The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-19

and like many other noble souls during
the days when Queens county was over
run by royalists and tories. that MOTH
ing could shake her faith in the cause
of American independence. He told
her more. that he had entered the Brit
ish lines as a spy, that he had gone all
over the ground covered by the unfor-
tunate Nathan Hale and had on his
person detailed information that would
be invaluable to the patriot cause.
ITO that cause we are both pledged,
and as | may never see you again until
this war is over. 1 could not resist the
temptation of taking this chance. AS it
was last Christmas you promised to be
my wife, so now j have come to re-
pledge our troth on this Christmas eve.
l shall have to ask you for a Christ
mas dinner tomorrow, for L cannot
leave until tomorrow night, as / must
await information obtained by another
patriot whom l had expected to meet
at Jamaica. He has as perilous a mis-
sion as mine, for which | was COM
missioned by Washington to get the
information the general wanted of the
British strength on the north shore.
The other volunteer was to meet me
with full information as regards the do
ings Of the enemy in Brooklyn. Have
no fear for me. Our plans are well
laid, and if you hear nothing but the
boasts of the tories and royalists let not
no more patriots left in Queens. My
horse is being cared for by one of
them as true as myself, and tomorrow
night / will be crossing the sound to
Connecticut. Tonight / will sleep in
my fathers barn, and tomorrow / will
eat part of his Christmas dinner. Then
when my comrade arrives with his dis
patches / am off,
With a kiss on the wondering girls
lips Jacob babe her blow out the can
die, and softly opening the door, he
passed out into the night. At the barn
door he was met by an old negro slave
as patriotic as himself, who had al
ready provided place of concealment
Tor him, and he slept the sleep of the
weary. 1t was we'll on in the afternoon
when he awoke. The compatriot whom
he had expected had arrived, having
successfully accomplished his mission,
and as night came on he completed all
his preparations for resuming his per-
ilous journey. While the festivities in
the house were in progress and as Col
onel Simcoe and his officers We're
drinking the kings health, Jacob, with
the faithful negro's assistance, Jared
just as sumptuously on viands supplied
him from his fathers table, and he
washed il down with bumper to the
cause of American independence. ABB
bic paid q, hasty visit to the barn to bid
her lover goodbye and God-speed, and
Wnen darkness ndQ set IN jacob melted
into it and was off. This time he
evaded the pckets and found his horse
waiting for him outside the lines.
Mounting, he struck off across the
Hampstead plains he knew so well,
avoiding the roads and beaten high
ways and headed directly for Oyster
bay. He reached the shore of the
sound to the north of the village and
there found waiting him in a sheltered
cove one of the whaleboats used so
much at that time by the patriots to
cross the sound. Sturdy arms bent to
the oars, and before morning Jacob
Hewett was safe on the Connecticut
shore. and the information he obtained
was forwarded to Washington.
When the war closed it turned out to
have been a very fortunate circum-
stance for Richard Hewett that he had
had a son in the patriot ranks. 1t
saved the confiscation of his property
and on Christmas day, 1872, after most
of the royaliSts had been deported from
the country, Jacob and Abbie We're mar
ried in st. Georges church, Hampstead,
by the Rev. Samuel Sealway, son of
the rector and later bishop of Connect
cut.
Captain Samuel Hewlett was at the
wedding, and there for the first time
was made aware of the fact that while
a corporal in the Queens rangers he
had passed his rebel brother inside the
British lines on a forged order of Gen.
enal Erskine. He entered the English
regular army and departed for England
at the evacuation of New York by the
British.