Vermont Phœnix

From the Buffalo Com. Adv. Feb. 2.

SAD REVERSE OF FORTUNE.

We have rarely heard of a case involving more loss of property and its attendant comforts, appealing more feelingly to the sympathies of our nature, than the following—the particulars of which have been recently communicated to us by a friend conversant with the circumstances, which are thus stated:

An aged gentleman named Hezekiah Mosby, who owned a large plantation with slaves, &c. near Richmond, Va., some three years ago, became anxious to emancipate his slaves, and expended much money in educating and fitting them for their contemplated freedom. Some time in 1836, he sold his plantation, and was offered some 20,000 for his negroes—but he preferred giving them their liberty. He furnished them with money to bear their expenses to this state and personally accompanied a part of them, for the purpose of seeing them well and comfortably established where they could be earning a support. He succeeded in procuring situations on farms for all the males but one—providing them with provisions, implements of husbandry, and means necessary to cultivate their farms. He likewise devoted much time in visiting and advising them in their pursuits. They had been devoted to him, and he was much attached to them.

The remaining male, named Charles, with a family consisting of his mother, a sister, and four children, were brought by Mr. Mosby into this neighborhood, and finally settled upon a farm on Grand Island, leased of a free colored man residing in this city, who had formerly lived on an adjoining plantation. Remaining with them a short time, as the man Charles was not very capable of conducting affairs, and he wished to aid him by advice, &c.

In the fall of 1837, Mr. Mosby and "Charles" had occasion to cross over to this side of the river, to obtain provisions, leaving none at home but the children, the two females being also absent at the time. "Charles" proceeded to this city, while Mr. Mosby, in consequence of a high wind which rendered crossing the river somewhat dangerous, remained all night on this side, at the house of a black man named Ephraim Knight, who did not come home till past 12 o'clock. During that night, some person went to the house upon the Island occupied by "Charles," and stole Mr. Mosby's trunk, containing $2000 in dollar pieces, which was all that then remained of his former wealth.

A person living on this side of the river opposite, was taken up at the time, on suspicion of the robbery, but discharged, there being no evidence of guilt found against him.

Thus stripped in a moment, of the means he had reserved to carry him comfortably through the few remaining days of his earthly pilgrimage, this philanthropic but unfortunate man, was thrown in his feeble old age, upon the hard necessity of obtaining a support by the labor of his hands—for which his previous habits of life and the infirmities of age, but illy fitted him, and it was difficult even to obtain such employment as his strength would enable him to perform. To add to the burthen, the only female of the family able to assist much in their household, was taken sick and died, leaving her aged mother and the helpless children, dependent on the precarious support which might be gleaned by the labors of the old gentleman and his former slave Charles.

As if their deplorable condition was not already sufficiently pitiable, the colored man in the city from whom the farm on which they lived was leased, came to the house while all the family except the children were absent at work, on this side of the island, eight miles distant from home, and on the heartless pretext that "the house was his," turned the children out of doors, and fastened up the entrance!—leaving them exposed, in the bitter and inclement month of November, 1836, without a shelter for their heads! They, however, remained about the house, and put up two boards against the building, which served as a partial protection from the weather, while some refuse vines gathered from the garden, thrown upon the frozen earth, was all they had to sleep upon. In this situation, these poor children actually remained more than a week, with nothing to eat except a few beans and vegetables, which had been left on the ground in the garden, and which they ate uncooked!

On the return of the adult portion of the family, they could only procure a log hut, nearly roofless, and otherwise uncomfortable, upon the island. In that condition, without a bed to lie upon, have this old gentleman and his former slaves since remained, and he has been himself compelled to make splint brooms to obtain the food necessary to avoid absolute starvation!

Suspicion having lately fallen upon Knight, the colored man at whose house Mr. Mosby staid on the night of the robbery, he was last week arrested, and after a protracted examination of five days before T. W. Woolson, Esq., magistrate at Tonawanda, was committed to the jail in this city, charged with the crime. The facts against him appear to be—that he has within some twelve months past, paid out nearly $300, to various persons, in dollar pieces, for the purchase of stock, &c. Some sixty of these pieces, paid to one man, had clay adhering to their surfaces, as if they had been buried and then dug up. From these and other circumstances, enough was established to authorize his commitment.

It is surmised that he has purchased a farm in Chatauque county, with a part of the money stolen; and if that be the case, it is hoped that it may be communicated by any one who may be aware of the fact, so that some portion at least of the money may be restored to the rightful owner.

The above detail is from the minutes taken of the old gentleman's testimony, on the examination. By a singular coincidence, a gentleman from Virginia on his way to the Falls, stopped at the tavern in which the examination was going on, and recognized Mr. Mosby even in his forlorn condition and tattered habiliments, as one of his old neighbors in Virginia, corroborating fully the statement of Mr. M. as to his former wealth and respectability. A subscription was at once started, and enough raised to purchase a suit of clothes for the truly unfortunate sufferer.

Mr. Mosby, whose "ower true tale" we have briefly sketched above, was a soldier in our glorious Revolution and fought at Guildhall Court House, and at Yorktown under Washington. He once had a wife and children, but death has swept them away, and left him alone, in the dreariness of a destitute old age, with only the poor pittance of a pension of $50 to minister to his wants. He is now 82 years old, but very intelligent, and retains his mental faculties in full vigor.

God grant that the sharp misfortunes which have so strangely visited him, may yet be alleviated, and that the munificent philanthropy which has apparently left him to the rough charities of the world, may not be without its solace and its reward, even in this changeful and uncertain life.