Killer Colt (46 page)
Authors: Harold Schechter
There was an open grave, and many an eye
Looked down upon it. Slow the sable hearse
Moved on, as if reluctantly it bare
The young, unwearied form to that cold couch
Which age and sorrow render sweet to man
.
There seemed a sadness in the humid air
,
Lifting the young grass from those verdant mounds
Where slumber multitudes
.
There was a train
Of young fair females, with their brows of bloom
,
And shining tresses. Arm in arm they came
,
And stood upon the brink of that dark pit
In pensive beauty, waiting the approach
Of their companion. She was wont to fly
And meet them, as the gay bird meets the spring
,
Brushing the dew-drop from the morning flowers
,
And breathing mirth and gladness
. Now,
she came
With movements fashioned to the deep-toned bell;
She came with mourning sire and sorrowing friends
,
And tears of those who at her side were nursed
By the same mother
.
Ah! and one was there
,
Who, ere the fading of the summer rose
,
Had hoped to greet her as his bride. But death
Arose between them. The pale lover watched
So close her journey through the shadowy vale
,
That almost to his heart the ice of death
Entered from hers. There was a brilliant flush
Of youth about her, and her kindling eye
Poured such unearthly light, that hope would hang
Even on the archer’s arrow, while it dropped
Deep poison. Many a restless night she toiled
For that slight breath that held her from the tomb
,
Still wasting like a snow-wreath, which the sun
Marks for his own, on some cool mountain’s breast
,
Yet spares, and tinges long with rosy light
.
Oft o’er the musings of her silent couch
Came visions of that matron form which bent
With nursing tenderness to soothe and bless
Her cradle dream: and her emaciate hand
In trembling prayer she raised, that He who saved
The sainted mother would redeem the child
.
Was the orison lost? Whence then that peace
So dove-like, settling o’er a soul that loved
Earth and its pleasures? Whence that angel smile
With which the allurements of a world so dear
Were counted and resigned? That eloquence
So fondly urging those whose hearts were full
Of sublunary happiness, to seek
A better portion? Whence that voice of joy
,
Which from the marble lip, in life’s last strife
Burst forth to hail her everlasting home?
Cold reasoners! be convinced. And when ye stand
Where that fair brow, and those unfrosted locks
Return to dust, where the young sleeper waits
The resurrection morn, oh! Lift the heart
In praise to Him who gave the victory
.
4.
These contrasting views of the wicked stepmother can be found in Bruno Bettelheim,
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976), pp. 66–73; and Iona Opie and Peter Opie,
The Classic Fairy Tales
(London: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 15.
5.
William Upson, b. October 24, 1824, d. September 28, 1848; Mary Lucretia, b. July 29, 1826, d. November 23, 1828; Olivia Paine, b. September 26, 1828, d. April 5, 1838.
6.
Rohan,
Yankee Arms Maker
, p. 8.
7.
Ibid.; Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, p. 17; Ben Keating,
The Flamboyant Mr. Colt and His Deadly Six-Shooter
(New York: Doubleday & Co., 1978), p. 5.
8.
Powell,
Authentic Life
, p. 22. Information on the Union Manufacturing Company of Marlborough, Connecticut, can be found online at the website of the Richmond Memorial Library (
www.richmondlibrary.info/blog/historic_buildings/mills
). For interesting material on the use of double entry bookkeeping by early nineteenth-century Connecticut merchants, see Siskind,
Rum and Axes
, pp. 50–52.
9.
For example, see Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, p. 17; Rohan,
Yankee Arms Maker
, p. 9; Winders,
Colt and His Gun
, p. 38.
1.
It should be said that the meandering course of John’s career was more typical of his era than the unswerving trajectory of Sam’s. As historian Donald M. Scott explains, “Those who sought professional or intellectual careers in mid-nineteenth-century America faced a chaotic, confusing, and frequently unpredictable occupational life. Few whose adulthoods spanned these decades had careers that followed a course that they could have either planned or predicted. They frequently made their way by moving into and through a series of institutions, places, and activities that had not even existed when they started out and that they themselves often had to invent … Indeed, many career seekers shifted around in a manner hard to imagine for either the eighteenth or the twentieth centuries as they tried to get ‘a hold’ on life.” See Donald M. Scott, “The Popular Lecture and the Creation of a Public in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America,”
Journal of American History
, vol. 66 (March 1980): p. 795.
