The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-18
. ROMANCE OF THE WAR TIME.
II Woman Who Ran the Blockade and Now


Pittsburg Chronicle Telegraph.
When Benjamin F. Butler came into the city
last week there was one of the residents OF the
city who had a special desire to see him but who
was retained from SO doing by her friends and
by circumstances. Hearing of the matter and
that there was a story back of it all, the writer
called upon the person referred to and found it
was a lady. Mrs. - is a lady of perhaps fifty,
tall, finely formed and with very strongly marked
traits. Five minutes talk showed that the
lady had a remarkable history and not the least
remarkable of the incidents in her career was
the one which gave her a dssire to sec General
Butler.
This is her story as she told it:
Before the war l lived in New Orleans, with
my first husband, who was a commission mer-
chant and shipping agent. He did a good deal
Of business with a firm of sugar reiners in St.
Louis, Belcher Bros. They got hard up for
cash and borrowed 500, 600 from my husband,
giving us their notes. These notes were in
dorsed by John B. Murison and James Tysdale,
two Englishlnen, who were in business in New
Orleans. A short time after the notes were.
gwen, Belcher Bros works were burned down.
They could not pay their notes and had to
renew them, the old indorsers going on the new
notes. They also gave Us a mortgage on a
building which they had erected in Chicago.
Then the war broke out. Belcher Bros. had
bought the sugar production of a large
portion of Louisiana and the result was
that they failed disastrously. At this
time General Butler was in possession
] Ol NEW OftSdUS. ne ndC issued MS ldlnOur OF
der No. Al, which announced that if people
would come and take the oath of allegiance they
could obtain possession of the property which be
longed to them. AT that time I was in ST. Mar
t~insville, on the Teche river, sixty miles from
New Orleans. My husband was dead and | was
left to take care of myself, My only hope of
saving anything was to go to New Orleans and
have the Belcher Brothers notes protested. AS
l was IN the Confederacy and had not taken the
oath of allegiance it seemed an almost hopeless
undertaking, but l had hope. based my hope
on an old acquaintance. When | was q young
girl in st. Louis / met Andrew Jackson Butler.
a brother of Benjamin Butler-that hyPocrite
whom the working men are fooled in
supporting. Andrew Butler was a fasci-
mating man and one who could win the kindly
feelings of a girl, and l was very much
in love with him. We became engaged, and the
day for the marriage was fixed. | had asked
him what business he was in, but he never gave
me a direct answer He always had plenty of
money, and [ supposed he was in comfortable
circumstances. At last l found out the truth.
He was the keeper of a fashionable gambling
house, and it was from this source that his reve-
nues were derived. / at once broke off the en-
gagement, and did not see him again until l met
him, years afterward, in New Orleans, as you
Will hear later on in my story. l walked all the
way to New Orleans and went to the st. Charles
hotel, where | put up. Ibid not dare go publicly
aud take the oath of allegiance, or be seen talk
ing to a federal officer, for / would have been
marked at once by the confederate
| SNmpdlhlZerS. l. determined TO see Andrew
Butler, who was then a colonel, and
high in his brothers favor, and | went out one
day to see him. As / was walking to his office,
at the corner of Gravier and Chatula streets. l
saw lin In a shop. He did not see my face, but
he heard me and SAW me walk past. | heard
him exclaim, i know that WALK and in an in
slant he followed me, | stepped into a store and
he came in and shook hands with me. | told
him of my troubles and he at once promised to
aid me. He came to my room at the hotel with
his %adjutant and secretary, John Richardson,
and there we talked over the whole business.
He suggested that / should sell him the notes
for 90 cents on the dollar, so that he could bring
suit in his own name, but he swore to me
that l should receive every dollar of my
claim. | consented, and with Richardson
as witness L signed the papers. Col
Butler brought suit against Murlson and Tys-
dale, the surities on the notes. and secured the
entire amount, which had run up to $36, 900. The
Colonel gave me plenty of money to live on and
| spent much Of my time in nursing the sick in
the hospital. AT last one day Butler suggested
that should deal in cotton. l agreed and so
began my career as captain of a ship. Butler
gave me the money and / went out through the
country and bought up a large quantity of cot
ton. | then went to Brownsville and bought a
schooner, took command of her and went up the
river with a small crew and loaded with cotton.
The first trip was a very successful one, and we
made a large profit on the cotton. OF course,
Col. Butler kept his connection with
the affair an entire secret. L used
" hbNC VA C GuulS VI IuOICI, ire
quently carrying SIS, 600 to $50, 900 in a belt
around my waist. After General Banks super
seeded General Butler in command, Colonel But
Ter said he must go to New York. | asked him
for my money. He said he would give it to me
as soon as his secretary, Richardson, came back,
being away at the time. Colonel Butler slipped
off to New York, and when 1 heard of it fol
lowed him. He was at the New York Hotel,
where he was taken sick. He was moved to the
st. Julian Hotel, where his mother and l nursed
him. He had dropsy. He told his mother he
owed me money, and said he would right me as
soon as Richardson came from the East. Col.
Butler made his will, and l was one of the witness
es it it. He made his brother. General Butler,
executor, and told him that when his youngest
child was of age my money was to be paid to
me. One morning as Colonel Butler sat up in a
chair, he complained of being cold. Before
either his mother or | could do anything, he
made an awful sound, fell back in his chair and
died while he was staring at me. Richardson,
his secretary, who had the papers, was killed in
a steamboat collision on the Sound, and all the
papers were turned over to General Butler. He
told me he would do by me just as his brother
would have done. 1t was five years before I saw
General Butler. By that time l was poor. He
came to New York, and l called at his hotel.
Twice he refused to see me. The
came out Of his room with two gray
haired gentlemen. ] went up and caught
Butler by the arm and demanded my money.
He threatened to have me arrested, and said he
did not come there to settle bills. l would not
be thrown off, and at last he went down to the
hotel Office and wrote a check on the Shoe and
Leather Bank for $500, which he gave me.
Since then I have never heard from him, and
have never been able to get a cent. The money
has been due for years. The youngest child of
Colonel Butler came of age in August four years
ago. l have no papers to prove my story with,
but General Butler knows it is true, and so did
his mother, who is now dead. 1t is because
Butler treated me in this way that I think he is
not worthy of being tic candidate of the work
ingmen or anyone else"
A Bad Year for Fire Insurance Companies.
The Current.
People are going over en- masse to the belief