Mr. Sayre's Odd Fancies

New York, 1895

He is the Repository of Most Astonishing Information.

A sheriff's jury has decided that Rufus Sayre, of Southampton, is competent to manage his own property. Henry Sayre, a brother of Rufus, thought otherwise, and commenced a proceeding in the county court. The Sayres are direct descendants of Thomas Sayre, who settled in Southampton in 1610.

Dr. Halsey testified that the defendant told him that he had moved the capital from Albany to Washington, and that when President Harrison was elected the defendant had sent him a check for $16,000,000, but the check was lost in the mails and never reached its destination. Sayre also told Dr. Halsey that he had a bay full of whales north of the village, and that whenever he wanted to go whaling he would call up one and kill it with his jack-knife. The defendant had issued a set of laws for banks to abide by, and they were read to the jury by Cashier Farmer of the Peconic bank of Sag Harbor.

Other witnesses said that Rufus had told them at different times that he had the deed for the whole of Long Island, and that he remembered during the Revolutionary war ships sailing from the ocean right into Agawam Lake, and that he knew where there was a gold anchor weighing seven tons and a gold chest eight feet square in the ocean off the village.

There has been considerable comment over the verdict.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 29, 1895, p. 8.