A Counterfeiter's Paradise (41 page)

95, Surveying was a

Colonial land surveying: William E. Burns,
Science and Technology in Colonial America
(Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2005), pp. 101–102. Lewis Lewis’s surveying career: Dill,
Mathew Dill Genealogy
, pp. 17–18.

95–96, Despite the danger

Lewis’s landholdings and list of possessions sold after his death: Dill,
Mathew Dill Genealogy
, pp. 18, 21.

96, Lewis Lewis’s background

Lewis Lewis’s education and pedigree: ibid., pp. 17, 19–20. Jane Dill’s reputation for horsemanship and Presbyterianism: ibid., p. 21. The marriage: ibid., p. 18.

96, By the time

Eight children: ibid., pp. 23–25. The cooling of the Penn-sylvania frontier: C. Hale Sipe,
The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania: An Account of the Indian Events, in Pennsylvania, of the French and Indian War, Pontiac’s War, Lord Dunmore’s War, the Revolutionary War and the Indian Uprising from 1789 to 1795
(Lewisburg, PA: Wennawoods, 1995 [1929]), pp. 709–715. Bald Eagle Creek’s name: Paul A. W. Wallace,
Indians in Pennsylvania
(Harrisburg: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
2005 [1961]), p. 173. The naming of Bloody Run: Charles Augustus Hanna,
The Wilderness Trail
, vol. 1 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911), pp. 277–278.

97, Lewis never had

Lewis Lewis died sometime before 1790, according to Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 20. Jane’s remarriage and
“loving wife, Jane”
: Dill,
Mathew Dill Genealogy
, p. 17. Jane’s arrival in Clearfield: Roland D. Swoope Jr.,
Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and Representative Citizens
(Chicago: Richmond-Arnold, 1911), p. 28.

97–98, In the fall

Physical description of Brock: Robert Malcolmson,
A Very Brilliant Affair: The Battle of Queenston Heights, 1812
(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2003), p. 35. Brock’s early life: Mary Beacock Fryer,
Bold, Brave, and Born to Lead
:
Major General Isaac Brock and the Canadas
(Toronto: Dundurn, 2004), pp. 31–32. Brock’s efforts to transfer out of Canada: Ven Begamudré,
Isaac Brock: Larger Than Life
(Montreal: XYZ Publishing, 2005), p. 112. Overview of Brock’s career: Wesley B. Turner, “Brock, Isaac,”
Encyclopedia of the War of 1812,
ed. David Stephen Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2004 [1997]), pp. 62–63.

98, On the other

Standoff across the river: Hickey,
The War of 1812
, p. 86. Relationship between Prevost and Brock: John K. Mahon,
The War of 1812
(New York: Da Capo, 1991 [1972]), p. 19, and Malcolmson,
A Very Brilliant Affair
, pp. 47, 75.
“[T]he population, believe me…”:
quoted in Malcolmson,
A Very Brilliant Affair
, p. 76.
“the most abandoned…”:
quoted in Mahon,
The War of 1812
, p. 19.

98–99, One of these

The account of Lewis’s capture and near execution comes from his mentor Philander Noble, who in 1813 was arrested and examined on suspicion of being a British spy in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Noble’s testimony, along with the writ of mittimus ordering his arrest and testimony from others, appears in the Bellefonte Court of Common Pleas (or Quarter Sessions) records from April 1813 under the heading “United States v. Philander N. Noble,” although it’s unlikely the case ever went to trial. These documents are held by the Centre County Library and Historical Museum in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania; for a transcription and discussion of their contents, see Douglas Macneal, “Amplification: David Lewis in Centre County in 1813,”
Centre County
Heritage
26.1 (Spring 1989), pp. 27–33. In what follows, I’ll be referring extensively to the testimony from Noble’s espionage hearing, because it provides a rare glimpse of Lewis’s early career. Brock as disciplinarian: Malcolmson,
A Very Brilliant Affair
, p. 35.

99, Fortunately for Lewis

The Battle of Queenston Heights: Hickey,
The War of 1812
, pp. 86–87, and Turner, “Brock, Isaac,” p. 63. A vivid firsthand account of the assault and Brock’s death is a letter from an officer named Sir John Beverley Robinson, found in Charles Walker Robinson,
Life of Sir John Beverley Robinson
(Toronto: Morang, 1904), pp. 33–39.

