Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-08-22
History ornn old countcrfcl,cr.

The Philadelphia Press gives a sketcb o
an old man named Stellar, who was ar
rested in that city on Monday for counter
, feitng coin:
When known in this city, thirty year,
or more ago, Stellar was the proprieto,
OF the Old Rotterdam Ian, Third street
above Race. lie lived reputable I'M,
until his business threw him into connoc.
ton with number Of cauntcrrciters.-
lie began by purchasing counterfeit mo.
ney, passing, and finally manufacturing
1t. lie was detected and served n sbo,t
term. lie went to work again AZ soon
as released, and devoting much attention
and ingenuity to his nefarious trade. sue
ceeded in bringing to market a superior
quality OF counterfeit money. He mixed
pounded glass with the zinc to give the
metal the true ring, and managed his
battery so well that the exact color and
hue were given to the pieces. They were
likewise, excellently milcd. and had
what is uncommon with the bad specie,
the full weight. Ofthe pieces taken from
Stellar on Monday, ali were found bv
Commissioner Hazlette to be Of over
weight.
The fame Of Stetler's money passed
among the hundreds of counterfeiters and
his coin received thirty and even fifty per
cen,. for his "queer." He did not pass
the money himself, but realized a GOOD
living by disposing of it to dealers or
showers" He has been married long
time before, and the decease of his wife
lett hive chiIdr II, who are now out in the
world struggling with fortune. He was
again arrested and convicted in 1852. and
sentenced to eight years in the Eastern
Penitentiary. During his confinement
some attention was paid him by the visi-
tors, who saw in him elements Of userr1.
ness and perseverance. His knowlelge
OF chemistry was said to be very good
a work on chemistry, by the way, was
found in his vaIlse when arrested, with a
very old and finger worn Bible. After
released he endeayored, Intellectually. to
live righteousl y, and hired himself to a
farmer somewhere in the interior. Being
an old man, however, with constitution
impaired by long confinement, he found
himself unable to perform the hard duties
of his vocation.
lie came to town, and meeting Richard
Naux, Esq, in the estreet-who had known
him in prison-begged to be put on the
right track, but had not the heart to keen
up, feeling too bitterly the struggle that
must be made to reach integrity again.
lie took poison at an obscure town in
Pennsylvania, but fate would not let him
die. A stomach-pump and the doctors
reclaimed him. The old influences again
seized upon him; he rented house on
jackson street, constructed his moulds, |
set his batteries, and was detected and
committed
In person Stellar is very tall--perhaps
six feet two-with great bones and stoop.
ing figure. He looked, at the hearing,
not unlike "stage Yankee" with ewes
a little wandering, but full of faded fire
and innate shrewdness that confinement
had perhaps, demented. His hair was
thin and of an iron gray, and he had
sharp, attenuated jaws and Uranium. An
old man without friends, worn down by
solitary confinement, with ten years in
reversion death in the cell-he vet main
tanned the attitude of stole, and seemed
TO look far off while the story of his crimes
were rehearsing, as if recognizing an in
flexible fate in the affairs of his career.
and n carelessncss as to the life that is
and the death that is to coma