DR. DANIEL ROBERTS, REMSEN, ONEIDA, NEW YORK.

Dr. Daniel Roberts, by far the most widely-known practitioner ever in this area, came to Steuben in 1818. Unquestionably the person of most local prominence of his time in Steuben. His children were Mary, wife of Griffith Evan Griffiths; Jane, wife of James Davis, of Pen-y-mynydd ; and William D. While the latter did not devote his time to the practice of medicine, he showed much skill in the treatment of chronic diseases, and was very successful. He married Mary, daughter of Philip Thomas. Their children were Daniel, a soldier of the civil war, who died in the service; Edwin; John; George; Margaret, who married Richard Whitman; Josephine, who married Owen R. Thomas; Roscoe C, of Remsen; and Mary Jane, wife of Owen J. Evans.

Many and marvellous are the stories told of this man, some of them rivalling "The Arabian Nights Tales" or those of Salem witchcraft days. If he in his day was averse to the opinion entertained by many of his superstitious fellow countrymen regarding his possession of supernatural powers, he at least took no steps to controvert that belief. In reality, he may not have been aware of the full measure of mysterious happenings that were attributed to him as wrought through his influence with those invisible agents alleged to be under his control; but certainly on one occasion, as we shall show, he directly asserted that he possessed such powers; and there were those with whom he was in close relation who were wont to recount many wonderful things that he was thought to have brought to pass.

Dr. Roberts was born in the parish of Llaniestyn, Carnarvonshire, Wales, in 1775, and in his early years was a student at the famous Lampeter School, one of the most noted preparatory schools in the Principality. He came to this country in 1818, landing at New York, and thence directly to Steuben, where he located about a quarter of a mile north of Ty Coch Corners, on the west side of the highway. His reputation for communion and fellowship with the "Powers of Darkness" had preceded his arrival in America; for it was related of him that a poor widow, belonging to his parish in Wales, chanced to lose a sheep, and, having great faith in his divining powers, appealed to him concerning her loss. He quietly told her to be comforted, that she would get her ewe back on the following Sunday if she would be at the parish church.

Accordingly, when the people of the little Welsh hamlet had assembled for worship on that Sunday morning, they were amazed to see the one who later was proved accountable for her misfortune enter the assemblage with the sheep across his shoulder; and he was none other than a leader in the church.

Among the passengers in the vessel with Dr. Roberts on his voyage to this country was John Hughes with his family, father of the late Deacon Hugh Hughes, of Remsen. From New York they, with several other families, came by boat to Albany, and thence with their goods were transported by wagons. They would put up at an inn as night overtook them, the wagons containing their effects being left in the inn yard, or under an open shed, with two men of the party delegated to guard them. One night, it so happened that John Hughes and Dr. Roberts were selected to keep this watch, and, after smoking and visiting until all about the inn and stables was quiet, Dr. Roberts proposed to Mr. Hughes that they make themselves comfortable and get some sleep. To this the latter demurred, saying that they had been chosen to watch the wagons, and if they slept, some one might carry away their goods; and the doctor replied: "If they do, I shall go to my books, and they will be glad to restore them to us." The inference was that he possessed books of magic, and that by reading certain passages from them he could invoke, as did the Witch of Endor, spirits from the depths which would be forced to do his bidding.

Here are a few of the many stories current in years past among the superstitiously inclined, and which are sometimes retold even in these days.

The one that made the deepest impression on our juvenile mind, and rendered us truly thankful that no mian in these parts possessed such wonderful powers in our day, ran something like this: A number of truant boys tempted by the fruit with which the Doctor's apple-trees were loaded, stealthily crept into his orchard and helped themselves. While returning to the road with their plunder, and just in the act of climbing the fence, they glanced toward the house to see if they had been detected, and beheld the doctor looking at them from a window. Immediately all were transfixed, and remained in that condition, each with a leg on either side of the fence, until the doctor came to them with a reprimand followed by words of good advice, after which he released them from the spell and bade them go.

The doctor's brother, Robert Y Gof (Robert the Blacksmith) came to this country with him. He was a man of powerful physique and a skillful veterinarian. Once he related the following circumstance to a man well known to the writer, from whom we received the tale: The doctor requested his brother to accompany him to the bam one midnight, where by the hght of a tallow candle, he drew a circle with chalk upon the bam floor, and both men stood within the circle thus drawn. The doctor then read some jargon from a book which he had brought with him, and immediately there came a sound as of falling hailstones upon the roof, and dark, shadowy objects appeared in the gloom all about them, though none ventured within the charmed circle where the two men stood. What mission the doctor dispatched these imps upon after summoning them to his presence, the brother failed to explain. Possibly he sent them to bail out his well with sieves, as was the case with one whom we have heard of, who, being a novice in the business, had acquired the art of calling spirits into his presence, but not the power to dismiss them.

