The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-08-14
Money Filled Dirty Hovel in
Which Miser Lived With
Dog
WAGON LOAD OF SMALL COIN
FOUND IN sTRANGE PLACES
Trunks Seemed Bursting with Their
Contents and Every Closet and Nook
Searched Yielded Rich Harvest
Sold Herbs and Begged.

Pittsburg, Aug. 14.-Owner Of a
fortune estimated from $4,000 to
e75,000, Peter Leibauch, miser, was
sent to the poorhouso at Claremont
last evening. He had been arrested
as an INDECENT. insane patient and
turned over to the charity depart-
ment. His money, in bills of small
denominations, small coins, mostly
coppers, and few gold pieces, was
found in boxes. cans, trunks. cup
boards and pockets of old clothes.
Clerks at the Farmers Deposit Ma
tional bank counted the fortune, a
two-horse wagon load, until late yes
terday afternoon. Then they laid
off to resume their task, which is not
pne-third completed, today. Part of
the money was inherited and part
accumulated by begging and selling
herbs, gathered from the Northside
hillsides, and mint, which he disposed
Of to saloons.
His business was all profit, and it
required no capital. He lived re-
cluse in shanty at 140O Madison
avenue, Northside. The house Is
valued at about what an equivalent
pile of firewood is worth. 1t Is situ-
ated on the shelving of steep in
cline. He lived there with his dog, a
lean, half-starved mongrel. his only
companion. To all others the door
was barred. No stranger is known to
have crossed his threshold until yes
terday.
Sc0rns New.FOund Father.
Leibauch, so far as known. is the
last of his family, there being no liv-
Ing relative, but, as Policeman James
Callaghan, who is guarding the hovel,
rays:
''Sure, now that 1t has been found
put that he has money there will be
plenty of them"
When Iiebauch reached Claremont
and his story was told one Of the old
Or inmates of the insane department
Immediately claimed to be his father.
but Leibauch looked him over scorn-
fully and said:
"My father has been dead five
years: he cannot speak; you speak;
therefore you are not my father"
Whole Family Misers.
Leibauch comes from family of
misers. Antoine Leibauch, his father,
and Andrew, his brother, before his
mother died, worked in Minnemeyer's
mill. Later the elder Leibauch con-
tucted a goat farm. When the par
hnts died the brothers sold herbs.
They were never known to be in
temperate.
In those days the shanty was al
ways carefully guarded. The two
would take turns in keeping house.
While one was away begging and SELL
Ing the other would remain at home.
One afternoon. about two years AEp,
Peter returned homo and found Au-
drew, who was about 40 years of ago,
lying on the floor OF the bedroom. He
was bleeding from wound in tire
abdomen, and a revolver lay at his
side, according to Peters stor,.
Peter ran out and summoned q ply
sician. 1t was then found that an
other bullet had penetrated the
wounded mans heart and he was
dead.
Only Peter and the undertaken at
tended the funeral, for the Leibauchs
had no friends. They had never
sought any and none sought them.
The parents had come from Germany
years before, nobody knows when,
and, after years Of frugality. saved
sufficient to build the home, which
was then practically in wilderness.
Peter gives his age as As.
NefghbOrs Suspect Wealth.
For several weeks the neighbors
had regarded the miset as danger
pus. They suspected him of riches,
and sometimes taunted him In the
streets about his hidden wealth. Lit
tie boys would call him "Daffy Pete"
md "Dippy Pete" He would rail and
storm at them, but never injured any
one.
Thursday afternoon he stood on the
ramshackle porch, about fifty feet
above the street, and hurled defiance
upon those below him. He had
threatened to use his gun on them, a
long, antebellum muzzleloader, which
some say they saw him handle.
The police were notified and Pa
trolmen James Callaghan and George
smeeder and Sergeant Charles Falk-
ner climbed into the decayed, broken
stairway up the hill to what the
neighbors called Leibauch's yard.
Gives Desperate Battle.
Like wild animal Leibauch at
tackled them. When the three had
caught hold OF him and started down
the steep. narrow steps to the street
all their lives were in danger, for the
maniac still fought ferociously. Once
they stumbled, and had to loosen their
grasp to save themselves. Leibauch,
who turned to scramble back to this
house. was recaptured. :.