Chapter XLIV

Thomas Robins who went to Vicksburg and became the cashier of the Vicksburg Bank, fought eleven duels. One was with the editor of the Vicksburg Sentinel. I forget his name. A trench was dug, and both parties descended into it by means of a ladder. Each man was stripped naked, and both were armed with a six-shooter and a bowie-knife. An account of that duel filled four columns of the New York Herald at that time. Tom Robins married a niece of President Taylor. Tom Quick has a capital notice of the old gentleman Robins. He speaks of Breeze Robins, "a Sport he loved in his younger days." Tom says, writing of old John Robins:

We would bet high he walks out of nights, and hunts up poor families, and, after being sure of it, pays the grocer's bills unknown to them. If he don't, he ain't like his nephew, Breeze Robins, a Sport whom we knew in our younger days, when Fulton Engine Company Twenty-one lay in Cedar street, with the bulliest set of quick men that ever held a pipe, or had men enough to stand by the butt, were it One, Fourteen, Fifteen, Twenty-seven, Thirty, Thirty-nine, Forty, Forty-two, Forty-five, or any other crack machine with a fighting crowd. Breeze was handsome, broad-hearted, and always had lots of money and sweethearts. I have seen him crack his dozen to treat his friends, who would meet nightly at the Clarendon, near Jimmy Gemmel's house—Bob Walker, Dan Berrian, Mathew T. Brennan, Jimmy Green, and a heap more. We lost him of a sudden; he went out West, and took to business, and is now a model merchant. Good luck attend him, for his heart was in the right place.

Tom Quick's Breeze Robins is my Thomas Robins. He, as I have said before, married a niece of President Zack. Taylor. He died leaving no children. He was game to the last. He was a great favorite with General Taylor, who made Tom's home at Vicksburg a stopping place in the summer season.

He challenged Jeff. Davis, not about the Mississippi regiment, of which Tom was Colonel, but about some family matter. Jeff. had clandestinely married a daughter of General Taylor.

Jeff. Davis was not the man to meet the New York boy, who had fought eleven duels, and who did not know what fear was. It is a pity that Jeff. and Tom did not fight. Very likely it would have saved President Lincoln a vast amount of trouble.

After Tom Robins had fought his way through all opposition, no one had so many friends and admirers as he. Had he lived he would have been Govenor of Mississippi, or held any other position he wished in that State.

He did good service in trying to get that State to pay her bonds. He went to Europe for that purpose, and visited most all of the European bondholders to try and make an arrangement.

I cannot but respect old age, and a letter from one who has passed 88 is really a luxury to me, especially if the venerable writer has passed a great portion of his time in New York city.

I shall publish in this chapter a long letter from Grant Thorburn.

I do not precisely remember when Grant arrived in this country, but I know it was before the year 1800, for then he was established in a well-to-do grocery, at No. 20 Nassau street. He was there some ten or twelve years, and then he moved to No. 22, and about the time of his removal, in 1810, he changed his business, and kept garden seeds, and was a florist, and lived at 41 Liberty street.

There was another Thorburn, who lived in New York a great many years, at No. 50 William street. His name was James, and those who remember him will call to mind his dignified appearance. I believe he was a Quaker. He was porter to the Bank of New York for twenty years at least. He succeeded to Daniel Thorne somewhere about 1812.

A very prince of a man was James Thorburn. I met him every day the year after the cholera season (1832.) He then lived in 28 Courtlandt street, with his family, at George Monell's. His daughter was one of the loveliest girls in the city. I have never met the stately James Thorburn since then.

Previous to James Thorburn being a porter in the Bank of New York, he was a wood-ware seller and grocer, at No. 32 Maiden Lane, and opened business there as lately as 1800. In those days there were very few merchants who did not keep an assorted stock of goods. While James kept "woodware and groceries," Grant kept "seeds and groceries." I am quite sure that James was a Quaker. He kept in Maiden Lane many years, and I am sure that Grant must remember all about him.

Grant Thorburn has sent me a letter containing what follows:

Anecdote of Robert Hoe, Inventor of the Printing Press. I have read with pleasure your notice of Old Merchants. My business as seedsman brought me in contact with most of them. In the same period lived Robert Hoe, who, though only a mechanic, his name will live while woods grow and waters run. In 1805 the yellow fever swept the streets of New York like a Turkish plague. I never left the city during seventeen summers that the fever prevailed. I kept a grocery store at that time on the north corner of Nassau and Liberty streets. One afternoon I sat on a chair outside of the door, with one of my children by my side. I saw a strange man coming from Cedar street, and reading the signs. He stood by my side.

