Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1905-07-26


DAWSON.
In IS43 William A. Rockefeller
moved his family to a farm near
Moravia, Cayuga county. The re-
putation he had built up in Richford
as sporting man" was duplicated
in Moravia. He soon became the
leader in all that was reckless and
wild in the community, and was
classed by the respectable and steady
going as a dangerous character on
whom no doubt much was fastened
that did not belong. 1t may be for
this reason, as well as because of his
frequent long and unaccounted for
absences, that he is still classed popu-
larly in Moravia as one of the gang
who operated the underground
horse railroad"-and ran off horses
from various parts of the country.
There is absolutely no proof of
this, but the conviction and sentence
to the state prison, in 1850 of three
of his closest pals for horse stealing,
coupled with his bad reputation
made many of his disaproving neigh
bors fix the crime equally on him,
and today old men in Moravia nod
their heads sagely and say, He
was too smart to be caught"
There is an indictment against
William A. Rockefeller for a more
serious crime than horse-stealing
in the records of the country, for
IS47, and it is quite probable that
he left Moravia under compulsion.
At all events, about 1850 he again
moved his family, which now con-
sisted of his wife and FIVE children,
to Oswego, n. Y. In 1857 he
moved to Ohio.
In the Ohio communities where
he lived the legends of "Old Bill. I"
as he is popularity spoken of today
by his former aquaintances, are
identical with those in Richford,
Moravia and Oswego. They all
remember him as a man who came
home but rarely, who was supposed
to sell some kind of medicine-a
cancer docter," is the opinion of
ore, a ,,quack DOCTOR" of another
and there are those who declare he
was a gambler. In Ohio. as in New
York, he always created a profound
impression on his visits home, by
his good clothes, his good horse,
and his crack shooting. He was
a ripping good one, an old associate
in Parma declares. How he would
shoot-bang-e tee bang-you'd
thought there was a small army
aroundp There are many sly winks
at the occupations and morals OF
William A. Rockefeller by his old
neighbors, but there is a universal
verdict that he was good fellow, 4"
jolly, generous and kindly.
When William A. Rockefeller took
his family to Ohio, his oldest son,
John Dawson, was lad of IL years.
A quite, grave boy by all accounts,
doing steadily and we'll the thing he
was set at.
He kept a ledger of his trifling
financial affairs marked "A"
From this venerated volume weknow
how much young Rockefeller earned
back there in 1855 when he started
out for himself. 1t was a small
enough sum, $50 for the first three
months; then, beginning with Jan
uary I, 1865, Sa5 a month. We al.
so learn from Ledger A" what he
did with his earnings. There is nc
doubt but that young as he was. he
applied to the money he received
|
those two vital principles in fortune
making: Make good bargains; save
your money and let it work for you.
We have his own word for believing
this, taken from the personal remin.
iscences which, from time to time
appear in his religious instructions.
The first lesson he learned by buy.
ing cord-wood:
Il was taught to do as much bust