Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-27
BROCKWAY S TALENT
It Became Known Early in His Native
Town.
Caricatured baptist Minister and
Then Left Fathers Home-Later BE.
came a Clever Counterfeiter.
From the Boston Globe.

From the Boston Globe.
There have been many and widely con-
ficting stories told by the metropolitan
press anent the early boyhood days Of Will
liam E. Brockway, the famous counter
feiter, who was corraled by United States
detectives in Hoboken a few days ago,
and his birthplace has been located in
nearly every town in the nutmeg state
by enterprising but not strictly veracious
space writer's Of the New York dailies.
The notorious maker of the queer
was born in Essex, Conn, a little green
and white hamlet on the left bank Of the
Connecticut, about two miles from the
point where the waters Of the river join
those of Long Island sound, in an old,
weather-beaten, gable-roofed house, still
occupied by relatives of his family.
Capt. joe Brockway, who was gath
cred TO his fathers some thirty years ago,
was the father of the counterfeiter, and
was well known up and down the valley
as man of the strictest honesty and in
tegrity.
He followed the water for a livelihood
ard accumulated competence by max
Ing successful trading voyages between
this port and New York in a small sloop
of which he was the owner as we'll as the
commander
Bill" Brockway was the Oldest son,
and from early childhood exhibited a
talent for drawing that was the wonder
of his parents and their country neigh
bors. He was particularly strong in
carfcature, and as his audacity kept pace
with his skill. the front of his fathers
old red barn, which faced the old Boston
and New York turnpike, was constantly
covered with easily recognizable but not
always complimentary portraits Of worthy
villagers.
His talent in this direction led to his
leaving home while in his early teens.
and probably to his choice of the career
in crime that ultimately placed him head
and shoulders above any other person who
has made the reproduction of Uncle Sans
bank notes profession.
Capt. Joe" was a Baptist of the hard
SHELF variety. but his effort to implant a
belief in the rigid theological doctrines of
That sect in his eldest son were dismal
failure.
"Bill' would have none of them, and
finally, owing to his outspoken and disre-
spectful comments on Baptists in general,
called Gown upon his head the condemna-
ton of the pastor of the village church.
The next Sunday morning the sides and
rear OF the meeting house she'd We're COW
cred with chalk profiles of the domi-
MES Mneaments, and the good Baptis:s of
the village were shocked to see the familiar
face of their reverend minister ornamented
with huge and assinine ears, staring them
In the face as they drove up to the church.
Everybody knew that "Bilr' Brockway
was the artist, and the matter created
tremendous local sensation. Capt. Joe
was fairly frantic with rage, and at the
conclusion of a stormy interview with his
son the latter packed up his few per scpal
effects and left home, yowins that he
would never return.
The next people here knew of the boy
was that he was working In the Office of
a New Haven engraver, under an assumed
name. The assertion that he studied chem
istry under Prof. Silhman in Yale College
is pure fabrication of the imaginative
New York reporter. as Brockway never
left the employ of his master until sus-
peCted of dupffcatfn notes that We're being
made for g Hartford bank
Then he fled to New York, and at once
entered upon that long and successful ca
reer OF crime that has made him terror
to the national treasury officials.
Late in the COS Brockway visited his cid
home for the first and last time since he
started out to make his fortune. He was
accompanied by a handsome and dashing
woman. whom he introduced as his WIFE
and the couple fairly made the eyes of the
villagers stick out with establishment by
the way they recklAssly threw money right
and left.
To square himself with the Baptists
whose feelings he had so outraged wears
before, Brockway contributed a neat sum
to the treasury of the society, and he also
made large gifts TO the members of his
family
One day while here he received a cipher
dispatch from New York, and that night
he and his female companion drove from
this place to Middletown, fifteen miles
away, and boarded train for New York
The next day two United States secret
service men arrived here. They mad been
looking all over the country for Brock
way, and had finally trailed him to his old
home. But the bird had flown, and the
great counterfeiter was never seen in these