Seth Wyman, a life of Crime IV

This is the last installment of our posts on the life of our cousin Seth Wyman (6C5X). In our last post, Seth had just escaped from the authorities taking him back to Amhert Prison. He decided that he, once again, needed to leave the state. Pregnant Wealthy would have to stay behind.

a traveling man

While still in New Hampshire, Seth stayed for a few days with a former cellmate. Then he made his way to Andover, MA whre he plied his trade for a while. He was gone for a month before he made his way back home. There he found that "my wife had ready for me a present in the form of a nice fat boy -- the very image of his father. . ."

Still needing to get out of Dodge, Seth decided to take his little family up to Maine where he still owned property. On the journey, he stole "a very fine fur hat" which, once again, "excited my thieving propensitites to indulgence." He carried his plunder aboard the boat to take to Maine with him. Men, learning of the thefts, came on board to search through Seth's belonging but he had learned very early how to stash his goods so they couldn't be found.

In Maine, Seth continued his thieving ways and found that he "never had for so long a time what was to me living in the clover of life as I did here."

I had all kinds of the best victuals without working for them, and rum, gin, brandy, with a plenty of sugar and molasses put into them and perfect liberty to play when pleased, and to work when I pleased.

With winter coming on, however, Seth and Wealthy decided to go with her brother to Boston. They found a room in a boarding house. Seth had brought some of his plunder with him on the ship and, once in Boston, had an easy time of adding to his store. After a lucrative spree of a few days, the pull of Goffstown got to him but that choice, once again, proved a tad dangerous.

Seth's arch enemy Cilly, naturally, got word that the little family was back in town. The authorities were informed and Seth, while trying to barter a stolen piece of velvet, was taken into custody. This time, however, he had something of a guardian angel.

A Mr. Pattee, who had always been rather friendly to me. . .took Cilley aside, and, as I learned afterwards, told him that as I had my wife and child with me, and was soon intending to leave this part of the country, that they had better let me escape and hold the velvet which they had taken into their possession, and which they knew to be worth more than the reward offered in the advertisement.

Seth knew nothing about the arrangement at the time but when he saw a chance to escape, he took it. The keepers made a farce of trying to chase him. Back at home, Seth readied himself and his wife to leave yet again. Just before they left, Seth had a nightmare:

I dreamed I was traveling on a beautiful road. . .while the most delicious music lured me in pursuit of my object, in which my whole happiness seemed centered. I. . .already seemed to have it almost within my reach, when I saw two files of soldiers drawn up. . .with their glistening bayonets. . .This rather dashed my courage at first, but my wife, who appeard to be at my side and equally interested, spurred me to to the goal. . .I succeded in clearing myself from contact with the bayonets. . .when I saw a platform about as high as my waist . . .stretching entirely across the road. . .On the top of this platform, with its horrid mouth extended wide and hissing forth its fury at me, was a huge snake. . .and was about to spring upon me, when the extremity of imaginary fear which this phantom caused me, awoke me to distrustful forebodings for my future prospects.

caught again, then off again

In Seth's mind, the dream came to fruition when, while he and Wealthy were on their journey out of New Hampshire, he was apprehended by men who had seen the advertisment and wanted the reward that was still offered. Seth gave his wife enough money for her traveling expenses to Boston and he was taken back to Amherst jail. There he was thrown into a cell with "Henry, confined for throwing an axe at a woman. . .Hart, imprisoned for passing counterfielt money- - -and the third, by the name of McDaniels, a noted and eccentric rascal. . .for attempting to commit violence on two young girls."

Seth's incarceration was short-lived. He managed to escape after a complicated .process devised by him and some other men then made his way back to Gofftown with his cellmate Hart. He stayed only long enough to say goodby to his family and took a stage for Boston.

At this time, I was then pretty deep in what the reader will call the blues. I seemed driven round and hunted like the wild beast, and could not then see that I was particularly deserving of so much persececution on the score of only one act. And why was I thus driven round? Why was I thus hunted, and at every opportunity shut up in a prison scaely fit for even a brute to live in?

In Boston, Seth found Wealthy living in the house of a well to do man who "loaded her and the child with presents when we came away." Now bitter about his life in general, Seth "had sworn inmity with the world, and was henceforth less scrupulous what crimes I committed, and reckless of their consquences." Having made up his mind to go back up to Maine, he "commenced a very lucrative crime spree," after which he and his family boarded a ship for their journey.

It was now February of 1808. In Maine, the family stayed for a while in the town of Bath. There Seth got work with Mr. Smith who owned a tavern and kept the ferry. Seth related that his own strength was so great that he could carry alone a barrel of cider that usually took two men. He was a good worker for Mr. Smith but could not, naturally, refrain from stealing whatever he could from his employer. After he stole a watch from a boat, Seth's past caught up with him. One of the men on the boat recognized him and ratted him out to Mr. Smith.