Another story related of him is that, having occasion to visit a town in one of the counties north of us, he stopped f ^r a night at a tavem where the accommodation atiorded was decidedly bad, and the price demanded in settlement excessively good. He paid without protest, and returning to the dining-room then deserted, wrote with a piece of chalk a sentence upon the chimney above the mantle; and started on his joumey, which was being made on foot.

Presently, one of the maids entered the room, and seeing the chalked characters upon the chimney attempted to read them, when she immediately began involuntarily to dance. Her mistress soon appeared, and reading the sentence, likewise began to dance. At this stage the landlord, hearing the unusual racket and the wild ejaculations of the dancing pair, stepped into the room, and casting his eyes upon the mysterious marks, his heels also instantly began to clatter upon the bare sanded floor, in unison with those of his wife and servant. Being of a plethoric temperament, his breath soon showed signs of failing; so, while a little of it yet remained, he made use of it to call his stableman, whom he besought as he valued his legs not to read the sentence upon the wall, but to go with all possible speed after the man who had lodged with them and beg of him to return. The stable-man, mounting a horse, started in pursuit of the doctor, whom he soon overtook, and to whom he related how the devil had taken possession of his master's household, stating that he had been sent to beg him to come back and release them from the power of his Satanic Majesty.

The doctor quietly told him to return and simply erase the characters chalked upon the wall and all would be well; but to tell his master never again to charge so exorbitant a price for such poor accommodation as he had furnished him. Previously to 1820, in a log house on the hillside a little more than half way between Remsen village and Capel Ucha' and some sixty or hundred rods north of the road, there lived one Robert Jones (Y Bala).

The family of Mr. Jones once placed on the grass near the house some fleeces of wool to bleach. When they arose on a morning, they discovered that two of the largest fleeces were missing; and soon some one passing along the highway observed them spread over the tops of two large elm trees standing on either side of the road, in a direction about opposite Mr. Jones' house. The fleeces were beyond regaining, so remained there until time and the elements removed them. By what agency they were carried to their lofty perches, and with such nicety spread upon separate trees, was beyond the ability of anyone to explain; though Dr. Robeili; was given the credit for bringing about the strange occurrence.

There was one known to the community as "Black Sheriff," who lived in a small house opposite "Store Felen," on the north of the road leading to Sixty Acres. He was a lover of spirits of another sort than those Dr. Roberts was reputed to be familiar with, and his house became infested by swarms of rats, said to have been directed to him by the doctor. Had the man seen snakes instead, as men of his habits sometimes do, no doubt the illusion would also have been attributed to the same agency.

The doctor's wife once related the following circumstance to a lady whom we knew: On a certain day he suggested to her that she prepare an early dinner, saying that a stated number of strangers whom he described minutely, together with their horses and style of vehicle were on their way from a distance to see him. These people, she said, whose coming he could not possibly have had intimation of by any ordinary announcement or communication, arrived an hour or two later, as he had predicted, their appearance according perfectly with his description.

It is told that a woman of a distant city, in indigent circumstances and afflicted with an ailment that baffled the skill of physicians in her locality, was advised to see Dr. Roberts. By reason of her poverty, she was unable to make so extended a journey; but her friends and neighbors kindly made up a purse sufficient to defray the cost of the trip and to pay the doctor's fee. All this was unknown to anyone here, but eventually the woman arrived in her husband's care, "having made the journey by wagon. After a course of treatment she began to improve, and finally was considered cured. Then the couple secretly depailed for their distant home, neglecting to compensate the doctor, or even to thank him for the service he had rendered them. However, not many weeks had elapsed before they again appeared at the doctor's, the woman afflicted as before, and soliciting his aid; but he quietly observed that if it were a permanent cure they expected him to perform, they better pay him at least a portion of the money their friends had donated for the purpose. The delinquency was remedied, it is said, and a permanent cure effected.

On one occasion an acquaintance called on him, reported the loss of a set of double harness that had been stolen from his bam, and asked him to aid in its recovery. After giving attention to the man's story, Dr. Roberts told him to return on a certain day and hour. Knowing fairly well who were the dissolute characters within a radius of several miles, the a doctor notified each of these to be at his house at the hour of the appointment he had made for the man who had lost the harness. Upon their arrival they were all ushered into one room, when the doctor invited them to be seated, and explained his purpose in calling them there.

"Mr. here" he said, "has lost a set of double harness, and one of you has stolen it. Now, when I count three, I want every one of you to stand up; and if the one who stole the harness stands up, he will immediately fall dead." When he counted, "one, two, three," they all stood up but one.

Another instance of the doctor's shrewdness in detecting the wrong-doer, and compelling the thief to restore to the rightful owner what he had purloined.

On an occasion when several men were in a room together waiting to interview the doctor, one of their number approached him with the statement that his watch had been stolen since he came into the house. The doctor told him he hardly thought it possible that any of those present could be guilty of such an act, for he knew them all; but the man persisted in his claim, insisting that he had taken the watch out of his pocket after coming into the house to ascertain the hour. As it was late afternoon in the season of short days, the doctor, by failing to wait upon them and otherwise filling in the time, detained them there until dusk, when he ordered candles brought in.

