The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-11-26
HODGINS' HISTORY.
They Thought He Had Been KILLED
by Indians.
HIS Adventurous wanderlngs I'm the Yves
During Seventeen Years, and Why
He Stayed Away From the New
York village He Called Home.

DurinB DoVonVeeu tehrst anu why
He Stayed Away From the New
York village He Called Home.
IN. Y. SUM-
John Hodgins was born in Rye village
N. Y, thirty two years ago. He weat II
school there up to his fifteenth year, ant
all the residents knew him. He was very
strong for his age, and, being next to the
eldest Of eight children, 1t was decided thai
he must begin to help support the large
family. He was sent to Sing Sing, and ap.
prenticed to become mason, like his faith.
or. He worked steadily for year, but hii
master, an Englishman, treated him with
great severity, giving him only enough
money to pay his board. He grew dis
couraged, and at the end of that time h'
packed up his things and ran away t
Boston with two bricklayers. He wrote
home that he had been unable to obtain reg
ular work on account of being an apprentice
and asking to have some money sent
him. His father at once inclosed the mon
ey, but the letter came back to Rye un'
opened, and nothing more was heard from
John Hodgins until two years after. Their
John Dunn, who had been his schoolmate
went to New Orleans as an engineer on
steamboat, and saw him there; talked with
him, and made an appointment, which wal
not kept, to meet him again.
When Dunn brought word to Rye that
he had seen Johnny Hodgins it turned the
village upside down. Old friends came
constantly to see If Johnny had arrived,
and his mother spent hours talking te
the younger children about him and
watching for him; but nothing further
was heard from him for years, until II
was read in newspaper that he had beer
killed by Indians in the Black Hills. The
father died believing that the son had
gone first, and, after the village gossips
were through talking about poor Johnny
Hodgins' hard luck, the matter was
dropped. Only when the boys saw their
mother weeping, without any apparent
cause, they knew that she had been talk
ing to some one who remembered her lost
son.
Now Rye village Is excited once more
about John Hodgins, and this time more
than ever before. The young loungers
on the platform Of the railroad sta
tion never knew him, but they have all
heard about his being killed by Indians,
and are much excited to hear that he has
come home alive and well, without scar
of a tomahawk or scalping knife about
him. A week ago, at seven o'clock in
the evening, tall man got off the east
bound train at Rye, and looked around in
surprise at the new station and other inn
provements. The stranger stopped an old
man, and, calling him by name, Michael
Hubbard, asked him If he knew anything
Of the Hodgins family, who had lived in
the village seventeen years ago. Hubbard
said that Mrs. Hodgins was living with
her family on the hill. Thereupon the
stranger began to weep, and struck out
for the hill, but Hubbard, who couldn't
go so fast, grabbed him by the coat tails,
and said:'
"You're Johnny Hodgins."
II was true. Michael had been a coach
man when Hodgins was a boy, and used
10 let him drive his horses. They went up Ia
the house together, and Mrs. Hodglns, who
was coming in from the barn, saw two
men standing at the gate, and heard one OF
them say:
"Won't your mother be glad to sec
ycup
She dropped everything she had In her
hands and in second had her arms
around her sons neck. John was intro.
duced to all his brothers and sisters, and
his mother divided the time equally be.
tween hugging him and retreating a few
steps TO admire him, or to declare that he
was the handsomest son she had. She was
much amazed to learn that she was the
grandmother Of FIVE boys, all alive and
hearty, and that she had a daughter-in-
law, alive and hearty, too.
John found things a good deal as he had
left them, and there was nothing to feel
badly about but the death of his father,
His brother Thomas, two years old when
be left, was now six feet high, and well
pleased with the mason's trade, which his
brother had discarded. All of his brothers
and sisters were well, but his mother was
the only one who know him.
As soon as the neighbors had stopped
pouring in he began to tell about his own
adventures. From Boston he had gone Ia
Bangor without hearing from home. He
worked there at odd jobs for week, and
then shipped to the West Indies on sail
ing vessel. Thence he went TO New Or
leans, where Dunn saw him; afterward
TO South America with a prospecting par
sy, who hunted around for n long while,
and had adventures enough TO I'LL book
Ill of which Mrs. Hodgins insisted upon
hearing In detail. They made
,ome money, too, and all
came back to this country. Meanwhile he
wrote home, but, probably through error
IN addressing, his letters were returned
with the mark Of the dead letter office, and
ne concluded that his family had moved
away. When the travellers got back to
This country tho oil excitement was at its
height, apd they decided that oil specula-
;ion would be the proper thing to swell
heir savings into fortunes. They tried It,
ost all they had, and dlsbanded. John
Hodgins went TO Erie, Pa, fell In love, and
was married. That is where his home il
low. During the Black Hills excitement
10 went out as prospector and scout. He
was with Custer, but had left him Just In
lime. He was shot at and hunted by the
indians, but got away with his life, and