99, The battle that

Lewis told Noble he escaped from jail when it was set on fire from the cannonading across the river. This would have been in mid-November, when an artillery duel erupted after the expiration of a brief armistice; see Mahon,
The War of 1812
, pp. 82–83. The exchange of fire continued through November 21, and left six men dead, a few wounded, and extensive property damage. Eyewitness account of the destruction from the American side: E. Cruikshank, ed.,
The Documentary History of the Campaign upon the Niagara Frontier in the Year 1812, Part IV, October, November and December
(Welland, ON: Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, n.d.), pp. 233–235.

99–100, Lewis was twenty-four

Children of Jane Dill and Lewis Lewis: Dill,
Mathew Dill Genealogy
, pp. 23–25. The story of Lewis’s desertion from the army has a complicated provenance. In the writ of mittimus ordering Noble’s arrest in 1813, the justices wrote, “David Lewis is generally understood and known to have deserted some years ago from the Army of the United States and eloped to the said province of Upper Canada.” A witness at Noble’s espionage hearing, William Robinson, offered further confirmation: “The old woman his mother told me that he had been condemned to be shot but that she had got him cleared.” Finally, Sheriff Moore, when posting a reward for Lewis’s capture in 1816, claimed that Lewis “has been in the Army of the United States, from which he deserted.” All of this strongly suggests that Lewis deserted, although it’s not known exactly when or from which company, as no records exist of the court-martial. Mark Dugan contacted the National Archives in Washington, DC, and the archivists couldn’t find Lewis’s case, although the files are incomplete before 1809. Thriving counterfeiting trade along the Canadian border: Stephen Mihm,
A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), pp. 64–66.

100, Like their colonial

Enforcement problem along Canadian border: Mihm,
A Nation of Counterfeiters
, pp. 64–66. Mihm’s discussion focuses on Stephen Burroughs, a famous counterfeiter who operated in present-day Quebec. According to the Randolph, Vermont, newspaper the
Weekly Wanderer
, July 27, 1807, Lewis’s mentor Philander Noble was a close associate of Burroughs.

100, One of these

Noble was in Vermont as early as July 1807, when he was arrested for counterfeiting near Plymouth. He bounced back and forth across the border: in September 1809, he was in Canada, arrested at Niagara, the same place where Lewis almost lost his life. See
Weekly Wanderer
, July 27, 1807;
Vermont Precursor
, July 31, 1807;
Otsego Herald
, November 4, 1809; and
Connecticut Herald
, November 14, 1809. A small report from the
Weekly Wanderer
, February 23, 1810, provides a possible lead of Lewis’s whereabouts during this period: the article states that David Lewis, “a transient person,” has been sentenced to prison in Burlington for seven years for passing counterfeit bills. It’s impossible to know whether this is the same David Lewis that grew up in Pennsylvania, but the timing and location certainly makes it plausible.

100–101, The two men

Noble’s physical appearance:
American Volunteer
, May 9, 1816, quoted in Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 23. His date of birth (April 1772) and occupation: Lucius Manlius Boltwood,
History and Genealogy of the Family of Thomas Noble, of Westfield, Massachusetts
(Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard, 1878), p. 648. Westfield’s history: Josiah Gilbert Holland,
History of Western Massachusetts: The Counties of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire
, vol. 1 (Springfield, MA: Samuel Bowles, 1855), p. 66.
“I performed the task…”:
from Noble’s 1800 letter to William Shepard, reproduced in John H. Lockwood,
Westfield and Its Historic Influences
1669–1919
:
The Life of an Early Town, with a Survey of Events in New England and Bordering Regions to Which It Was Related in Colonial and Revolutionary Times
, vol. 2 (Westfield, MA: printed by the author, 1922), p. 188.

101, For a young

In his testimony at his 1813 espionage hearing, “United States v. Philander N. Noble,” Noble claims to have moved to Vermont in 1803. He was certainly there by 1807, when he was arrested near Plymouth.

101–102, The summer of 1807

The scene:
Weekly Wanderer
, July 27, 1807, and
Vermont Precursor
, July 31, 1807.
“with sincere pleasure…”:
Weekly Wanderer
, July 27, 1807. Noble’s arrest and conviction in Upper Canada in 1809:
Otsego Herald
, November 4, 1809.

