The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-01-13
The Fate Of Theo. Burr Anston.


The fate of TheOdOsia. the beautiful
daughter Of Aaron Bnrr, has been one Of
the appalling mysteries of sudden disap-
pearances at sea. She was highly cultured,
tim idol Of her father, and adorned by her
grace Of manner and witty conversation
every circle Ia which she moved. Her face,
from the best artist-eYidenee, was in a
high degree classic, reminding the behold
er Of some Of the Hellenic models painted
by the old masters, and occasionally repro
duCed in flesh IN Corinth. Athens, and
other parts Of Greece to-day. There is
about the counterfeit presentment" a calm
dignity and serene beauty which Byron
calls the rapture Of Tepose. TheOdesia
Burr was married to Gov. AIlstOn, of South
Carolina, name distinguished in the early
annals Of that State. She sailed from
Charleston for New York on the ship
Patriot, Dec, 20, 1912, on q visit to her
father. The vessel was supposed to have
been either ingulfed OF captured by pi-
rates, for no soul survived to determine
the awful doubt as to its fate OF that
Of its passengers. From time to time va
riOus COnjeCtures, OF even assumed relia-
bic accounts, have found their way into
print concerning the fate Of TheOdOsia
Burr One account particularly arrested
public attention, and that was the pur-
ported confession of a pirate, Dominicz
You, which Charles GayaEre Incorporated
IN his brilliant TOmanticO-philOsOphic" Fer
dinand de LemOs." 1t is so graphically
drawn that very many persons thought at
last that the fate Of Aaron BUrrs only
daughter was known. Perhaps Gayarre,
well posted in the history Of LATTE and
his piratical gang, who rendesvouzed among
the live oaks Of Barritaria island, and at
times at Galveston island, and the adjacent
mainland, really found such tradition as
DOminick YOu's account Of the death o.
Mrs. AllstOn among the sailors Of the gulf
Yet, if later confession be true, there is an
end to the tragic story of Laftte's Lieu
tenant. An old sailor named BENJAMIN F.
Burdick died a short time ago a pauper in I
a Michigan pOOr-hOuse On his death-bed
he made the startling confession that ne
was one Of the principal crew that captured
a vessel named the Patriot and participat-
ed in the murder Of Theodosia AlIstOn at
sea; indeed he declared that it fell to his I
lot to pull the plank from under her. She /
came forth arrayed in white, holding a
Bible IN one hand, and with heroic mein ]
took her place upon the slender instrument /
Of death, and, without a shudder or quiver
Of muscle, was preCipitated into the
waves. The noble, unblanched face, erect |
and airy form, he said had haunted him all |
his subsequent life. The date Of the YES
sels loss, January, 1913, was correctly given /
by Burdick, and the name Odessa Burr |
Aston his only error, and yet not an error, |
for the name of both father and husband I
are sufficient Identification. The cOrrup- !
ton Of TheOdosia into Odessa would be /
natural to an ignorant sailor, and if any |
thing tend to prove that he had not been /
reading up to make himself a sort of death /
bed hero. At any rate, the confession is |
plausible, not because it was extTemis, for /
huge lies are often told with the dying /
breath Of criminals, but for the reasons /
hitherto named.