"Mr. Thorburn," said he.

"Where did you get my name from?" said I.

"I read it on the sign-board," said he; and he continued, "I am just come on shore from the slip 'Dragon,' from Liverpool. I am a carpenter by trade, but can't get work on account of the fever. If you can tell me where to board, I will pay them when I get work."

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Eighteen years," said he.

"Did you serve out your apprenticeship?"

"I never was bound. My father was a carpenter."

"If my wife is willing, I will board you myself," said I.

I stepped to the foot of the stairs. My wife stood at the head.

"Good wife," said I, "a stranger standeth at the door. He has no money; he wants board; will you take him in?"

"If thee pleaseth," she replied.

"If he takes the fever, will you help me to nurse him?"

"I will," she replied.

"Thank you, my dear," said I, "For this God will bless you."

Before a week, he was seized with the fever. I got the best medical advice. My wife and I nursed him. On the fourth day of the fever, he was under the operation of powerful medicine. The fever ran through his veins, and drank his English blood. I stood by his bedside. He fixed his eyes on mine.

" Oh, Mr. Thorburn, I shall die! I shall die! I can never stand this!"

"Die!" said I. "Robert, we must all die, but you won't die this week." [In this I spoke unadvisedly, but I thought the end would sanctify the means.] " I hope to see you marry one of our bonnie Yankee lasses, and to carry your grandchild in my arms."

I saw this prediction fulfilled to the letter. From that hour the fever left him. His worthy sons continue to improve on their father's invention. Hoe's improved press is another proof that the Bible is true. When printing was first discovered, three hundred years ago, good men hailed the event as a messenger from God, preparing the way for the King of the East, when knowledge would be increased over the world. Hoe's improvement is another message, carrying peace and good will to men on earth. By it, books have become so cheap that he who runs may read. Before the improvement, bibles used in schools were sold for one dollar. Now they are sold for twenty cents. Thus the Bible is found in ships, shops, and granaries, in India, in Japan, and in the islands of the sea. Soon knowledge will be over the earth.

New Haven, 6th June, 1861.

That letter is a very just tribute to the oldest Mr. Hoe, and I will add a few lines to it of my own, to keep Mr. Thorburn company.

Robert Hoe started a carpenter shop at 89 Fair (Fulton) street (at that time it only ran from Broad way to Cliff street, not being cut through to the East river; and from Broadway to the North river, what is now Fulton was called Partition street). The next year, Mr. Hoe moved to 44 Barclay street, from this to 79 Nassau street, near Fulton, in 1808, still carrying on the carpenter business. He kept that business in different places as late as 1824, when his carpenter shop was in the rear of 84 Maiden Lane, and he lived at 90 William. Previously, for some years, his shop had been in the rear of his dwelling.

In the year 1825, Mr. Hoe openly announced his business as printing-press maker, at 64 Pine. His brother Richard, who was a mason, kept at the same place, and lived in Eldridge street. Many a day have we sauntered among these old buildings, in the middle of the block where Hoe's establishment was, and looked with admiration at the model works. There was an alley-way from Pine to Maiden Lane, through a lot of old wooden buildings, about the middle of the block, between William and Pearl. The Hoes were there some years, when they moved into Gold street.

In one of the chapters I spoke of the old concern of John Rathbone & Son. I have before me one of the autographs of the old gentleman, written fifty-six years ago. Sometimes the name is Rathbun as well as Rathbone, by children of the same father. The family is very ancient, having been distinguished in Great Bri tain for more than 500 years. A wealthy branch of the family has resided in Liverpool for more than 300 years, and a large commercial house there for many years is that of Rathbone, Brothers & Co., and a large American business they have always done. It was John Rathbone, of the Liverpool family, who emigrated from that city to America with the Pilgrims in 1625. The name is one of the sixteen that settled Block Island (Rhode Island.) One of the descendants, Elijah, was born in 1740, and settled in Groton, Connecticut. He died in 1825, aged eighty-five years. His eldest son was Captain Benjamin Rathbone. He died of yellow fever, in this city, in 1795, leaving two children, a son and daughter.

