MORE MISPLACED CONFIDENCE--ANOTHER UNFORTUNATE PARTNERSHIP.
Before closing the history of the many trials and troubles which I have
experienced during my life, I will here say that I have never found, in
all my dealings with men for more than forty years, such an untruthful
and dishonest a man as ---- of a certain town in Connecticut. In 1858,
he induced me to come into his factory to carry on a little business. My
situation was such, in consequence of the failure of the Jerome
Manufacturing Company, that I could do nothing in my own name, as he
knew. I had a little money that had been paid me for the use of my
trademark in England, and I felt very anxious, as old as I was, to make
a little money so that I could pay some small debts which my family had
made a short time before the company failed. I had also two children who
looked to me for some help. This man said to me, "you may have the use
of my factory for 'so much,' and you may carry on the business for one
year in my name for so 'much.'" This was agreed to by both parties. In
a few days he came to me and said that he had been talking with his
nephew about having the business carried on in his name "& Co.;" ----
being the "Company" and he was to keep his nephew harmless, as he had
nothing for the use of his name. The nephew came into the factory a
short time after, and I asked him if he had agreed to what ---- had
stated to me; he said that he had, and that I could go on with the
business in the name of himself & Co.; he was quite sure that his uncle
would keep him harmless. I went on with the business in this name from
May to December, both of those men knowing all the while just as much
about the business as I did, and they never said but that it was all
right as we had agreed. I paid in my money from time to time as it was
wanted. Late in the fall, I paid in at one time, one thousand nine
hundred dollars, through a firm who owed me that amount, and who gave
their notes to ---- on short time, which notes were paid. A short time
after this, knowing that I had no more money to put into the business,
he undoubtedly thought it time to do what he had intended to do at a
suitable time from the beginning. One day when I was unwell and
confined to the house, a man who had a claim against the company,
called on ---- to make a settlement. Before this time he had made
two payments on this same account, but he now told this man that there
never had been such a company, and that he would never pay it--while
at the same time, he had the same property which the man offered to
take back but which he had refused to give up, and said that I had no
right to use the name of ---- & Co. This was after he had been using the
name for me in drafts and notes, and all other business transactions,
for more than eight months. He said that he would have me arrested for
fraud and put in the State Prison. This treatment was rather hard
towards a man who had never before been accused of dishonesty, and who
had done business on a large scale with thousands of men for more than
forty years. He at one time requested me to borrow a note for him from
one of my friends, which I did, and which he paid promptly when due. He
did this, as I now suppose, because the business was not in as good
shape for him as it might be in another three months; so he wished me to
get the favor renewed, which I did. When it became due, he denied that
it was a borrowed note, declared that I was owing him, and had handed
this note to him as one that was good and would be paid. One of his best
friends has since told me that there was more honor among horse-thieves
than this man had shown towards me. I put into the business between four
and five thousand dollars, worked hard almost a year, and have received
about five hundred dollars. ---- is trying to scare me by threatening to
sue me for perjury; so that if he could make me fool enough to pay the
debts of ---- & Co., he would have just so much more to put into his own
pocket. When he can get a grand jury to find a true bill against me for
fraud or perjury, I will promise to go to Wethersfield and stay there
the remainder of my life, without any further trial. After all that I
have said, I think of him just as all his neighbors do; for they have
told me that it was the common talk among them, when I first went into
his factory, that he would in some way cheat me out of every dollar that
I put into his hands. It would take just about as much evidence to prove
that young crows would be black when their feathers are grown, as it
would to satisfy the community that these statements are true,
especially where he is known. For knavery, untruthfulness, and
wickedness, I have never seen anything, in all my business experience of
forty years, that will compare with this. He would not have taken such a
course with me once, but he took advantage of my age and misfortunes to
commit these frauds, thinking that I could not defend myself, and that
he could defraud and crush me.
I had paid every dollar of my money into this business which I had at
that time, and had nothing to live on through the winter. But John
Woodruff in his kindness, raised money enough for me to live on through
the winter, and the following spring I moved to New Haven.