Presently he called his son, William D., then a small lad, and instructed him to bring into the room a three-gallon iron pot that stood outside near the door, which Mrs. Roberts had used that day in steeping over a wood-fire in the fire-place some herbs for the doctor's use in compounding his remedies. The pot was brought in and placed bottom upwards under the table. Then he quietly instructed the son to bring in a rooster from the barn, which he placed under the pot, all present marvelling greatly at the procedure. He then told them that a gentleman present had lost a watch since coming into the room, adding that he disliked to believe that any of their number could be guilty of so culpable an act as to steal it; but to satisfy the man who had lost the watch, as well as for his own satisfaction, he wished to determine whether it had been stolen in his house. He then put out the light of the candles, and requested them all to approach the table one by one, each to lay his right hand upon the upturned bottom of the pot, pressing the palm firmly against it; stating that if either of them were guilty of having stolen the watch, the rooster would immediately crow when that man put his hand upon the pot. So in the dusky room they drew near the table, and, reaching under it pressed each a hand upon the kettle; but the rooster failed to crow. The doctor then relighted the candles, and passing to each of the men in turn asked that he be permitted to examine his hand, which he found covered with pot-black; but, finally he came to one upon whose hand there was no smut. To this one, looking him keenly in the eye, he held out his own hand saying, "give me the watch." The man immediately took it from his pocket and handed it to the doctor. The culprit had feigned to do as the others had done, but being fearful that the rooster might crow if he laid his hand upon the pot, had very carefully avoided touching it, to his undoing.

These Doctor Roberts stories are purely traditional, and the present generation naturally disclaims agreement with or belief in their supernatural side. They are simply the tales of the time. The doctor was possessed of strong personal magnetism, however, and may have had developed in him to an unusual degree what in modem times is called the power of clairvoyance or hypnotism. He was a man wellread for his day, with a strong delectation for the occult, as is proved by some of his books and manuscripts that have been shown the writer. It was about this time that there had begun to be developed on the Continent of Europe — and the fame of it spread throughout the British Isles and America — knowledge of a latent power or inherent force thitherto generally unknown or imperfectly understood. Frederick Franz Mesmer had startled the civilized world by his discoveries and experiments. These phenomena, though not yet within man's comprehension or rational judgment, Doctor Roberts may have been aware of; and possibly he used the power of hypnotic suggestion, which in our day science recognizes and is putting to practical use; though he had not found the beneficial medical uses to which it could be applied, and hence had not the ability to advance it in the interest of humanity as he would have liked.

That he was able to do some things which to his superstitiously inclined neighbors were unaccountable, is certain; hence, perhaps, their willingness to ascribe to his power or influence all local happenings for which they could not readily assign a natural cause, thus imputing to him the power of sorcery. At any event, all that transpired here in his day bordering on the mysterious, or of a nature beyond the comprehension of the simple country folk, was attributed to the supernatural powers believed to be vested in him. Nor does this seem in any way remarkable, when we reflect that belief in the fanciful, mystical powers such as those attributed to him was almost universal. Through centuries, even up to a comparatively few years of his time, the countless vagaries and disguises of mysticism had inspired a belief in witchcraft, which for fifteen hundred years was prevalent in Europe. Luther, Calvin, Wesley, and the Puritan divines believed in it. Blackstone thought it undeniable. It was held to be proved by the Bible, in that it says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Its truth was attested by any number of confessions, and the most varied and seemingly ample evidence.

The doctor is said to have been a whole-souled, generous-hearted, charitable man, who did much in the way of medical service for which he received very little return. As a physician he was marvelously successful, his reputation extending to distant localities, especially to those districts peopled by his own countrymen; and patients came to him even from Vermont, and from many parts of Pennsylvania, for consultation and treatment. It is related that the highway on either side, from his house to Ty Coch Corners, a quarter of a mile distant, was frequently lined with vehicles, so numerous were the calls on his skill made by people from distant places.

Personally, he is described as a man of large frame who dressed in knee-breeches and buckle-shoes, and was characterized by quaint sayings and a droll wit. On one occasion a Dr. of Trenton called on him, and, after the usual exchange of common civilities, observed : "They tell me. Dr. Roberts, that you almost raise the dead." To which he gravely replied, "Well, they tell me that you do, quite." Dr. had been suspected at Trenton of robbing graves. Another brother practitioner once called, announcing that he had come to borrow the best book he had — a well, ostensibly in the realm of medical science. Dr. Roberts retired to an adjoning room, presently returning with a copy of the Bible, which he placed in the hands of his caller.

Dr. Roberts died September 13, 1820, aged forty-five years, only a little over two years after his arrival here from Wales. His death was a serious loss that was keenly felt, not only in the infant settlements within a radius of many miles, but in distant communities. For months after his death the afflicted from a distance would arrive here, only to learn of his decease. His widow continued the doctor's local prac- tice quite successfully for many years; and their son, William D. Roberts, showed much medical skill, though he never became a practicing physician.

History of Remsen