon his mind," added the Buffalo Commercial in early June.

She was not at home when a telegram arrived from Little Rock, Arkansas. Word was received from Pulaski County Coroner John R. Walter (1850-1912) in early Monday morning hours of 3 June 1895: his inquest had been completed ... into the death of G. C. Hardesty, whose body was found on the "outskirts" of his city. 'Special dispatch' relayed to the Courier soon revealed the verdict. "He died of poison administered with his own hands with suicidal intent." Sub-headline, beneath "Death by Poison," read "Pathetic Suicide of G. C. Hardesty, of Buffalo." Arkansas report indicated grounds existed to believe Hardesty was "evidently a man of means, education and refinement."

Every Buffalo paper carried divulgence akin to an obituary. Even the New York Times offered a pithy account. Buffalo's Evening News gave the affair front page coverage. Extensive reporting, in a column nearly page-deep, approached from business perspective, but was tempered with reflection obtained from Hiram and Amelia's last surviving son. It quoted Lorin as saying, "I feared he would kill himself." He elaborated: "His health, mentally and physically, was destroyed," following failure of the Queen City Bank. Lorin believed events "affected his mind to such an extent that recovery was almost impossible." Undoubtedly wise to making a case before the persuasive power of the press, the trial lawyer honed in on the bank, slightly exaggerating the amount in contention. And avowing "He had advanced money for some of the stockholders, but he never received any of that back." This reporting ascribed a net worth of $75,000 at Gue's Buffalo arrival, "but his unfortunate connections with shallow real estate deals broke into this money and he lost the greater part of it."

Obituary headlines from 3 Jun 1895 - The Buffalo Commercial (Buffalo, New York), pg. 10, col. 1.
Beneath "Sorrowful Suicide," the Buffalo Commercial asserted "Mr. Hardesty was immensely wealthy." Like most of the accounts, it associated him with successfully organizing the Bank of Angelica and the Queen City Bank. Distinct from other papers' financial analysis, it asserted "His association with ... the Gatling undertaking was heralded as an indication of the stability and ultimate success of the venture." I assume it was this social exposure, Hardesty's personal assurances proved false, which may have made life unbearable for our teetotaler. The Courier surmised he had "lost most of his possessions."

A Buffalo Enquirer sub-head explained "Gue C. Hardesty Ended His Existence by Taking Poison." Most New York reporting cited financial reverses connected to Marion, Indiana. All quoted precisely – and early in their accounts – from a letter found in the dead man's pocket. In an envelope addressed to "Mrs. Caroline F. Hardesty" or a variant. The Evening News declared "Among other things it spoke at length regarding some of his business affairs. In closing he wrote: "I leave this message for two reasons: First, that if my existence was in doubt, you might have trouble with my property or settlements; the other, that it might affect your marriage again, which I hope you will do."" And we circle back to the wedding invitation: both it and the suicide note publicly acknowledge Platt/Hardesty union.

"Pelham, I hope, will do right by you. He should let you have at least $8000 of stock." Hardesty described his case against Queen City Bank "as a just one." He disclosed agreement to pay attorneys Alfred B. Osgoodby (1820-1927) and Jay C. Hamil (1862-1952) "one-third of all that they got" in adjudication. Summonsed by telegraph's electricity, the dead man's words went out in the local press: "Johnson will be all the witness you will need." He likely called out his companion capitalist, William H. Johnson, who took the helm at initial Queen City Bank organization. A man whose vision Hardesty had once trusted implicitly. Probably referring to the 'bonus' paid on his loan, Hardesty perhaps naïvely avowed Johnson "should pay you the $1000 less what he has advanced."

I had to read the following assurance twice, to grasp its meaning: "I have been to God much and am myself." Culmination of the excerpted note read "Forgive me all my wrongs and commend the good." Culmination of the Courier obituary disclosed "His wife and one little boy aged five years survive him."

Obituary in the Enquirer closed with "The deceased was thirty-five years old. The body will probably be brought to Buffalo for burial." It may be indelicate to observe that it is unknown for how long Hardesty's corpse remained undiscovered. Requiem was already spilling into Buffalo papers, however. In a page-four observation, disconnected from the obituary, an Enquirer writer opined "The suicide of Gue C. Hardesty is a sad sequel to the unfortunate business ventures with which he was connected ..." It's difficult to ascertain the amount of disgrace available to survivors. The paragraph concluded with "There are many wrecked lives strung along the paths of "busted" real estate booms."
Clipping, 4 Jun 1895 - The Buffalo Commercial (Buffalo, New York), pg. 10, col. 2.

"The remains of Gue C. Hardesty ... will not be brought to Buffalo until next fall," came Buffalo Commercial report the following day (right). Rationale is disturbing. The family spokesman is discernible: "On account of the extremely hot weather in Arkansas, it has been deemed best to inter the remains at Little Rock for the present. Judge Hardesty of this city, a brother of the dead man, will attend the funeral." Given the environment, short-term solution seemed most judicious.

