Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1872-10-03
Poor Blennerhassett.
BY JAMES PARTON.

BY JAMES PARTON.
The life and misfortunes of this man
at least serve to illustrate the homely
old saying, that a fool and his money
are soon parted. He was the younger
son OF an ancient and somewhat
wealthy Irish family, of the county OF
Kerry; though he himself was born in
England, while his parents were visit
ing a friend in that country, in 1765.
After attending the usual period at
Westminster school, in London, and al
Trinity college, Dublin, he was put to
the study of the law, and in 1880, when
he was twenty-five years of age, he was
admitted to the Irish bar, as barrister.
He never practiced his profession; fol
he had no sooner completed his legal
studies than the death of his elder
brother made him the heir to the fam
ily estates. Instead, therefore, of set
ting down to a lifetime of honorable
labor, he put money in his purse, and
started to make the tour of Europe.
He happened to arrive at Paris about
the time when the French people were
in the early delirium of their revolution
and he was present at the first annual
celebration of the destruction of the
Bastille, when five hundred thousand
Frenchmen, assembled in one vast
amphitheatre, took the oath of fidelity
to the Nation, to the Constitution, and
to the King. He returned to Ireland
full of those dreams and fancies which
characterized the light-headed liberal
of the period. He was republican;
and, seeing no prospect of the emanci-
| patton of his native land, he deter
mined to sell off his estates, and re-
move to the republic on the other side
/ of the Atlantic, over which General
| Washington was presiding with so
much eciat and dignity. His Irish
property yielded him twenty thousand
pounds; which, small as 1t sounds to
our ears. was, for that day, really
handsome fortune. 1t was probably
equivalent, in purchasing power and in
the importance it gave TO its possessor,
to more than quarter of million OF
our present dollars.
While making his arrangements to
remove, he fell in love with young
lady. Miss Agnew, the child of a dis
tinguished military family. She was of
a romantic turn of mind, and thought
it delightful to marry an Irish republic
can whose sister was an Irish peeress,
and to emigrate with him to the viii
derness of America. On the first of
| August, when Blennerhasset was thir-
| ty-One years of age, they landed In New
| York; where, it seems, the mosquitoes
attacked them with such unrelenting
pertinacity, that they were glad to go
into the country for few weeks until
the hot weather was over.
His first letter from New York gives
a curious account Of the fury Of specula-
tien then prevailing among business
men; which he thought was the cause
of the extravant prices of every thing
and the high rates of wages. Men seq
wants, he said, received twelve dollars
a month, mechanics sixteen shillings q
day, and good house was two hun
dred pounds year. There was per-
feet mania for speculation in real estate
fortunes made and lost every day by
| buying and selling lots and lands. He
saw almost everything in favorable
light. Witness his description of New
ark, nine miles from the city of New
York.
"Newark is perhaps the handsomest
village in the world. OF extent, nearly
three miles; it is seated in plain, clear
and level as parlor floor, on the banks
of the Passaic, in an amphitheatre en-
vironed by gently swelling hills. Its
! academy. court house, and two neat
buildings for public worship, added to
nine stages. which. besides an infinity
of wagons. every day pass through it
between New York and Philadelphia,
give an air of business and gayety to
The place. 1t is also the residence of
MANY private families of respectable
ty."
It is only very old inhabitants of
Newark, which is now grown to great
manufacturing city of one hundred
thousand inhabitants, who Will realize
the truth of Blennerhassett's picture.
Our romantic adventures were bound
westWard-for the far west-which was
then the shores of the Ohio river, be-
tween Pittsburgh anG the site of Gin
cinnati. The next winter found them
at Marietta, in Ohio, whence he made
excursions into the universal wilder
ness in quest of suitable land upon
which to establish himself. Near the
village is an eminence of some eleva-
tion. from the summit of which an eX-
tensive view of the river and the sur
rounding coufitry. No site could have
been more inconvenient; but, as in the
old world many a picturesque height
was crowed by q picturesque castle, the
relic of barbarous times, the Blenner-
hassetts thought it would be fine
thing to place upon this height the
mansion they intended to build. Aban-
doning this absurdity, they plunged
into another still more ridiculous.
Near Marietta, there is low island
in the Ohio river, about three miles
long, and perhaps one hundred yards
wide. It lies fat upon the surface OF
the water, bending with the bend Of the
stream, like long green snake, the
lofty banks of the Ohio hemming it in
on every side, like two ranges of wood
covered mountains. The river is so 4
narrow there, that a man upon the
shore of the island, and one standing
upon the main land, can converse to-
gether without any great inconveni-
ence. 1t was upon this island that
Blennerhassett bought farm of one
hundred and seventy acres, for four
thousand five hundred dollars, and
took up his abode upon it in small
block house, with his pretty and ro-
mantle young wife. He proceeded /
forthwith to erect q curious and re-
markably ugly house, with barns, out |
houses, and various other structures, at
a cost of thirty thousand dollars; so
that by the time his house was finished
and furnished, he had expended about
half his capital. From the picture of
this honse which is now before me,
should suppose it miracle of inconve-
nience and absurdity; and, so far from |
having an elegant appearance, it re-
sembles nothing so much as those tenn
porary wooden barracks, which are
no.,,nf;r,nr rrnntad in TINA of r,oano