The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-02-08
FAMOUS AS A FIGHTER
GEN. THOMAS MUNsTERY, WHO DIED
RECENTLY IN CHICAGO.
A Baltimorean by Birth, with Many
Strains of Noble Career
aa Soldier and DueIist.
Baltimore Herald.

baltlmore Herald.
There nave been Baltimoreans who have
basked in fame at one time or other, and
some of them deservedly. But there was
one who. according to his own story, more
richly merited renown than anybody else
born in this city. and yet never received it.
Gen. Thomas Hoyer Munster Munstery,
who died In a Chicago hospital a few days
ago, left a wife and seven children In Jer-
sey City. He was born in Baltimore in 1914.
His only dessert for eighty years was bread
and sugar.
With these few routine obituary remarks
all the tame things that can be said about
General Munstery have been said. The rest
of the story of his life, as he used to tell IT,
is a story OF blood, of wars. duels. revolu-
tons, court intrigues, fiirtations with
Queens, royal genealogies and buried gold.
The general lost the diagrams which
showed where the gold was buried, and
that is why he died in poverty.
The excitement In the generals family
really began several years before he was
born, when his grandmother. Sophia An
kerstrom, and the rest of the family were
driven out of Sweden because Sophia's first
cousin killed Gustaf III at a masquerade
ball. The Ankerstroms went to Prussia,
where Sophia, a famous Swedish beauty,
became the ~morganatic wife or King Fred
erick William Ii, according to the papers
of the late General Munstery, who always
boosted of his Hohenzollern blood. Sophias
daughter by the King was General Nuns
tery's mother. His father was a Danish no.
bleman whose Irish ancestors had Ned from
Ireland after the battle of the Boyne. Inc
name before the flight was Munster. The
father was deprived Of his place at the
Danish court because of a duel and was
made Governor of Santa Cruz. He left in
1872, and, with his wife, came TO the United
States. Two years later the boy Thomas
was born in Baltimore. When he was six
years old the family went TO
From this point General Munstery had his
own story of his life.
His story, navy in the first chapter, be-
gan with a bloodstain on his fathers night
shirt. There was a family row. The father
and mother separated. He never knew what
became of his father, but he emembered
MIN as he stood in the house, sword in
hand, and with the blood on his night shirt.
The boy and his mother were put in a dun
geon for some time and fed on bread and
sugar. That's how the general acquired the
dessert habit, which lasted all his life.
When they were released from the dungeon
mother and son went to Copenhagen.
AN EARLY BEGINNING.
At the age of fifteen Thomas Munstery
really began his own life of adventure. He
went into the Danish navy and served for
three years. While in port at Rio de janet
70 he killed his first man, a negro, who
had insulted him.
After his sea service he went to Stock
holm, where he became he pupil of DR..
Linge, the inventor of the Swedish system
of massage. Under Linge's Instruction he
became an expert swordsman and a cham
pion strong man" He went to st. Peters
burg when he was twenty-five years old as
fencing master and commander of the
tine. He fought all corners there, including
the wild men from beyond the frontier, for
the amusement of the court, and a palace
and treasure were given to him.
The boy from Baltimore was getting
along in the world famously when he I'M
fortunately consented to help his chum,
Ivan Orloff, elope with a LADY of the court.
He was exiled for that, and went back TO
Copenhagen without a rouble. But he
gambled as well as he fought, and soon
made enough Of a fortune TO go TO Berlin
and claim a commission in the army on ac-
count of his Hohenzollern blood. The story
of his parentage was not relished at the
court SO he was put IN prison at spsndsn;
scrape, but thought that Ii was because his
mother pleaded for him..
His first adventure after getting out of
Jail was TO fall in love with a woman whom
another man loved. The other man was
Charles Hansen, a Danish nobieman. They
fought and Hansen was killed. Munstery
forgot the woman, hurried TO this country
ana got INTO the OIlltu OldleS navy Il
saw some service and was then put in the
naval hospital at Portsmouth, N. H., for
repairs.
to sell cigars in Philadelphia, but he
smoked more than he sold. and his swords
and guns were getting rusty. he was hun
CRY for a fight and hurried on TO Nlcara-
qua, where he got several. He served there
i'm several revolutions, but could never re-
member the number of his wounds or the
number of men he killed in hand-to-hand
combat. They were numerous.
From Nicaragua he went to Cuba with
Narciso Lopez. thence TO the United States
of Colombia, where he fought for the die
tator, Jose Maria Mello. To save his neck
ne escaped to this city, and, in 1856, went
back to Copenhagen, where he happened 10
be in the nick of time to serve the Spanish
charge d'affaires in an affair of honor. The
Spaniard sent him TO Madrid, where he
fought for the entertainment of royalty
and became a court favorite, with much
gold. The government sent him to Cuba TO
teach the soldiers there how TO use their
swords and bayonets. He landed at Puerto
Principe just in time to get into a game OF
monte at the palace. Ii was a feast day.
Munstery lost all of his Spanish gold on a
queen. That was the seventh fortune he
had lost.
A BARRIERS TREACHERY.
He had love affairs and duels in Cuba. OF
course, but was finally disabled by the
treachery of a barber whom he had hired
ito bleed him for a fever. The barber was
the agent of a rival duelist and he cut a
tendon in Munstery's sword arm. The gen
eral cured that, so he always told his
friends later in life. by the tricks in mas
sage he had learned from DIR. Linge. Al
soon as he was able 10 thrust and lunge
once more he got together a band OF fifty
four adventures and went TO Honduras TO
take part in a revolution. They were all
| captured and Munstery was put in a Jail
I ward with eight men TO guard him. The Of
hcer who posted that guard didn't know
Munstery or he'd have left a battalion. The
general killed three OF the eight, broke the
bayonets OF three more and two ran away.
He was about to leave the country when
President Guardiola. a Metizo Indian, heard
Of the exploit In the jail yard and made