Nathan, the son, was born in 1794, in August. When the war of 1812 broke out, he attached himself to an organized water or coast guard, and was instrumental in the capture of a number of vessels, caught in the act of giving assistance to the enemy. This guard annoyed the English fleet very much. He was present at the bombardment of Stonington, Conn., with a regiment of the state militia. He came to New York city in 1822, went into business, and continued in it until 1860. He was at the earliest and latest periods of his life engaged in the fish business. He was at one time in the dry goods business, in Greenwich street. He wrote his name at different periods of his life Rathbone and Rathbun. He was extensively known over forty years in this town, and very much respected by all.

He married in this city, and had a number of children; three of them were sons, Nathan James, William and Charles. The first died young. William now commands the steamship "Bienville," the trader between here and Havana. He commenced his sea life and made his first voyage, in the old packet ship "George Washington," belonging to Grinnell, Minter & Co.'s line of Liverpool packets. She was commanded by Captain Ambrose H. Burrows.

Captain Walter Rathbone is well known in New York, having been connected for a number of years with the California and other lines of steamships. He is a skillful seaman, and a gentleman. Charles, another son, resides in this city.

In the notice of John W. Mulligan, who is still alive, I omitted to state a few items of considerable interest. He was Surrogate of the County in 1810.

Mr. Mulligan is also the oldest living graduate of Columbia College. He is the oldest lawyer in this city. When Alexander Hamilton was a student at Columbia College, he boarded with the father of John W. Mulligan, old Hercules Mulligan alluded to in a former chapter, who lived in Broadway, but kept his store at No. 3 Vesey street.

In confirmation of what I have stated in a previous chapter in reference to the intimacy between Baron Steuben and Mr. Mulligan, I have since met with a capital work, entitled "The Life of Frederick William Von Steuben, Major-General of the Revolutionary Army, by Frederick Kapp, with an introduction by George Bancroft, and published by Mason & Brothers. 1859." This clever work of 735 pages, ought to be in the hands of every member of the Steuben regiment, and a more acceptable present to a member than this copy of the Baron's life, could not be made.

It says: "In 1791 Steuben made the acquaintance of John W. Mulligan, a young and promising man, whose father had been an active whig in New York city during the Revolution. Mr. Mulligan, after having finished his studies in Columbia college, became Steuben's secretary, and served him with a fidelity and love which won him the friendship and confidence of his protector. Steuben concentrated all the tenderness of his heart on his friends, as he had no family relations, and there are few examples to be found in which the feeling of kind- ness and good fellowship were so fully reciprocated as between Steuben and his friend."

In 1807, when Mr. Mulligan was Assistant Alderman for the Second Ward, he wrote the following letter in reference to a plan for fortifying New York, that he knew Baron Steuben had prepared in 1793, after examining all the ground between Hell Gate and the Narrows, looking out for the best place to erect forts. His plan was produced and used previous to the war of 1812:

"In the present state of our political affairs, the subject of fortifications to defend our city naturally excites considerable anxiety and attention. Various plans are devised and proposed, but that which includes the defence of the Narrows seems to have most advocates. One has been published which I believe to be an entire plagiarism from one framed by our excellent friend, my benefactor, Baron Steuben. In the year 1793, as I believe you are informed, he devoted one or two days to an actual survey at the Narrows, and formed a plan which, with a memoir, he presented to the Corporation. After particular search, it is not to be found. I hope that he may have left a copy among his plans and papers in your possession. The object of my present application is that you will have the goodness to search, and if you find either the plan or memoir, to send them on, as far as your search may be successful, as soon as you possibly can, to me, by some safe hand. Being a member of the Board, I wish to procure it, as we are at present on the look out for a plan for the purpose of meeting the wishes of the citizens, to erect fortifications without delay, at the Narrows, relying on Government for future reimbursements, as their Commissioners have not thought it proper, or, rather, within the scope of their instructions, to expend at present any money to fortify that point. Many inducements make me anxious to have this plan, and, notwithstanding the importance of the object it was intended to effect, I confess one of my leading motives is to prevent any person from bearing the credit of what is due my friend."

The Baron died in November, 1794; and Mr. Mulligan gives an account of it in a letter to Mr. Walker. He says:

"On Tuesday morning our friend, my father, was struck with a palsy which deprived his left side of motion. The evening before at 11 he was perfectly well. At 4 A. M., he was struck—at 6 P. M., he was speechless. On Thursday he died."

When the will was opened, it was found that he had bequeathed most of his property to his adopted children and aid-de-camps, Benjamin Walker and William North. "To John W. Mulligan I bequeath the whole of my library, maps, and charts, and the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars to complete it."