Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
Counterfeiter's Legends
Ovid Township Michigan
http://www.willett.org/ovid/othistory.htm
Cross, a shoemaker by trade and lame at that, found himself by the spring of 1838 pretty thoroughly discourÂaged with the hard experience he had endured, and the prospect of more hard work and hard times yet to assail him. He resolved, therefore, to remove his family to the east, and to remain with them in that country until the vicinity of his Michigan possessions should become more thoroughly subdued by the advance of civilization. AcÂcordingly he packed away his goods in his cabin, nailed the latter close shut, and turned his face arid the faces of his people towards the rising sun. He came not again to Ovid until 1844, and then he found that the cabin he thought to reoccupy, and the household goods he thought to use again, bad been confiscated by marauding hands, arid all he found amounted to scarcely sufficient, he remarked, “to swear by."
About the time Cross left the town‑-that is to say, the summer of 1838‑William Vansickle made a small clearÂing and put up a cabin on the south half of section 31. He did not, however, continue his efforts in the matter of clearing his land, and after a while those knowing him to be there, and knowing that no land improvement was being effected, began to speculate upon the character and busiÂness of the people located there, for there were known to be at least five persons in the household. Henry Leach, of Sciota, who was frequently enagaged in the business of looking up hands for others, had encountered the Van sickle cabin in his travels, arid, like others, thought there was something queer about the place. Unlike others, be made secret investigations, and soon satisfied himself that Vansickle was the master of a counterfeiter's den. Acting upon his conclusions, Leach gave due information at DeÂtroit, and a posse being sent out for the capture, Vansickle and his party were surprised and taken in the very busiÂness of' manufacturing counterfeit Mexican dollars. Besides Vansickle there was a woman and three men, named Ward, Skiff, and Gridley. The woman kept house for the party, the three last‑named men performed the mechaniÂcal work of marrufacturing the coin, while Vansickle, the leading spirit, charged himself with the business of disÂposing of the fruits of their bogus dollar‑factory. His method of conveying his dollars to Detroit was by means of a black valise, which he always carried on foot, and with which he became a tolerably familiar figure to dwellers alony the line of' the State road and Grand River road, although until his capture by the law he was regarded its an industrious and innocent peddler. The Vansickles place and the neighborhood have to this day continued to bear the name of the Bogus settlement. John McCollom and James Nelson settled upon tire place in 1839, and close by them, at about the same time, settled also Mark and Benjamin Brown
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Effingham County Louisianna
http://www.frontiernet.net/~kevinperkins/waybill.htm
................One of the strangest and bizarre legends of Effingham County must be that of the way-bill. Writing in the History of Effingham County , 1883 William Henry Perrin devotes two pages to this unusual topic. A brief synopsis goes something like this: Two unnamed Frenchmen came into the southern part of Effingham County looking for silver or gold mines, after a long a perilous trek from New Orleans. They ended up on the bluffs of either Salt Creek or the Little Wabash River and in the course of digging discovered a vein of silver. The Indians in the vicinity warned the two intruding Frenchmen to leave or forfeit their lives. The two Frenchmen covered their tracks and silver strike ..............................
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Bogus Island ,Indiana
http://www.lowellpl.lib.in.us/bogusis.htm
..........................Beaver Lake and Bogus Island are but memories in this day. It is difficult for the casual visitor to realize that this was a swamp region, thousands of acres in extent, whose deep retreats were frequented by counterfeiters, horse thieves, murderers, and criminals of lesser degree. So changed is the land that only the campaigner of its old days may know with something of certainty "just where he is at," in this lifeless, wide open land of today.............................
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Ovid Township Michigan
http://www.willett.org/ovid/othistory.htm
Cross, a shoemaker by trade and lame at that, found himself by the spring of 1838 pretty thoroughly discourÂaged with the hard experience he had endured, and the prospect of more hard work and hard times yet to assail him. He resolved, therefore, to remove his family to the east, and to remain with them in that country until the vicinity of his Michigan possessions should become more thoroughly subdued by the advance of civilization. AcÂcordingly he packed away his goods in his cabin, nailed the latter close shut, and turned his face arid the faces of his people towards the rising sun. He came not again to Ovid until 1844, and then he found that the cabin he thought to reoccupy, and the household goods he thought to use again, bad been confiscated by marauding hands, arid all he found amounted to scarcely sufficient, he remarked, “to swear by."
About the time Cross left the town‑-that is to say, the summer of 1838‑William Vansickle made a small clearÂing and put up a cabin on the south half of section 31. He did not, however, continue his efforts in the matter of clearing his land, and after a while those knowing him to be there, and knowing that no land improvement was being effected, began to speculate upon the character and busiÂness of the people located there, for there were known to be at least five persons in the household. Henry Leach, of Sciota, who was frequently enagaged in the business of looking up hands for others, had encountered the Van sickle cabin in his travels, arid, like others, thought there was something queer about the place. Unlike others, be made secret investigations, and soon satisfied himself that Vansickle was the master of a counterfeiter's den. Acting upon his conclusions, Leach gave due information at DeÂtroit, and a posse being sent out for the capture, Vansickle and his party were surprised and taken in the very busiÂness of' manufacturing counterfeit Mexican dollars. Besides Vansickle there was a woman and three men, named Ward, Skiff, and Gridley. The woman kept house for the party, the three last‑named men performed the mechaniÂcal work of marrufacturing the coin, while Vansickle, the leading spirit, charged himself with the business of disÂposing of the fruits of their bogus dollar‑factory. His method of conveying his dollars to Detroit was by means of a black valise, which he always carried on foot, and with which he became a tolerably familiar figure to dwellers alony the line of' the State road and Grand River road, although until his capture by the law he was regarded its an industrious and innocent peddler. The Vansickles place and the neighborhood have to this day continued to bear the name of the Bogus settlement. John McCollom and James Nelson settled upon tire place in 1839, and close by them, at about the same time, settled also Mark and Benjamin Brown
...
Effingham County Louisianna
http://www.frontiernet.net/~kevinperkins/waybill.htm
................One of the strangest and bizarre legends of Effingham County must be that of the way-bill. Writing in the History of Effingham County , 1883 William Henry Perrin devotes two pages to this unusual topic. A brief synopsis goes something like this: Two unnamed Frenchmen came into the southern part of Effingham County looking for silver or gold mines, after a long a perilous trek from New Orleans. They ended up on the bluffs of either Salt Creek or the Little Wabash River and in the course of digging discovered a vein of silver. The Indians in the vicinity warned the two intruding Frenchmen to leave or forfeit their lives. The two Frenchmen covered their tracks and silver strike ..............................
..........................................................................................
Bogus Island ,Indiana
http://www.lowellpl.lib.in.us/bogusis.htm
..........................Beaver Lake and Bogus Island are but memories in this day. It is difficult for the casual visitor to realize that this was a swamp region, thousands of acres in extent, whose deep retreats were frequented by counterfeiters, horse thieves, murderers, and criminals of lesser degree. So changed is the land that only the campaigner of its old days may know with something of certainty "just where he is at," in this lifeless, wide open land of today.............................
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