Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-06-30
F1sHrnG ron A ronruNE.
Pirate Pslletier's Pile Of Gold Wanted BY
His Sons.

New YoRK, June 26.-Antonio Pelletier
fFrenchman by birth, sailed the sea j,
1850 as a slave-dealer, was captured b,
the Haytien Government and narrowly es
capped being riddled to death with bullets
His sentence was changed to imprisonmen
Tor five years. Last year he died at th
Astor House while suit which b
had brought against the Haytien Govern
ment to recover 81 SOC, 900 was pending,
!Ptlletiers will has been offered for pro
bate In Chicago. His estate is valued a
s., ,Oo0, ,o0o. This included the judgmen,
OF $54, 600 in bis favor in the suit against
lsHayti. Frank 8. Osborne of Chicago, wal
made sole executor: All the property wai
nephews and nieces OF the decsased.. ~
Eugene and Antonio Pelletier, Who are in
Havana, q, the sons mentioned. Neither
OF them nor any OF the other heirs wert
cited to appear at the probate Of the will
Executor Osborne, it appears. claims that
the dead s]ave-dea' Ter owed him more than
| the value OF the estate, and that he was
made executor solely to secure him against
loss in the Pelletier Paving Company, in
which he was very hea, lily involved.
The two sons have engaged Lawyer Fred
erick NJ. Day, Of Brooklyn, to contest the
claims Of Osborne. They claim that they
are the sole heirs and entitled to the estate.
The money which Pelletier recovered
from Hayti for false imprisonment is now
in the United States Treasury awaiting the
rightful owners. Osborne is anxious to
get it and the sons are equally as anxious
that it shall be awarded to them.
+ A political conspiracy forced the French
man into exile. He was wealthy, and when
be left France brought away his fortune IN
two ,weh-laden ships. He came to New
York, filed his naturalization papers and
became an American citizen. Then he be-
gan trading business between Africa and
the West Indies.
In 1850 he sailed from the Cape of Good
Hope to Hayti with a cargo OF negroes for
whose sale he expected to receive princely
sum. He was run down by q Haytien war
ship during tho voyage, tried as q pirate
and sentenced to be shot. His ships and
cargo were confiscated. Afterwards it waa
determined that he should be imprisoned
instead -
For time bis place of confinement was
an iron-barred cage in the public square at
San Domingo. His hard lot softened the
heart OF pretty damsel who daily passed
along that way, and she determined to be
the means OF his escape.
One day she slipped up to the cage and
managed to pass rough file into the hand
OF the prisoner. She also gave him un.
noticed q letter informing him that she had
prepared boat well provisioned to take
him away from the place ol captivity if he
could cut his way out OF the cage.
He filed the bars through and escaped to
the boat. Before he pulled from the shore
he took an afiectionate leave OF his brave
deliverer. Alter drifting about at sea for
tour days a vessel picked him up and landed
him at Charleston, South Caroline.
During his imprisnnmt mt his wife. who,
with the two SONS, was living in New York,
married q planter named Jose Nenninger,
OF Havana. She had heard and read that
Pelletier had been captured as pirate and
shot. She met him face to face when he
reached Havana again, but refused to re.
turn to him. The sons also resolved that
they would remain with her. r
Coming to New York again, Pellet;er put
up at the Astor House and began his suit
against the Haytien Government. He also
engaged actively in business and became
the head and front Of the Pelletier Paving
Company OF Chicago. The company Sc
cured the contract for paving the streets OF
the City OF Mexico. A syndicate was
formed to raise necessary funds, and Os-
borne, . capitalist. was drawn into it.
The other property Of Pelletier consists
Of land in West Virginia, shares in the
Dinero Mining Company, OF Custer, Colo
RADIO, five houses in Washington, D. c., one
in Brooklyn. lease OF asphalt beds and
mines, and SO. 900 acres OF land in Mexico.
His bankers were the Messrs. Probst, OF
No. 81 Broad street, New York. Pelletier's
body was placed in receiving vault in
Greenwood where it still remains.