The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1894-11-02
AN OREGON BOY.
THE INTERESTING CAREER Oh
HORACE PETTIGREW.
An Innocent, Pardoned Inmate Of q
Prison Went to South America,
and Became Wealthy.

~It seems like the dead coming to
life again." said Frank Pohlman, Of
Yakima, to a Portland Telegram rep
resentative, at the same time drawing
forth a letter from his inside coat
pocket.
'"This letter comes from a man
whom I've considered dead these
thirty-four years or more. It's from
man named Horace Pettigrew,
with whom I went to school in Dal-
las, Polk county, when we were boys.
In 1860, Horace, then at the age Of
20 years, got into a quarrel with a
man named Fordham, near Dallas,
and accidentally shot him in the leg.
Fordham was man about 35 years
old, very vindictiye, and when my
schoolmate was tried the elder man
perjured himself to even up on Hor-
ace, and the boy was sent to the
pen for eighteen months. He was
pardoned after serving six months,
but being of a high-strung, proud
nature, he felt the disgrace of having
been in the penitentiary, even as IN
innocent man, so he concluded to
leave the state. This is the first word
I've had from him in all these years"
The envelope bore the Brazilian
postage stamp, and the Rio Janeiro
postoftce cancellation mark under
date of September II, 1894.
There are a great many in Oregon
who will remember my friend, long
since having believed him dead. I
think, too, that he has some relatives
living somewhere in the interior Of
the state" continued Pohlman, who
handed the letter to the Telegram
man for his perusal.
Pettigrew begins his letter with
the expression Of the hope that it
may fall into the hands Of the ad-
dressed, and if so that it may find him
we'll and prosperous. He then pro-
ceeds to relate some of his most i'm
portant experiences since "a cruel
fate" drove him from his native state.
The writer says that after leaving
civil war, he went to Chill, where he
found employment with the late Har-
~ Meiggs, the great South American
millionaire railroad magnate, who
himself fed from San Francisco one
dark night, under a heavy cloud, some
forty years ago. He remained in
Meiggs' service until his death,
amassing in those years a "small
fortune" of $4,000. During the South
American troubles in 1891 Pettigrew
got heavy government contracts from
Chilli for munitions of war and com
missary stores, all payable in Amer
lean coin, out OF which he made a
cool quarter Of million in cash. In
one paragraph he says:
"The knowledge of my possessing
so much gold lost no time in getting
to the public ear, If not to its eye,
and began to feel the uneasiness of
my position. felt that neither my
life nor money would long be safe,
and converted all the other prop
erty had into money, at a consider
able sacrifice and shipped my fortune
to New York, accompanying it ON
the same steamer"
The writer then goes on to say that
North American life was not to his
taste, and he hailed with much pleas
ure the revolt in Brazil, whittier he
went to conquer more gold at the
expense of the Brazilians, and in
that, too, he was successful. There,
as in Chilli, he was fortunate in his
government contracts, adding an
other 100000 in round figures to his
already comfortable fortune. In con-
clusion, Pettigrew writes:
Il am still bachelor. During the
past twelve months only have / felt
a desire to see Oregon once again,
and must see the country before l
die. I presume I'll scarcely know it
or anyone living there. Write me, If
you get this letter, and let me hear
something pleasant, if you have any
thing of that kind to tell me. ] may
visit the old home that I've not seen
or thought much of in so many years,
next spring."
In postscript the writer asks af-
ter dozen or more persons whom
he had intimately known in his
youth, but Mr. Pohlman remarked:
They're all dead, excepting myself.
Isn't it strange that Horace should
just select me to write to among all
be apparently takes enough interest
In to inquire for?" -