On Wednesday came another declaration "A change has been made in the arrangements for the funeral of Mr. Gue C. Hardesty ..." Undoubtedly following family deliberations, "Ex-judge Hardesty telegraphed last night to have his brother's body shipped to Buffalo," asserted the Evening News on its front page. I found no further reporting on solemnities.

By way of reading it in another paper, news broke in the Leoti Standard on 6 June. "Our citizens were shocked to learn of the tragic death last Monday morning of one of Leoti's old time and highly respected citizens." Tone was surprisingly deferential. It warmly affirmed association of our subject with that place: "He was the senior member of the well known firm of Hardesty, Pelham & Co., which done (sic) an enormous business in real estate and investments in the early days." All spring the Western Kansan at Leoti had been running a delinquent tax list. In alliance with a multiplicity of partners – but primarily Pelham – perhaps twenty Hardesty-affiliated parcels were headed to auction on 6 September. "A bright man, but not strong enough to bear up under financial reverses," asserted the People's Voice at Wellington, Kansas; where Gue, brother Emile and their mother Amelia had gone ... following Ohio exodus.

Notice of Final Settlement from 27 Jan 1898 - Leoti Standard (Leoti, Kansas), pg. 3, col. 4.
Lorin likely settled Gue's affairs in Buffalo. Real estate attorney P. E. Callahan went on record at Wichita County as Administrator of Hardesty's estate in December. Callahan had been a Director, with Gue, at inception of the Hardesty-Pelham Investment Company. Callahan was in 1895 Vice President, and Pelham President, of the First State Bank of Leoti. Interestingly, as Justice of the Peace, Callahan was known to conduct funeral services. Sheriff's Sales of Hardesty properties in default continued parading through county courts in 1896. A dozen parcels remained delinquent in August.

Legal culmination of Hardesty's Kansas affairs came in March 1898. With no complete cessation of legal acts in the interim, "Mrs. Gue C. Hardesty" was named in a 1919 suit claiming title to five Leoti City lots ... the year that Carrie died, aged sixty. A handful of Wichita County suits were filed against her estate in 1920.

Caroline (Platt) Hardesty never remarried. She remained in Buffalo and was teaching school by 1898, and – until her mother's 1907 death and Faustus went overseas in World War I – lived with them, in what was likely her mother's home. Carrie presumably taught music. She remained active in the Methodist Episcopal Church ... and was socially conspicuous: Carrie was credited as Choir Director in a turn-of-the-century series of fifty-person choral productions at various churches.

Clipping from 2 Jun 1910 - The Buffalo Times (Buffalo, New York), pg. 2, cols. 2-3.
Gue's death lingered in social consciousness. The 2 June 1910 Buffalo Times (right) reminded readers that "well-known Buffalonian" Gue C. Hardesty had committed suicide fifteen years earlier ... "due to business losses."

Gue and Carrie's neighboring graves are humbly marked in a Prospect Lawn Cemetery plot at Hamburg, New York. The Platt plot had been established when Carrie's father died in 1864.

Thomas Walter Pelham continued to thrive. He was early into the Gillette Company. As Vice-President and then General Counsel for the firm, he traveled internationally. He married a third time in 1913 ... to a woman twenty-four years younger than he.

Lorin Quimby Hardesty deserves his own account. In July 1895, just a month following his brother's demise, he sought a new trial for the Robinsons. His mastery of the press was impressive; whether representing victims of police misconduct ... or errant officers themselves. Hardesty made quite a splash in newspapers when, in June 1896, a client attacked him. While abed. His client's wife fled the boarding house. In her bedclothes. Hardesty had gotten a stenographer pregnant in 1893; she, emulating Hardety's mother, would depict herself – in Iowa – as 'widow' of 'Lorenze Q. Hardesty' from the turn of the century. He would marry again, to a woman nineteen years his junior ... and father six more children. Hiram Gue Hardesty was among three who died in infancy.†† There was no mention of Hardesty having served as a judge in his 1908 obituary, drafted at Mitchell, South Dakota. Circuit Court was adjourned, however, so attorneys could attend services.

Amtrak trains do not stop in Leoti, Kansas.
NOTES:

Image of Ward Delos Platt (1853-1916).
* Rev. Ward Delos Platt (right) had a decade earlier published You Don't Say So, the first of a half-dozen titles. A suffragette supporter, he would by 1895 be associated with (The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle and) Susan B. Anthony. He had entered Methodist ministry a dozen years prior to his sister's marriage. I find Platt's vocation gratifying. Gue's grandfather William Hardesty – dead fourteen years before he was born – traversed Methodist circuits, 1792-1816: a son portrayed Hardesty's Malvern pioneer homestead as "the home of the missionary of the Cross: for years it was the only place of worship in the neighborhood."

