The record-union., 1899-03-12
A MYSTERY.

III ~ GjIG
A mystery that has run through al
most nine decades of the present CEN
fury and appears to have reached in
1898 a final thread of disentanglement,
is entitled to a resume of it's develop
mint The fate of "a lovely woman
might have served to keep questionings
alive for many years, but the fact that
three family names of distinction were
linked with her destiny has intensified
the merits Of the case
Whatever odium attaches to the deeds
of Aaron Burr, his descent from the IL
lustrious Dr. Burr, who was the found
er and first President of Princeton Uni
versity, and on the mothers side from
the staunch Puritan house of Jonathan
Edwards, surround him with the pres
tige of national fame The historic
trio is completed in the marriage of
Theodosia, favorite daughter of Aaron
Burr to al Mr.. Aston, relative of Wash
ington Aston, the famous portrait
painter of early American times.
The story of Theodosia Burr illus
trates the strong love that many times
exists between father and daughter.
Her loneliness of person and of char
acter are matter of confirmed record,
her devotion to her parent through all
the vicissitudes of his checkered career
is only another instance of womanly
constancy and filial affection. Inexora-
BILE fate had evidently decreed that this
tie which bound them in congenial re-
lationship should prove to one the end
Of hoy. 90 r-tt 1u nd 10 he
other the heart-stab of sorrow to
avenge the households he had wronged.
Aaron Burr originated the phrase,
''the right man in the right place" The
four years in which he did service in
the revolutionary army, and the few
years of legal practice during which che
never lost case he personally con-
Quoted" gave him a short-lived claim
upon its exemplification. The indigna-
ton Of the public over his murder of
Alexander Hamilton and the disgrace
of treason from which an acquittal
upon trial never entirely freed him,
drove him to a residence abroad 1t
was upon his return in 1912 from a
stay that resulted in poverty and fail
ure that Aaron Burr besought his be-
loved daughter, then the daughter-in-
law of Judge Aston of South Carolina.
and residing with her husband upon
plantation near Charleston, to meet him
in New York.
Affairs on the plantation demanded
Mr.. Alstons supervision, and it was
decided that Mrs. Aston should go
north alone To escape the tedious
ness of overland travel, it was further
arranged that the trip should be made
by sea- With the account of her TAX
ing passage on coasting schooner the
bearer of a beautiful portrait of herself
designed as "a present to her father, all
tangible history of Theodosia Burr Ais
ton ceased for a time.
The waiting father and the disconso-
late husband were alike doomed to the
torture of uncertainty. suspense and
despair It was supposed that the
vessel had been wrecked in a. storm and
all ON board lost Then, again, sur
misses were af1cat that the vessel had
been seized by some of the pirate bands
that infested the southeastern coast,
and Mrs Aston. through her charm
and beauty, might have been spared
alive, as the freebooter's prize.
At last, in the course of years, the
cOuI6SSIOIS VI al OlO SeillOL w III 10y
upon his deathbed in the poor house at
Cassopolis, Mich, gave the first clew
to the tragic and untimely fate of Mrs.
Alstona He, with others, had captured
the schooner Patriot and forced all on
beard to walk the plank. Accustomed
to the stern seizures made by his pirate
band, his heart was still moved to pity
over the forlorn situation of the lady
passenger, whom it was his lot to hurl
to watery grave. He acknowledged
that the recollection of her white-robed
figure, her upturned, pallid face and
hands clasped as if in prayer, had
haunted him ever since. This mans
name was Benjamin F. Bosdick. and
the accomplices of this double crime OF
robbery and murder We're two of them
convicted Of piracy and hanged in New
Orleans.
The boats crew was sacrificed. but,
by an irony of fate, the robbers did
mott gain their haul of valuables. They
carried silver and other articles ashore
and secreted them in the woods, ne
glecting to carefully mark the spot. A
heavy snowfall came next day, so the
goods became the spoil Of the bank
ers" who secured the shore.
The loss of the Patriot remained for
some time mystery, and an expedi-
ton fitted out by Burr failed to bring
any trace of the missing vessel. The
Captains widow, Mrs. Overstocks, was
of the Mater family in New Jersey, and
traditions Of the Patriots loss are pre-
served by their descendants.
Some thirteen years ago DR.. William
Poole and family passed a summer at
Mays Head, N. c., the very point where
the United States man-of-war Huron
was wrecked. Here the professional
sympaJthies of DR.. Poole were enlisted
in behalf of the wife of very respect
able old fellow, belonging to the class
of men who live by picking up the flo1-
sam and jetsam of the coast. Under
skillful treatment Mrs. Mann recovered
and as a token of her gratitude present.
ed the doctor with a painting which her
husband had rescued long before from
the wreck of a schooner. The painting
was found in cabin that had evident
ly been recently occupied by a woman@
Being a well read man, DR.. Poole in
stinctively associated the portrait with
the history of the Burr family, yet dur
ing his life gained no positive proof Of