The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-02-17
THE HAUNTED BOOTS.
THEY ORIGINALLY BELONGED TO THE
TORY TERROR, CLAUDIUS SMITH.

ne hlckeu Anem Ou ~ NO Stoou ~ tno
GaIiows-Three Men Who Wore Thorn
Years Aftcrward Were Killed by Rat
tlesnakes-Christy Lords Story.
"No one in the Schunnemunk noun
tains will ever forget the story of Brainard
Persons haunted boots,' said Christy
Lord of that historic part of Orange
county. "The story dates back a good
way, but it's always new and fresh along
the old Schunnemunk.
"Brainard Persons boots, so the story
goes, were the very boots that Claudius
Smith kicked off his feet just before he
was hanged at Goshen In the Revolution
airy times. Claudius Smith was the bloody
Tory cowboy who, with his following of
cutthroats and robbers, terrorized the
Schunnemunk and surrounding country
for years.
"After the patriots had at last captured
the desperate and he was taken to the gal
lows at Goshen he kicked his boots off as
the rope was placed about his neck and
exclaimed:
"My mother said / would die like a
troopers horse, with my shoes on. will
make her out liar
s'Those were Claudius Smiths last
words. His boots, through some manner
of succession, at last fell into the posses
sion of Brainard Pierson years after the
cowboy was hanged. I've often heard my
father say that when folks heard thcl
Brainard had got Claudius Smiths boots
they went to him and said:
"'Woe to you, Brainard Pierson, If 20"
wear those bootsl Not for all the treasur
Claudius Smith buried in old Schun"
munk would we wear those boots! Thcr'
blood on emf
"'And even IL there Is, Brainard Sc
III walk it off tomorrow, for I'm e..
to drive some cattle down Jersey way
couldn't get pair o. boots like these f.
the price o. the best critter I've got.
"Brainard Pierson laughed and me-:
day started with his cattle down Jersc.
way, wearing the dead 'Tory's boots.
| Somewhere down near the Ramapo pass
man coming this way met drove OF cat
| tie. They went on by and the man noticed
| that no drover was behind them. He went
| on. He had gone quarter of mile or so
when he almost stumbled ovor man ~
| ing in the road. He noticed that the man
had on a remarkably fine pair of boots,
but he started back in terror as he saw q
rattlesnake lying near hisfeet. Discover
ing that the serpent was dead he advanced
and was Mortified to see that the prostrate
mans face was black and swollen and
that he was dead. 1t was plain that the
rattlesnake had bitten the man, who had
then killed the snake before he died.
"The dead man was Brainard Pierson.
| The dscoverer of the tragedy sought the
nearest help and the rattlesnake's victim
was brought home to Schunnemunk. The
4 80 81 10 haA had nv n
stone and one of its fangs was gone The
snake had bitten clear through one Of the
boots Brainard wore and tiny puncture
on his ankle showed where the deadly VEN
ON had entered to do its deadly work.
"'Claudius Smiths bootsP was the first
exclamation that folks made when Brain
ard Pierson was brought home dead from
q rattlesnake's bite There's blood on
'em and we told him sol
"For a long time nothing was talked
about all through the Schunnemunk coun-
try but Brainard Persons haunted boots
and the awful fate that Brainard met with
because he flew in the face of warning and
wore them. Somehow or other though
Brainard's folks didn't seem to be able to
see Just how it was that he wouldn't have
been struck by the rattlesnake IL he hadn Z
had Claudius Smiths boots on, and so the
boots remained in the family. There was
no one big enough yet In the family to
wear boots and so they were put one side.
And there they remained unused for ten
years. Then the house was robbed one
night. Among the property stolen were
the haunted boots. Two days after the
robbery young George Pierson, Brainard's
son. was hunting on Seven Spring noun
tain, and, going over to one OF the springs
to get drink, he found a dead man lying
near 1t black in the face and swollen. Near
by the body lay big bundle. The dead
man had on tho stolen Claudlus Smiths
boots Young Pierson pulled of the boots.
On the mans right ankle was little pur-
plish red puncture. Ntt.ee
ga rattlesnake has struck him as sure
as fater exclaimed young Person.
1.-THE bundle contained the things stolen
from the Pierson family George backed
them home and brought the boots along.
Then he spread the news about finding
tho robber on Seven Springs mountain,
dead from n mathematics bite
Several years went by again before any
one else wore. the hanltsd boots Then