Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-11-05
A COLONIAL TRAGEDY.


ton, the old house was haunted 1t
was large, square mansion of red
brick, built more than a hundred
years ago upon solid rock, close to
the edge of the great, grny cliff that
rose tall and straight, sheer hundreds
of. feet from the fretful waves of the
mighty ocean that laved its base. 1t
had been erected by Major John Van
couver, loyal subject of the king, A.
d. 1855, and was considered in its
day a magnificent design of renaiss-
ance, style and architecture, but now
it is very dingy and weather-worn
the rains and winds Of century have
beaten against its walls, yet they still
stand as firmly as Major John intend
ed they should, when SO long ago he
set the cornerstone with his own
hands, placing beneath it the colonial
coins, the pine-tree shilling he had
reserved as a relic of earlier days, a
copy of the British Gazette, and a
verbatim report written in the Gene
RAILS own angular hand and with his
heaviest quill pen, of the celebrated
Stamp Act.
The picture of Major John, to be
seen even now at the head of the stairs
in the wide, oak hall, represents him
as an austere man of fifty, or there
about, determination and will in every
line of his grizzled features, mill
tary bearing and military equip
ment, the loyal colors of King George
folded across his breast, his sword half
drawn from its scabbard, as tho in
rebuke to the mutterings of con-
temporary colonists who were finding
cause for discomfort, and justly so,
in the taxation of their King.
The Major was comparatively a
new resident of the colonies, having
crossed in the Alliance five years
prior to the erection of his mansion,
at the request of his sovereign, who
had appointed him commandment of
the standing army at Fort North,
hence his military title. The resi-
dence was built upon promontory at
the entrance of bay, the. safest and
best harbor upon the coast for hun
dreds of miles. Upon the opposite
cliff a stone lighthouse was erected,
which was destined to be of much
service to Britain during Revolution
airy days. A gentle decline in length
many English rods, led from the
Majors mansion down to the sea, and
to the thriving colony upon its shores.
When the last brick was laid, Ma
jor John turned his business over to
an adjutant and lived in England.
Affairs in the colonies were in fer
ment of incipient rebellion because of
English taxation and misrule, yet nc
trouble was anticipated as vet by Brit
ish people. Public meetings were
held nightly in all colonial towns, and
indignant speeches were the order Of
the evening. Petitions were drawn
for presentation to the King, some
mildly conciliatory, some overlooking
with reproach and scarcely concealed
anger and hatred for English law and
injustice.
One of the ferces of these latter
was a manuscript drawn by one Ralph
Herndon, from the village upon the
shores of Vancouver Harbor. The
ship which carried the Major to Eng.
Lad transported also this paper to
King George II.
Ralph Herndon was a young man
of twenty.three, handsome, talented,
and warm, reckless partisan against
the wrong the mother-country was in
ficting upon her alien children. He
had the beauty of an Apollo, the eye
of Cromwell, the eloquence of Pitt
and the recklessness of hot-headed
youth. It was whispered that love-
affair across the Atlantic in which
the stern father had figured as the
cause oftseperation between two love.
ing hearts, had caused his hatred to
the Kingdom and all its loyal servants.
BE as it may, the next ship. which
anchored in the bay four months lat
err, brought to its shores Major John
Vancouver and lovely young bride
II II -