Seth immediately went to Wealthy "and told her how the gander hopped." She was to get everything ready for the trip back to Boston. On the way, they made another stop in Goffstown to see the family. It was on this fateful stop that Seth managed to get himself involved with counterfeit money. Some of his old jail buddies gave him a $1,200 "stake" of fake money, which Seth colored with tobacco and soap to make them look old.

Then it was on to Boston with Wealthy and the babies. There, Seth was able to pass over $100 in the course of a day.

. . .the reader can easily conceive how I felt at the unexpected success. But I was in a state of fearful excitement; this was a new business to me, involving new risks, and at the same time holding out stronger temptations by the prospects of pecuniary aggrandizement. On one side, were failure, imprisonment, and ruin, on the other, success, and easy wealth. I could not eat; ardent spirits alone suited my excited mind, and on this I lived almost entirely.

As he went about the city passing money, Seth couldn't reisist a little pilfering when the opportunity presented itself. His main concern, however, remained the counterfeit business which he found was fraught with danger. Many of the shop owners were aware of the fake bills. Seth got questioned on his bills quite often but managed to act the innocent and get off each time:

When Seth finally passed almost all the bills he had been given, he loaded trunks with his recently pilferered good and those that he had stored in Salem. He and Wealthy spent the night in Salem and, while there, he too care of the last bills he had. Wealthy, now in the thick of the business herself, passed a "Cheshire ten" to pay for a necklace.

Counterfeiting was Seth's way of life for the next few months. He traveled frequently between Gofftown and Boston to ply his trade. He had to be careful in Goffstown as a reward was still offered for his capture. Boston could be a hotbed of trouble as well. He had a bit of a scare in a tavern when he gave a "back-handed blow" to a woman who was annoying him. Immediately the place was filled with "brother sailors and rowdies, who came upon me like bees." Seth gave as good as he got, but was soon outnumbered and managed to flee the tavern.

In Gofftown, he was under constant threat of being apprehended. Cilly came one night to the house looking for him, but Seth grabbed an axe and went down to the basement. When Cilly found him there, the "axe was a bit too intimidating and he was forced to leave." Another night, a group of men came and got him at the house and he was taken to Amhurst. This time, however, Seth was finally able to settle up with the court for $137 and "the doors were once more opened to me."

Seth's short lived big time

Seth worked legitimately making sleighs for a while when a "Mr. W." convinced him to get back into the counterfieting business. On one particular trip to Boston, Seth and Wealthy got married and received a certificate finally making their life together legal. Combining their private and professional lives, they stayed in Boston for a while working to pass their fake money.

Then came an offer from Mr. W. for Seth to enter the big time in New York. He "concluded to go, as I was heartily sick of the hum-drum monotony -- as it was to seem -- of a life of honesty and quiet."

Before he left, Seth couldn't reisist getting his revenge on a "Mr. O" who had sued him for stealing a wooden plane. He came up with a plan to start a card game with the man and while the game was going on, Wealthy was to set fire to Mr. O's barn. She agreed to do it but, to Wealthy's credit, "her heart had failed her and she dared not do it." Seth "cursed her with a horrid oath, and told her to get into the house for a d--d coward."

Shorlty afterwards, the couple left for the New York conterfiet market. There, Seth had such a close call, almost getting caught, and that the only way out of that one was to deck the man and run. That scare "had such an effect upon my mind, that I determined not to pass another bill in the city."

down but not out

So it was back to Goffstown for Seth and Wealthy. Seth has still not gotten Mr. O out of his mind and decided he would get his revenge without the help of his wife.

He (Mr. O) owned a grist-mill near us, which stood on a bank. . .at the foot of which was alot of rocks. One mornng, they found every moveable thing thrown down on the rocks and broken to pieces. . .A few nights after. . .white pine boards, containing about six thousand feet, were set on fire and a greater part of them burnt off in the middle, before they were discovered.

One day, Seth was at a store in nearby Piscatoquog village when his old counterfieting pal Mr. R. was brought in. He had been arrested and Seth decided to try and free him. He, with a bunch of other men in the store, created such a stir that Mr. R. was able to escape. Seth and his pals were summarily arrested for causing a riot but with the aid of a good attorney, they managed to get the charges dropped.

Seth related another dream in which he put his hand into the throat of a sheep that was being killed. The blood that got on his hand couldn't be washed off. Then balls of fire were flying around him from all directions. When he woke he "knew that my bloody hand would cause me a narrow escape."

A few weeks after this dream, Seth went to Boston to pass some bills. This time his luck didn't hold up. He was caught and taken before the justice who bound him for $500 which he didn't have. He was commited to the Boston prison with his trial set for six weeks. Wealthy visited him there "and the time passed away pretty comfortably. Seth's comfort, however, didn't stop him from trying escape. When he was discovered, however, the dungeon he was thrown into wasn't quite as comfortable as the jail cell.

In a good luck, bad luck scenario, Seth was finally taken to Salem for his trial where the judge threw his case out for lack of evidence. Just as he was freed, the jailer brought out Seth's pocket book which "contained several bad bills." Taken back into custody, Seth was now confined to the Ipswich jail where he stayed for six months. At his trial, the jury found him not guilty and he was once again set free.

