Re: William P. Morehouse, 1850s Sonora, CA
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In reply to:
Re: William P. Morehouse, 1850s Sonora, CA
Anne Tierney 4/12/09
Thank you for corresponding. It is great to hear form you. Thanks so much.
Okay, here is what I have, from the second edit of the manuscript. My relative, David Cooper, was the Tuolumne County jailer at the time this section of narrative commences. It only consists of about 900 words, but it should prove at least anecdotally interesting, and may provide a lead or two that you can use.
In the early fall of 1852 there came a man from the States with a letter of introduction, a kind of recommendation, addressed to me, from George N. Cady. Mr. Cady had been in the [Parker French wagon] train with me coming through Texas. The letter introduced Mr. William P. Morehouse, George Cady’s brother-in-law. At that time George was doing some mining not very far from Sonora. George knew that I could tell his brother-in-law how and where to find him, and probably would know of a job or two that I could sight him towards.
At that time I didn’t know of any jobs other than mining, and that field of opportunities was quite large. But I soon discovered that mining didn’t strike Mr. Morehouse very favorably. Instead, he worked around at odd jobs and wound up in my place quite often.
Mr. Morehouse was pretty well educated and a good scribe, as I saw from some of his letters when he wrote to his wife. The more I saw of him the more I liked him, and he got to carrying some express matters and letters around to the miners for me. Occasionally I would leave him in charge of the jail when I was out on other business. For this I would pay him five dollars and I boarded him, as well. And so it went until winter came in.
In that winter of early 1853 the rain was really heavy. After the holidays the weather was terrible, with so much rain that almost everything was shut down...
Mr. Morehouse had been sending all the money he earned home to his wife. And since he couldn’t work at anything except inside work, I took him in, gave him bed and board, and didn’t charge him anything for it. And, of course, I was paying him to look after things at the jail when I was out during the day. So when the opportunity came up to recommend him for another job, I jumped at the chance.
One day in the Spring I was in the Wells Fargo Bank and Express Office and they wanted to know if I could recommend Mr. Morehouse. I told them that I could as he seemed honest and trusty and was good in figures and penmanship. They asked me to send him over as they wanted to talk to him.
They hired him for two hundred and fifty dollars per month. Now, a little further on you will find out how my kindness for this man was repaid—a man who I had taken in during the bad winter of ’53, and then gotten a job. You will find him a dirty, mean, low, contemptible rascal.
Then, much later in the narrative, after his return to Ohio, David continues with some further revelations.
I settled up with Doctor Baker, the man who had furnished the horses. I gave him eight hundred dollars in Tuolumme County Bonds.
I undertook farming but soon found out that I could not make it farming. With my bad leg I couldn’t walk on plowed ground very well for it tired me so. I went back to my carpentry trade and hired a hand to do my farming. The buildings were poor but I fitted up a house and I concluded I could send my bonds back to William Morehouse to sell for me, so I could build me a bank barn. My wife and my father advised me not to send him the bonds, but I thought he was a straight and honest man. But Father and Amy were both very much afraid I would rue it.
I went ahead and sent the bonds to him and in a short order he notified me that he had sold them at seventy-five on the dollar and would remit soon.
But that “soon” never came. He would promise, but that was all. I kept track of him and finally sent my claim to Wells Fargo and Co. to collect the debt. But as it turned out I waited a bit too long. Just a few days before they got my claim, Morehouse mortgaged his house and lot for all they were worth and went off to San Francisco. And that was all that happened for several years.
A few years ago now [this document was dictated probably in 1902], Mr. Daniel Agnew was headed out to San Francisco, and I gave him a letter to give to Morehouse for me. I told him right where he could find Morehouse, as I had still kept pretty good track of where he was.
Mr. Agnew didn’t feel too comfortable with his task. He didn’t like to talk about it at all. He would talk about anything else but that. But he did take my letter and delivered it to Morehouse.
Then about two or three years ago Mr. Stephenson of this place was going out there, too. I also gave him a letter for Morehouse, and he found him guarding a street crossing. Stephenson had no trouble identifying Morehouse from the description I gave him. He said he walked right up to him and asked him if he wasn’t Mr. Morehouse.
Mr. Stephenson gave Morehouse the letter but he told me it was awful windy, and Morehouse had a hard time reading it in the stiff breeze. But after he got the gist of the letter, Morehouse told Stephenson he didn’t think he would ever be able to pay it back as he was then pretty old and didn’t expect any raises in pay from his job.
My relative, David, continues with only two more sentences filled with particularly unattractive invective, and nothing else relevant to Morehouse follows in his narrative. I had hoped to learn what became of Mr. Morehouse. But you say you have had difficulty tracking him. I don't know if anything I have offered here will help you, but it at least gives some locale identifiers and time frames. I hope it winds up being of some help to you. At any rate, I would be interested in whatever you might already have on him, as further information that might be included in my notes and references.
This genealogy stuff gets pretty strange sometimes, doesn't it?
More Replies:
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Re: William P. Morehouse, 1850s Sonora, CA
Anne Tierney 4/13/09
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Re: William P. Morehouse, 1850s Sonora, CA
Dan Cooper 4/13/09
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Re: William P. Morehouse, 1850s Sonora, CA
Anne Tierney 4/13/09
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Re: William P. Morehouse, 1850s Sonora, CA
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Re: William P. Morehouse, 1850s Sonora, CA