Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-07-26
ONE OF THE FIRST NAPoLEoN.s,
MEN.


How He Left Some of His Masters Tfnery
In Western Pennsylvania.
Writing of the settlement of the
northwestern part of Pennsylvania, q
Pittsburg Dispatch contributor says:
The sober, plodding pioneers were
now and then wakened up by the APP
pearance in their midst OF people about
whom there was the interest of mystery
or the charm of romance. On slip in
Land-Agent Gaskell's book, interlaced
between the mention of "a panther
measuring eleven feet from tip TO tip
which Adam Long shot yesterday and
an account Of David Postlethwait's en-
terance into den of wolves back of his
place the fall before. which he says in
parenthesis twas far drawer feat than
that of "Old Putt. he makes brief
reference to certain Col. Egmont aud
his wife. who appeared in upper Jeffer-
son in the earliest DAYS. There is no
date to the slip, but the Egmonts must
have arrived about 1916. This is their
story as near as it can be recalled:
Col Egmont had charge of Napoleon's
travelling chariot and baggage van at
Waterloo. When the battle was lost
and the fight was on, the Emperor ex-
pressed the hope that he might find
passage on an American ship. Fgmont
said, with the expectation of joining
his chief in the United States,
he, with the help of
some soldiers, got ont of the van at
tached to the carriage such boxes of
plate, linen, ETC., as could be hastily
seized, and, barely escaping capture,
made his way to the coast and got on a
schooner bound for America. He did
not know the Emperor had been inter-
cepted and put on board the Bellero-
phon until he landed in New York, and,
as he had not received his pay, and the
Emperor was then on his way to St.
Helena, he concluded to make the goods
supply his temporary necessities. He
waited in New York until his wife ar
rived from Bordeaux. He sold some
things before he lett the city, and with
the rest he and his wife came into the
woods. With the little money he had
he engaged from the agent a small,
partly-improved farm up the Mahoning
Creek, but he new nothing of labor.
Some of the table linen in his possess
sion was of exquisite fineness, and had
the letter IN" surmounted by the inn
perial crown, embroidered on each
piece.
After Nine. Egmont had carefully
picked out the embroidery he sold part
of it to some appreciative housewives
near the agency who had seen better
days. An old lady, whose daughter
still has several napkins, said that the
outlines of the N and crown were plainly
visible after several washings. Egg
mont, as we'll as his wife, seemed al
ways anxious and on the alert. The
cabin was kept carefully closed and the
contents of several chests were never
displayed, but the use of several richly
chased gold drinking cups. in the ten
der of hospitality to s9me of the neigh
bors who had been kind to them, led to
the belief that the chests contained
valuable plate belonging to Napoleon.
To the refined and sensitive French
woman the wilderness and isolation of
their retreat became insupportable.
She so pinned for sunny France that the
place was suddenly disposed of and
with few leave-takings, the Egmonts
left Jefferson and were never heard of
more.