Pumphry and Booth's Spurs

[SpruceCreekHawk]

(10-01-2014 02:08 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Jean, welcome to the forum! I cannot answer your questions about James Pumphrey, but my favorite Pumphrey story is the charge of trying to cheat the gas company!

http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/sit...mphrey.pdf

The Evening Star, April 14, 1883
Mr. Pumphrey's Gas Economizer
How He Was Victimized by a New Invention
James W. Pumphrey, the well-known livery stable man, of No. 485 C street, was put on trial before the Police Court today on the charge of fraudulently obtaining gas from the Washington gaslight company by conducting gas to his stable otherwise than through a meter.
John P. Meyers, an employee of the gas company, testified that when he went to take the state of Pumphrey's meter he found a rubber pipe attached to it, which conducted the gas around instead of through the meter. Mr. Pumphrey's counsel said they did not deny that this was a truthful statement, but the defendant would explain the whole matter. Mr. Pumphrey said that he had been troubled with a leaky pipe. He sent for a plumber, who refused to remedy it, saying it was the gas company's business to do so. Mr. Pumphrey complained to the gas company, who put in a new meter, but the pipe still leaked. Afterwards a man, giving his name as Dougherty, came along and claimed to have an invention that would save twenty-five per cent of the gas bills. He called his invention a "governor," and Mr. Pumphrey allowed him to put one in; but the gas meter is kept in a box, and Mr. Pumphrey said he had not seen it since the "governor" was attached. It was this invention which the gas company complained against. "I can hardly believe that Mr. Pumphrey--a business man--would undertake to cheat the gas company in this way," and Judge Snell, "and his explanation shows that he has been the victim of a practical joke. The case may stand suspended for one week, that Mr. Pumphrey may settle the matter satisfactorily with the gas company.

(thanks to Dave Taylor for that discovery)

James Pumphrey didn't just cheat the gas company. From everything I've been able to find about him, he never married the mothers of his children, either the first one, Margaret, or the second, Beulah Simpkins. I guess he counted common-law as good as a J.P. or the church.