Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1875 — Lafayette’s Watch. [ARTICLE]

Lafayette’s Watch.

The Louisville Courier-Journal, speaking of Lafayette, says: “ When the Marquis was on his last visit to this country in 1825 the watch was stolen from him at Nashville; and now a watch, which is with great reason believed to be the same, has been found and handed over to the family of Lafayette in France. After all that has been said and done wouldn’t there be great disappointment if it should turn out that the watch story, so far as its identity is concerned, is a hoax, #r if there should at least be some doubt as to its identity? We will not venture an opinion on this subject, for to be the occasion of any doubt in this matter now would be both cruel and unpatriotic. But there are a few facts, well known to parties in this city, concerning the history of the timepiece which will be of interest in this connection. In 1859 the watch was sold to Julius Mendel, of this city, by a man named Jim Fowler, who came from California and said he got it from a gamblet in a gambling-house in San Francisco, and that he received it in pawn for a small amount of money. The watch bore the following inscription:

Geohoe Washington : to : Gilbert Mortier de Lafayette ; after the Capitulation of Yorktown, : 1771.

“The watch remained several years in Mr. Mendel’s possession, and was regarded of little value except as a relic, and in this particular even it was greatly depreciated because of the doubts as to its identity. It nevertheless attracted much attention, and had its identity been certain there would have been many eager purchasers. Among the number who were anxious to obtain possession of it was Mr. George Wolf, who offered SI,OOO for proof of its identity. Mr. Mendel all the time discredited its identity, and about three years ago sold it to a stranger for the small sum of S4O. The watch was taken to New Orleans, where its 4 fame soon spread, and its identity then seemed everywhere accredited. The result was that last summer Congress appropriated S3OO for the purchase and restoration of the watch to the Lafayette family. It is to be hoped that this interesting timepiece is the veritable souvenir S’ ven by Washington, and probably it is. ut Mr. Mendel doesn’t believe it. He thinks its discovery was a put-up job by a San Francisco sharper. He says4here are many watches of the same pattern in existence, and believes the watch to be bogus with a counterfeit engraving.”