Seth's conterfeiting days were put to rest once and for all when his buddy Mr. R. was arrested again. Now relegated to breaking into stores, Seth found that there was no peace to be found in that occupation. He was continually harrased by the law and, on one occasion, when he found that a tavern owner planned to take him to the prison, he was forced to run out of town pursued by several men. They eventually gave up, and Seth walked the twelve miles back to Goffstown.

It seemed fated that there should be no peace to me in Gofftown, and I resolved to sell my place in it, and buy me one in Maine. I let my wife into the secret of the affair, which was that I was intending to run in debt at every store in the vicinty to the utmost extent of my credit, and then to decamp privately.

My presence could not be very pleasant to my friends, and espcially to my father, to whom I was a great expense, as he was obliged to pay my way out of scrapes. . .I have no doubt but he paid at least one thousand dollars for me at different times.

Seth's credit scheme worked and he "arrived in Maine without any difficulty." The year iwas now about 1817. By this time,  Seth and Wealthy had three young sons, Columbus (7C4X), Edward (7C4X) and Franklin (7C4X). Having a wife and children, however, had made no difference to Seth and his lifestyle. He bought a small farm to try and go legit but "soon returned to my old habits."

In Maine, it was the same as in Gofftown. He was accused but managed to get off every time until a caper one night with his pal Mr. L. They were both thrown into the Norwich Jail and Seth promptly began escape plans. Poor Wealthy was told to bring him "the main spring of a watch, to be filed into a saw." Unluckily, the escape attempt was unsuccessful.

In even worse luck, his buddy Mr. L. turned State's evidence against Seth and he was sentenced to the Charlestown prison for three years. After a year of incarceration, he wrote to Wealthy asking that she come to Charlestown to try and get him a pardon. She filed a petition which was granted by the Governor and Seth was once again free. But the worst was still to come. While Wealthy was in Charlestown trying to free Seth, their son Franklin fell out of the fourth story of a house, "striking his head on a door-step with such force that the brain ran out onto the ground."

Seth and Wealthy buried their son and then made their way with the two boys to Goffstown where the downward sprial for Seth continued. His next escapade was in the town of Bow where he stole "as much cloth as I could carry" from a fulling mill. He was, of course, the first one suspected. This time he was immediately convicted and sentenced to State's prison in Concord.

The year was now 1820 and it appears that a fourth son, another Franklin (7C4X), had been born. Seth doesn't say where Wealthy and the boys were living. He does describe a bit about his life in prison.

. . .they asked me if I could cut stone, and I answered that I was blind, and could not. They set me to turning a tremendous heavy grind-stone, heavy enough for a yoke of oxen. I found this harder than cutting stone, and my eyesight soon returned. I was taken sick in reality, and recovered after a close run with fever.

This was the last entry that Seth made in the book he was writing which continues thusly:

Another hand must here take up the tale, and complete the work thus far carried out by him. . .He had brought it so near an end, when death ended his career in this world, and ushered him into the untried realities of another, purer state of being.

After serving his time in Concord, Seth returned to Goffstown. Two more children were born after his return, Lewis (7C4X) and Carolyn (7C4X).

He had found that the course he was pursing brought only suffering and disgrace with no profit, and henceforth he abstained from all depredations on a large scale.

The key words there are "large scale." Seth did continue with "small scale" pilfering until almost the end of his days

His neighbors grainfields, woods, and fold formed the limits of his exploits and these he continued to visit until a short time before his death. To give some idea of the extent. . .we will cite an offer made to him by an Agent of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company.

Note: The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was founded after our cousin Samuel Blodgett (2C8X) created the Amokeag Canal which made the Merrimack River navigable.  

This Company owns large tracts of woodland, which grew up near the house occupied by Mr. Wyman, who made frequent visits to it, as he found it the easiest and cheapest method of getting wood.

The agent, meeting him one day in a store, told him that he would give him fifty dollars if he would not take any more wood from their land. Wyman told him he would think of it and give him an answer in a day or two. He went home, figured up the pro and con of the offer, and then returned with his answer.

"Well Mr- --" said he to the Agent, "I have thought of your offer, and can't take it; for, to tell the truth. . .I can do better at stealing the wood.

Seth's last days were hard. His health had been failing for some time. Then, he broke his back in a fall from the third story of a factory he was helping to raise. He never fully recovered from that inury.

His constitution, which had originally been one of iron, had been broken down by suffering in prisons and constant exposure and a sure consumption was at work on his vitals. He was taken with the dropsy and canker about the first of January, 1843, and continued to fail rapidly until his death. Beore this occurred he looked back on the course he had taken from his infancy. . .and at that late period, at the eleventh hour, his strong spirit bowed in remorse and contrition, and for the first time he addressed his Maker in reverence and fear.

Seth died in April of 1843 at age 59.

Wealthy lived for another, hopefully peaceful, 24 years after Seth's death. She showed up in the 1860 census living with her son Franklin and his wife. She died in 1867 at age 89.