A Scrap of History

The Marietta Register, April 19, 1883

A scrap of Pioneer history showing how a Washington county boy became a king.

Among the sturdy men who emigrated from Connecticut to Ohio was one named Stephen Guthrie, who located in the settlement called Newbury, at the lower end of the county. His first wife was Sally Chappell and they raised a family of six sons and two daughters. Four of the sons went to Putnam, in Muskingum county, and became prominent men in that town. The oldest daughter [Laura Matilda Guthrie] married Amos Dunham and died at Pomeroy a few years ago. The youngest daughter [Almira Guthrie] was the wife of Walter Curtis, and died at her home in Newbury in 1881.

Mr. Guthrie’s wife died and he married a widow named Palmer [Martha ___ Palmer] who lived in Marietta, who had previous to her second marriage four daughters and two sons, some of whom will be remembered by the older class of your readers. Mary Palmer [Julia Ann Palmer] married Richard Short [Elijah Short] and settled in Lowell, where he died rather mysteriously many years ago. His widow still lives with a daughter [Mary Short Carpenter] in Columbus. I believe Achasa Palmer [Achsah Palmer] married Erastus Guthrie, a son of Stephen Guthrie who occupied the homestead in Newbury for several years and afterward moved to Malta, in Morgan county, where he died and the widow died and was buried at West Columbia, West. Va.

Waterman Palmer went to Pittsburg, became wealthy in the dry goods trade, and was well known to all Washington county merchants who in those days made semi-annual trips to the Smoky City to buy goods.

Walter Palmer, the youngest son, left Newbury, entered the store with his brother, and being a high spirited adventurous youth, became disgusted with the confinement and vexations which generally attend the life of a young clerk, ran away and no tidings from him were received by his anxious family and they supposed he was dead.

Long years after the Palmer family learned indirectly that the brother whom they supposed to be dead, went to South America, became a sailor on the Pacific Ocean and his vessel was lost in a storm. The crew took a boat and after much privation landed on the Sandwich Islands, where they were received with great kindness by the natives.

Walter, with that enterprise and confidence which characterize men in Ohio, made love to the King’s daughter and became his son-in-law. His wisdom, energy and amiable qualities rendered him very useful and influential among the people, and upon the death of the old King was unanimously elevated to the throne, and under his rule reforms were established which elevated the Islanders from a race of savages to a civilized nation. Thus did the truant boy who left Washington county to seek his fortune, become a king and father of the present King Kalulu.

Truly the adventures of this Ohio boy read like a tale of fiction.

C.