102, The mechanics of moneymaking

The
Vermont Precursor,
July 31, 1807, mentions “four coppers prepared for engraving” discovered in the counterfeiters’ hideout.

102–103, The bills strewn

The banknotes that Noble forged:
Weekly Wanderer
, July 27, 1807, and
Vermont Precursor
, July 31, 1807. Origins of American banks and banknotes: Bray Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991 [1957]), pp. 3–171. “The notes the banks issued were,” he writes on p. 71, “in form if not in essence, just another variety of paper money.”

103, Local governments had

Though the first note-issuing banks predated the Constitution’s ban on the states printing paper money, the prohibition forced the states to use banks to get currency into circulation, even if the notes couldn’t be made legal tender. The -conservative banking world of 1787: Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America
, pp. 74–77, 105.
“hostages to be…”:
from Thomas Paine’s
Dissertations
, quoted ibid., p. 61.

103–104, Most of the Constitution’s

Banking at the Constitutional Convention: Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America,
pp. 103–106.

104, The silence was significant

Hamilton’s idea for the Bank of the United States: ibid., pp. 40–42, 114–115.

105, As could be

Debate over the Bank: ibid., pp. 114–122. The Senate passed the bill on January 20, 1791; the House passed it on February 8, 1791. Washington used as much time as allowed by the Constitution to decide whether or not to veto it. His secretary of
state, Thomas Jefferson, and his attorney general, Edmund Randolph, told him it was unconstitutional.

105, Although Hamilton got

The conservative mercantile banks: ibid., pp. 74–77.

105–106, In the last

The changing face of the American banking world and the economy as a whole: ibid., pp. 67–74, 145–149.

106, When Noble wrote

There were 29 banks in 1800, 90 in 1811, and 246 in 1816, according to Hammond, in
Banks and Politics in America
, pp. 144–146. Checks exerted by Bank: ibid., pp. 198–199. Debate over renewing Bank’s charter: ibid., pp. 222–226. An overview of the banking boom triggered by the Bank’s fall: Mihm,
A Nation of Counterfeiters
, pp. 110–111.

106–107, Noble’s experience

“a great evil”:
from James Madison’s reply to Charles Jared Ingersoll, dated February 2, 1831, included in M. St. Clair Clarke and D. A. Hall, eds.,
Leg-islative and Documentary History of the Bank of the United States: Including the Original Bank of North America
(Washington, DC: Gales and Seaton, 1832), p. 778.

107, In 1813, as

America’s wartime financial woes: Hickey,
The War of 1812
, pp. 113–119, 222–225. Lewis returned to Bellefonte at least twice before moving back to Pennsylvania permanently in 1813: at Noble’s espionage hearing, “United States v. Philander N. Noble,” Thomas Lewis testified that he had seen his brother in Bellefonte in the summer of 1812, and Isaac Buffington declared that he had seen Lewis in Bellefonte during the winter of 1810–1811.

107–108, Around midday in

The details of Noble’s arrival are drawn from Thomas Lewis’s and Aaron Ellis’s testimony at Noble’s espionage hearing. In his testimony in “United States v. Philander N. Noble,” Noble claimed that Lewis “sent a line” through Noble to his
wife, and that she then handed the message to Thomas Lewis—perhaps this note contained instructions regarding Noble. Who was Lewis’s wife? In his testimony, Aaron Ellis declared that “Margarate Lewis,” who lived with Jane Leathers (formerly Jane Lewis), “says she is the wife of David Lewis.” But there is no reference in the genealogical record to David Lewis’s marriage, and the name Margarate or Margaret Lewis doesn’t surface again in Lewis’s paper trail. Perhaps they weren’t legally married; in any case, nothing firm exists about their relationship.

108, While a brilliant

Noble and Lewis first arrived in Bellefonte on March 28, 1813; a week later, April 4, 1813, Noble was brought before two justices of the peace, William Petrikin and Elisha Moore, for examination on suspicion of being a British spy.
“[I]t is the duty…”:
from the writ of mittimus ordering Noble’s arrest.
“his capers”:
Isaac Buffington’s testimony at Noble’s hearing, “United States v. Philander N. Noble.” The claim that Noble had a gun: Aaron Ellis’s testimony.
“about who he was…”:
William Robinson’s testimony.
“strange man”:
Isaac Buffington’s testimony.