2.
See Edward K. Spann,
The New Metropolis: New York City, 1840–1857
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 1–7; Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace,
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 430–32; Ric Burns and James Sanders,
New York: An Illustrated History
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), pp. 56–58.
3.
Spann,
New Metropolis
, p. 1. The material in this chapter regarding John Colt’s life between 1826 and 1829—including all quoted passages of text—comes from Powell,
Authentic Life
, pp. 22–31.
4.
Hosley,
American Legend
, p. 15. Also see Cushing,
Reports of Cases Argued
, vol. 1, p. 232. Christopher Colt remained with the company until 1835; two years later, it went under during the panic of 1837. See Arthur Chase,
History of Ware, Massachusetts
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1911), p. 220.
5.
Sigourney,
Letters to My Pupils
, p. 258.
6.
Madison
(WI)
Express
, November 7, 1841, p. 3.
1.
John Phelan,
Readings in Rural Sociology
(New York: Macmillan, 1920), pp. 5–6.
2.
Ibid., p. 6.
3.
Barnard,
Armsmear
, p. 298.
4.
Phelan,
Rural Sociology
, p. 3.
5.
Rohan,
Yankee Arms Maker
, pp. 10–11; Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, p. 17.
6.
Rohan,
Yankee Arms Maker
, p. 11.
7.
Philip K. Lundeberg,
Samuel Colt’s Submarine Battery: The Secret and the Enigma
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1974), p. 8. Also see Rohan,
Yankee Arms Maker
, p. 12, and Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, p. 17.
8.
L. P. Brockett,
The Silk Industry in America: A History: Prepared for the Centennial Exposition
(New York: George F. Nesbitt & Co., 1876), p. 110.
9.
Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, p. 17.
10.
Ibid., p. 18; Lundeberg,
Submarine Battery
, p. 8; Rohan,
Yankee Arms Maker
, p. 26.
11.
Frederick Tuckerman,
Amherst Academy: A New England School of the Past, 1814–1861
(Amherst, MA: printed for and published by the trustees, 1929), pp. 82–83.
12.
Ibid., p. 67.
13.
Claude Moore Fuess,
Amherst: The Story of a New England College
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1935), p. 27.
14.
Rufus Graves, “Account of a Gelatinous Meteor,”
American Journal of Science
, vol. 2 (1820), pp. 335–37. Also see Hilary Belcher and Erica Swale, “Catch a Falling Star,”
Folklore
, vol. 95 (1984): pp. 210–20.
15.
My description of these experiments is taken from a standard text of the time,
Chemical Instructor: Presenting a Familiar Method of Teaching the Chemical Principles and Operations
(Albany, NY: Webster and Skinners, 1822). Designed specifically for the use of chemistry teachers in public schools and academies, this manual was written by Amos Eaton, later a renowned botanist, geologist, and chemist who taught for a short time at Amherst College.
16.
John White Webster,
A Manual of Chemistry
(Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, and Webb, 1839), p. 142. For Sam’s familiarity with Webster’s text, see Martin
Rywell,
Samuel Colt: A Man and an Epoch
(Harriman, TN: Pioneer Press, 1952), p. 18. In later years, Webster, a Harvard professor of chemistry and mineralogy, would become the central figure in a sensational murder case that almost uncannily mirrored that of Sam’s own brother, John.
17.
All quotes and information relating to this period of John Colt’s life are taken from Powell,
Authentic Life
, pp. 29–32. As for his possible real estate ventures, the speculation that he owned property in Baltimore derives from a contract signed several years later by Sam Colt’s employee John Pearson, who agreed to rent workspace from John Colt at the rate of four dollars per month. See Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, p. 32.
