Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-02-10
Feolusive man yerging into middl

treclusive man yerging into middle
age.
M awhile Mary Newcomb had
become the wife and widow of a
lawyer in New York. Her husband
had left her with two children and
ample means. She and Abel Sum-
mers met at Long Branch one sum-
mer. Their stay at the seashore was
prolonged, and when the summer
was over the engagement to marry
was renewed.
The old.time geniality of Abel
Summers returned. He went again
in society, and found pleasure in the
companionship of men and womeL.
The marriage was delayed a year
until the widow could get her par
ents' benediction, for they were
opposed to second marriages on any
account. Meanwhile Abel Summers
kept the mails and telegraph between
Patterson and Plainfield busy with
letters, messages and gifts to his pro-
spective bride.
The great fortunes that were made
in those days in petroleum specula-
tion tempted Abel Summers. For a
time he added largely to his fortune ;
then came a day when oil dropped.
Heavy margins were called. Every
dollar that could be raked and
scraped by Summers went into the
vortex. Oil went lower, and week
later not a dollar was left.
Summers secured place as an
accountant in Philadelphia, hopeful
of retrieving his losses. For a few
months there was desultory cor
respondence between him and his
affianced bride. In the spring of
1868 there came to Abel Summers a
package containing all the jewels
and love-letters he had sent. No
one ever knew how the man bore this
blow, for he disappeared from Phila-
delphia, and from that day to this
has never been seen by any of his
New Jersey and New York friends.
Six months later he wrote from
San Francisco to his dying mother.
1t was brief letter from an affec-
tionate son, who said that he was
utterly disheartened, without hope
or zeal of any kind. He was then a
clerk for the mining brokerage house
of o. f. Giffim q Co., in San Fran
cisco. If Abel Summers has ever
written letter since that time, in
1868, no one knows it.
In 1869 Abel Summers was q
rancher where the town of Fullerton,
in Orange county, has since grown
up. A few people remember him as
quiet, gentle, hard-working shep-
herd. He had several hundred dol
lars, and he saved every dime. Some
of the old-time sheep owners re-
member that Summers said he could
get free grazing land on San Gle
mente island and that he liked the
idea of getting his livelihood where
he would have no contact with the
world. A little sloop, chartered at
San Pedro one day, carried him
away with some dogs and a little
band of sheep, some food and camp
utensils. If he had searched the
continent over . could not have
found bit of land where he might
live and breathe and, at the same
time, have so little to do with the
busy race he had forever left behind
him.
Along about 1884 the brother and
sister in New Jersey learned where
their brother was living. Gen. Van
deveer, then member of Congress
in the Sixth California District, was
employed by the relatives to urge
Abel Summers to return to civiliza.
ton. Whether the exile even knew
of the interest and efforts in his be-
half is only conjecture, for he never
communicated with any one on the
subject. Finally Gen. Vandeveer
sent to San Clemente, by the men
who went for the old mans wool,
several thousand dollars in gold and
silver. 1t was Abei's share of his
fathers estate, long since settled in
the New Jersey courts.
The hermit of San Clemente has
not seen a newspaper in thirty years
and has not read book except his
Bible. Years ago he built stone
Women as Well as Men