Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1880 — Auntie Mott’s Story. [ARTICLE]

Auntie Mott’s Story.

In 1807 John Harvey lived in Cortlandt street, where many wealthy residents then lived. His wife, Henrietta, sister to Peter Harvey, a widely-known Boston banker, reprimanded a Swedish sailor who boarded near her house, and the man vowed revenge. On the next day Henrietta, her three-year-old child, disappeared, and the sailor was not seen in the neighborhood. He had taken the child away in a boat, and left her on the marsh on Barren Island, with a piece of fat pork in one hand and a biscuit in the other. Nicholas Dooley, who occupied the only house on the island at that time, discovered and adopted her, giving her the name of Julia Ann. At the age of 15 she married Henry Mott, a young resident of Rockaway, and shortly afterward Mrs. Rachel Cowles, who visited the house on a boating excursion, was struck with the young bride’s great resemblance to Mrs. Harvey, whom she knew. Knowing of Mrs. Harvey’s loss, she informed her on returning to the city of her discovery, and that lady identified her daughter by the mark or a halfmoon on one of her knees and a hole in one ear.

Mrs. Mott, says the South Side Observer, is still living with her husband in Westville, L I., where she is familiarly known as Auntie Mott. They had thirteen daughters, but no sons and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren are numerous, Mr. and Mrs. Dooley are dead, but their house still stands. Mrs. Mott remembers Gibbs, the pirate, who is said to have buried his stolen gains on Barren Island. He passed the night at Mr. Dooley’s house before he and Wansley, his associate, were captured on Blum Point. He subsequently confessed his intention to murder the family had not Mr. Dooley remained awake all night with a loaded gun by his side.— New York Sun. . ————♦-●-♦————