18.
The definitive work on this subject is Ronald E. Shaw,
Canals for a Nation: The Canal Era in the United States, 1790–1860
(Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1990). For more specific information about the project in which John Colt was reportedly involved, see Chester Lloyd Jones, “The Anthracite-Tidewater Canals,”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
, vol. 31 (January 1908): pp. 102–16.
19.
All quotes about the Reverend Mr. Fisk and the Wesleyan Academy are taken from George Prentice,
Wilbur Fisk
(Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1890), pp. 78–86.
20.
See
Madison
(WI)
Express
, November 17, 1841, p. 3; Powell,
Authentic Life
, p. 32;
Life and Letters
, p. 4. James’s remarks about Sarah Ann’s “derangement” appear in a letter to Sam, dated October 6, 1841, that is among the Colt archives at the Connecticut State Library. For Lydia Sigourney’s tribute to Sarah Ann, see Sigourney,
Letters to My Pupils
, pp. 242–43.
21.
Life and Letters of John C. Colt
, p. 4; Powell,
Authentic Life
, p. 32.
PART TWO: FORTUNE’S TRAIL
1.
Barnard,
Armsmear
, p. 296.
2.
Ibid., p. 276.
3.
The author of the “Battle of the Kegs” (a satirical ballad apparently performed to the tune of “Yankee Doodle”) was Francis Hopkinson, judge, author, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The complete poem consists of twenty-two stanzas. The ones reprinted here are excerpted from the version in Samuel Kettell,
Specimens of American Poetry: With Critical and Biographical Notices
(Boston: B. G. Goodrich and Co., 1829), pp. 202–5. Also see Rywell,
Man and Epoch
, pp. 14–15.
4.
See E. Taylor Parks, “Robert Fulton and Submarine Warfare,”
Military Affairs
, vol. 25 (Winter 1961–62): pp. 177–82; Robert Fulton,
Torpedo War, and Submarine Explosions
(New York: William Elliot, 1810); Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, pp. 160–61; Lundeberg,
Submarine Battery
, p. 7.
5.
Barnard,
Armsmear
, p. 275; Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, p. 18; Rohan,
Yankee Arms Maker
, pp. 14–15; Hosley,
American Legend
, p. 25. Also see Paul Uselding, “Elisha K. Root, Forging, and the ‘American System,’ ”
Technology and Culture
, vol. 15, no. 4 (October 1974): pp. 543–68.
6.
Herman Melville,
Moby-Dick
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002), p. 19.
7.
Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, pp. 19–20.
8.
Herbert G. Houze,
Samuel Colt: Arms, Art, and Invention
(New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press and the Wadsworth Museum of Art, 2006), p. 37. Also see Fuess,
Amherst College
, p. 108; Edward Wilton Carpenter and Charles Frederick Morehouse,
The History of the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts
(Amherst, MA: Carpenter & Morehouse, 1896), pp. 460–61; Margaret Hope Bacon,
But One Race: The Life of Robert Purvis
(Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2007), p. 22.
9.
The Joneses were transporting “two hundred reams of paper, a quantity of printing ink, and other articles to facilitate the printing of the Burman bible, tracts, &c.” See James D. Knowles,
Memoir of Mrs. Ann H. Judson, Late Missionary to Burmah; Including a History of the American Baptist Mission in the Burman Empire
(Boston: Lincoln & Edmonds, 1831), p. 389.
10.
Colt’s official biographer itemizes the expenditures thus (see Barnard,
Armsmear
, p. 300):
| Seaman’s cap | $ 3.50 |
| Quadrant, almanac, and compass | 18.50 |
| Mattress, bedding, &c | 9.00 |
| Slop clothes | 38.92 |
| Boots and shoes | 8.00 |
| Stockings | 2.00 |
| Jackknife &c | 1.00 |
| Custom House | .25 |
| Seaman’s Chest | 4.62 |
| | 85.79 |
| | |
| Cash | 5.00 |
| Paper &c | .45 |
| Total | $ 91.24 |