 According to Fisher, The Denver Circle Rail Road was to serve a visionary "Methodist Prohibition suburb" on the city's south side. Baron Walter von Richthofen (1848-1898, uncle of the World War I flying ace) promoted railway expansion to nearby real estate holdings. He also established Sans Souci Concert Gardens, "to offer entertainment and refreshment to attendees" of the Mining and Industrial Exposition, said McCarthy. "To boost poor attendance, the colorful nobleman decided to introduce a night for the “sporting element” ... euphemism for the underworld that included gamblers, pimps, and prostitutes," Stauffer explained. "The night would become legendary for it’s bacchanalian, booze-fueled sex and brawling." The Circle Line no doubt failed for economic reasons, but it suffered a tremendous loss of good will among clubs and societies formed for civic betterment. Particularly sober Methodists.

 "The fight ended abruptly and tamely by the town of Leoti offering free lots to all Coronado citizens desiring to move to the county seat. This offer was generally accepted, and during the fall and winter of 1888-'89 all of the Coronado town-site buildings were moved to Leoti." 'Leoti vs. Coronado' in Ballots and Bullets: The Bloody County Seat Wars of Kansas by Robert K. DeArment (2006) offers a compelling account. As does The Great County Seat War: Coronado vs. Leoti by Steve Harkness, Chapman Center for Rural Studies (2013). The above Emile F. Hardesty obituary appeared the month following the shootout.

§ Since the late 1800's, legend has it that, on moonlit nights, the illuminated specter of a woman has often been seen running along what is now the dry bed of White Woman Creek. At least three accounts have circulated historically. The least denigrating, recorded by Legends of America, begins with an 1860 attack by Cheyenne/Tsêhéstáno People "in retaliation for an earlier raid on their camp by white men." Warriors recaptured stolen goods and kidnapped a dozen settlers ... including a pair of women. "As time passed, the two white women decided to stay with the tribe and married Cheyenne men. One of the women, who the Indians called Anna-Wee, fell in love with Chief Tee-Wah-Nee, and bore him a son."

Artist depiction of Anna-Wee, ‘The Ghost of White Woman Creek,’ from compilation by Kathy Weiser, Legends of Kansas.
After many months a White, male captive stole a horse. Upon arrival at Fort Wallace, "he convinced the army that the remaining whites were being held against their will. The escaped man led a group of soldiers to the Indian camp and the soldiers attacked, killing the Chief and his infant son. As the battle continued, his wife, Anna-Wee retaliated by killing the man who had betrayed them. She then continued to defend the tribal village she had come to think of as home, and in the end, she too, was slain." Some claim to have heard the White woman "singing a mournful Indian song." Two weeks prior to this post, a one-woman opera, The Legend of White Woman Creek, concluded an international tour in Vancouver, British Columbia.

ǂ Nowhere near as bloody as establishing the seat of Wichita County in Kansas, Hardesty no doubt mingled in small-scale Colorado jockeying, if not outright conflagration. The partners had interests at both Eads and Sheridan Lake. "In 1887, news of the coming Missouri Pacific Railroad from Great Bend, Kansas prompted the creation of several settlements," declares Colorado Encyclopedia. "The Missouri Pacific ... and its development company built westward from the Kansas border," establishing Eads near the geographic center of what became Kiowa County ... when it was carved from Bent County in 1899. Off-center Sheridan Lake won contest for county seat status, "but after its courthouse burned down in 1900, the people of Eads were quick to capitalize on the disaster." Who knows what shenanigans went on; "They engineered an election to change the county seat, and on November 5, 1901, Eads was voted the new county seat. The official documents were transferred from Sheridan Lake by rail amidst considerable tension between residents of eastern and central Kiowa County." (Italics mine.) Perhaps cued by a development company enjoying railroad backing, Hardesty- Pelham investors had consolidated at Eads.

 I glance at Malvern-Ohio-born William A. Hardesty (1848-1908) at the post Wild Confusion in Every Direction. It may be interesting to note that, having achieved tremendous success in helming Hardesty Brothers milling firm, he relocated to Columbus and became inaugural President of the State Savings Bank and Trust Company in 1891. William was first cousin to Gue and his brothers. He and Gue appear in the same editions of banking journals.

** After Gue Hardesty's death, the Olean Democrat contended "Too much Buffalo real estate speculation served to depose him from the cashiership of the Queen City bank ..."
Image of Hiram Cue Hardesty grave marker.

†† LezleeO transcribed the infant's Mitchell, South Dakota grave marker as "Hiram Cue Hardesty" at his Find A Grave memorial. Studying the accompanying photo, one can wonder whether 'Gue' was simply a nickname for our subject; that Lorin or Emile had been unable to pronounce Confucius.