The Poor House Millionaire

Those of you who follow my writing will know for sure that I love the Poor House folks. I have tallied the ones (with some help from buddy Kim Hancock and a couple of others) on FindAGrave in the Montgomery County Poor House cemetery but only those with proof are there. We have suspicions for many others, including this interesting fellow!

Russian born, Martin Cook, was determined to be taken care of in his old age. Never married, he came to America pre-1850s having fought for the US in the Mexican War. For some years, he lived in Tippecanoe County as well as in the Crawfordsville area. Never married. No children to help him out, so he decided he would apply to stay at the Poor Farm. He did and was accepted and stayed for quite a few months until one day he flew the coop to hang-out with “some boys” at a local bar. Superintendent Myers was called and someone told that they had seen Martin Cook at the saloon. Myers asked the old man where he’d been. No lie, really but not a truth either, Martin told him he had been in no particular place. Gig up. Superintendent Myers told him that he knew where he had been which riled Martin up and he was placed temporarily in a cell. Myers decided since Martin handed over his purse to him with over ten dollars in it that he might want to search his room for other lies (oh my). Myers took this money to Cook still in the cell and asked him if there was more. No lying this time – he said there was more in a small box under his bed. Along with a couple of bottles of beer, some personal papers and various trinkets Myers found the box and stuffed inside was gold and greenbacks. More was found in a long leather pocketbook.

Nothing like this had happened in the long reign of the superintendent’s and so he decided this was something the County Commissioners should handle. They interviewed Martin and counted the money $11.60 in Silver; $2,470 in paper and ready? — $4,068.50 in gold, making a total of $6,530.10. Cook was a tailor and had mended many items for the poor and for the boss, plus he had worked on the farm, rarely not doing something for someone, much more a worker than almost all the others put together, yet they made him pay $2 a week for the 28 weeks he had been there. He was given $1/week off for the work but still he owed $28 and another $6.40 for clothes they had furnished him. Guess $34 for room and board even back that far for seven months was a decent deal! He told the commissioners that he had been saving that money since 1850.

So, heading north he wasn’t too far away when he fell and couldn’t get up, being too heavily laden between his $6,000, clothes and other items in a big bag. Someone from GW Paul’s home saw him and went to his assistance, not asking what his name was or where he was headed. Once upright, Martin continued his journey, but became tired and sleepy after his ordeals. He discovered a school house and while getting the window up got stuck getting in – his back side was on the outside and his front through the window with the window holding him there. The same young Paul boy was headed to the school to put wood in the stove and saw this. He helped the man inside and warmed him up, talking to him for a while and settling him in. Before the boy left, our little money-handler was sound asleep. When the boy got home and told his father what had happened, he had already heard about Martin so told the boy to go get him and bring him to their house. There Martin was given supper and remained in the Paul’s hospitality for two nights. He just left his package of money on the sitting room floor, seeming to trust them all but Mr. Paul was worried and said he could stay there for a good deal IF he’d put his money in the bank. When Martin got into town, though he didn’t have the stash with him, because he didn’t trust banks and thus rented a livery team and went to a friend, John Stingley’s in Madison Township stopping by to collect his packages.

So, the white-haired, old fella’ (at least 72), with his Santa-type pack, was at Stingley’s for some time but nothing else about Martin Cook, no death records I could find gave us a final closing to his life, as many of our Poor Farmers. In the local articles, he was called the miser, the millionaire, old man with a bag of gold! Perhaps he was all three and described as “fleshy with part of his nose gone from disease!”

He told that he was born in (Black Sea), Russia and was exiled from there and made an escape from the country when he was being moved to Siberia. Later he served as a soldier in the French Army and as per above one in the Mexican War. Fluently, he spoke four languages and was one sharp cookie, but was getting too old to care for himself at this point! So, I sure wonder what happened to him, don’t you?

– Karen Zach is the editor of Montgomery Memories, our monthly magazine all about Montgomery County. Her column, Around the County, appears each Thursday in The Paper of Montgomery County. You can reach her at [email protected].