The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-12-16
TRAMP THROUGH THE SWAMP.
THE FOUNDATION OF EDWARD
MARTINS FORTUNE.
Finding of the Lost Deed that Made
a Poor Man Rich-Change Produc-
DINA Farmer-How He Enjoyed
His Life of Ease.

A few years ago a man died at an ad-
vanced age in a southern city who had
been living in ~princeIy style with only
a nephew, a housekeeper and servant
in an elegant residence in one of the
most fashionable suburbs, leaving be-
hind him a large fortune in city real
estate. vast bodies OF valuable land and
personal property. For every dollar OF
this fortune Edward Martin was in
debted to a tramp through a swamp
thirty-fve years before-that is abso-
!, lutely the long and shor Of it.
have thought for thirty years and
I think now, that the rise, or, rather,
the leap, of Edward Martin from pow
erty to affluence is stranger by a great
deal thar anything ever coined from
the teeming imaginations of Dumas,
Jules Verne. or Conan Doyle. The story
which I am about to relate, 1 have
heard more han once from the lips of
the few who were near to Martin, aud
familiar with the concerns of his life,
and 1 see no reason to doubt it's truth.
In fact, strange as it is. the invention
of such a story would show an inge-
nuitv in m~andacity stranger still.
One day in the late spring of the
year 1866, q little more than twelve
months after the close OF the great
civil wan a man. with an axe on his
shoulder, was making his way through
the mud, water, reeds n briars OF Il
large dense swamp jutting out into the
land from a deep stream in eastern
North Carolina. He was about thirty
years Of age, of middle stature, but
.-o-- o~-1 hr,i1t. h;c annanln~tnn
was rudy, his hair reddish. his eyes
blue, prominent cheek bones, square
Jaw and determined mouth. He wore
heavy boots, into which his coarse
jeans trousers were tucked, andan old
Confederate army Jacket over a check
ed homespun shirt. Edward Martin vas
endeavoring to reach O body of cypress
timber which he knew to be situated
in this swamp for he expected to get a
contract to cut cross-ties for a rail-
road then projected through that Sec
ton.
Although the war had been over mere
than a year, and although he was thir-
ty years old, Edward Martin was still
hardly better than a common laborer. 1t
is true he owned a house and a small
tract of land, inherited from his moth
er; but the louise was the common one
story country house Of humble class.
and the farm was u~nproductive and
very poorly stocked-raising little more
han enough to pay the taxes and keep
UP The fences. Here Martin lived his
sordid, grinding life alone, except for a
nephew, the son of his only sister,
whose husband had been killed in bat
tie, and who had herself died of con
sumption during the war.
Edward Martin was ar experienced
woOdsman, but he found this tramp
through this swamp one of the hardest
he had ever undertaken. He more than
once sank to the knees in ooZe and mud
while in some places the tangle of bri-
ars and clumps of reeds We're we'll nign
impenetrable. He mad just made a good
leap across a piece of black, dirty bog
to 4 small island of firm land, and was
resting from his toilsome way on an
old Juniper log, when a remarkable OBJ
| ject at his feet startled him into ex-
cited attention-a human skull! He
bent down and examined it closely,
thinking that perhaps a cypress knee
deceived his eyes: but there was nc
doubt that here We're the remains of a
human being, for further investigation
revealed other bones. two cavalry boots
to one of which was attached~a spur
and remnants of clothing decayed and
faded. but with j faint tinge of biae
still showing. A little further away a
rusty sabre was almost buried in the
and near was an ARM haVerSack.
Picking this UP, he found it so securely
fastened that he had difficulty in OPEN
ing it for an examination Of its con-
tents. There We're, a pint flask half
full of apple brandy, known (and much
hked) among the soldiers as apple
jack" a quantity of moulded hard
tack" as the sea biscuit dealt out in
the Federal army was cailed;a few 9TH
er trifiinga articles, and a bulky folded
paper tied at the top with brown tape.
and stamped with a seal. This Edward
Martin opened and found to be a deed,
which he curiously glanced over with
out much taking in its meaning, except
to see that the paper was couched n
formal legal phraseology, was full of
metes and bounds. with cummings up
here and there of so many acres of
land.
R~e-seating himself on a log, Martin
began to search his mind for the mean
ms of his CHASTITY find" to use ,ha
steceotyped expression for such discov-
cries. He recalled the fact that there
had been near that swamp a sharp
skir,nish Observation-Disclosures r
. Federal cavalry, with several killed
and wounded, oward the close OF the
war. while he was still 1t the front, but
of which he had heard on his return
home. Here, then. were the remains Of
a Union trooper, whose horse had prob
ably borne him this far, the animal
making its way through the Jungle
while the rider fell off to die. Stuff
ing the deed in the fo,ds of his SHIRT,
but without any serious thought that
it might ever be of value he proceeded
on MS way through the swamp.
Martin was a man Of complex charac-
| ter. IS his future life a~bundantly prov
; ed, and as his o~utcropping traits
t showed from his early manhood.
| He rad been raised a country boy
at the plow on a poor farm, with
a : minimum allowance of schooling,
l which he had taken in with
: unparalleled mental quickness and vo-
| racity. He was a man OF sanguine
, temperament. with strong passions and
appetiteS, and was often severe with
his nephew, William Vaughn. though
he loved the lad best of all things in
: the world, as he had loved the lads
mother. Without being popular in his