Thursday, February 7, 1901
COUNTY SKETCHES THE FORGER
Jonathan Harbrugh was about 40 years old when he signed Thomas Dunstable’s name on a negotiable note for ten dollars and had it discounted at the county bank. Dunstable repudiated the note when it came due and the sheriff was sent to Little Top Mountain with a warrant for felony for the body of the same Johathan Harbaugh.
Jonathan lived in the last house on Rock Run on 40 acres of land owned by his wife. He had six children ranging from 10 years down. He lived in a log house of one big room with a broad fireplace at one end and the family beds at the other. The cooking, eating and living room was between the beds and the fireplace.
The sheriff arrived after dark one winter evening and found Jonathan sitting before a rousing fire playing with the children. Mrs. Jonathan was getting supper, the sheriff was greeted cordially and he sat down by the fire. He was a little uneasy until he unburdened his mind about his business and Jonathan said he would go with him after they had some supper.
Mrs. Jonathan told her husband that she never heard of such a thing as signing another man’s name. It was a god’s blessing that none of her folks could write and that the sheriff was to tell them bank people that she would be down in the morning to pay the debt so Jonathan could come home.
She allowed that they wouldn’t want the money and Jonathan both, but the sheriff must now bring his chair up to the table and reach and help himself for they were poor hands at helping people. There was nothing on the table fit to eat but what there was on the table was there for to be eaten.
After supper, Jonathan went down to the settlement with the sheriff and was locked up in a cell of the jail. The sheriff went off about his business, and the jailer was so careful of him and treated him so much like a felon that Jonathan began to be alarmed. He refused to hire an attorney, however. His wife came down and made good the note and came to the jail to give him a piece of her mind.
Circuit Court coming on, Jonathan was indicted and led to the bar where the Judge appointed a young lawyer to defend him who would rather have faced the cavalry than a jury of his peers. So, the young lawyer had his client plead guilty and, owing to the fact that the money had been repaid, and the prisoner had not proven obdurate and stubborn by demanding a trial and putting the State to trouble, the Court gave him the minimum term of two years in the penitentiary.
Mrs. Jonathan was properly impressed when she found that they were making such a fuss about ten dollars and bade Jonathan a tearful farewell. She assured him that she would keep the children together and that he would find her waiting for him at the little house on Rocky Run, and for him to get out as soon as he could and come home to her.
Jonathan was personally conducted to the State prison where he knew what luxury was for the first time in his life. He had plenty to eat, little work to do and there was always something to interest and excite the inmates of the institution. Christmas day the convicts fed on turkey and cranberry sauce, while Mrs. Jonathan and the children had cornbread and potatoes.
The months rolled around for Jonathan, and he drew his suit of clothes and mileage and set out to see his wife and children again.
As to whether he was cured of forging he never gave that a thought, having from the first seen that some people could lay themselves liable and escape while others would be punished severely for less things.
Mrs. Jonathan and the kids were dressed in their best to receive him and he gathered his children around him and counted them.
When he left home there were six.
Now, there were seven.
The traveler cast a stern look at the youngest of the set, a shapeless bundle of long clothes in its mother’s arms. Mrs. Jonathan began to whimper and beg her husband to look what a fine child it was.
Then Jonathan rose to a great height and said: “May-be we’ll call it even, and start again. We’ll sell the place and go off where nobody knows us, and nobody won’t throw anything up to these here children.”
And it was a fine homecoming after all.
In a few weeks, the Jonathan family set forth in a covered wagon and journeyed overland to a distant state where a farm was bought and where he reared his family.
He was respected and prosperous and, in time, he became constable of his district.
