Hal Eustace Letter
Dear Betty:
I have been laughing myself silly over fabulous antics of the M'Muldrochs
in the early days of Creation, according to the hilarious accounts of the
"M'Muldroch Papers." It seems as though to me that McTaggart (and Saxon of
the Gazette) was gently poking fun at the fancies and foibles of the whole
Scottish race - and using the M'Muldroch name to do so. I am inclined to
agree with Mr. Truckell that the connection of these tales with the
McMuldrochs would indicate that the name is old enough to be connected with the antiquilty
of Galloway.
Nearly every race has these fabulous stories about its progenitor --
always a prodigious fellow of extraordinary strengths and talents. Almost
always these stories turn into pure humor in which a race gently kids
itself.
In America we have the story of JOHN BUNYAN, a fabulous fellow who
moved mountains, consorted with the dietles and had an oxen, OLD BLUE, that
was even stronger than he, etc. These stories are genuine folklore. They
are the fables of the people.
A few years before the Gazette's articles were published, our Colonel
Wm. "Billy" Muldrow died in Missouri after a very flamboyant, controversial
and full life. He was born in Kentucky in 1798, and he grew to young manhood
in that state. The U.S., originally 13 small states on the eastern seaboard,
purchased a large territory from Napoleon called the "Louisiana Purchase."
This immense tract was opened to American settlement about 1819, and "Billy"
Muldrow went there to settle in the wilderness on the Mississippi River near
where the city of Hannibal, Missouri, is now. This is also the place where
the greatest American humorist was born and reared - Mark Twain (Samuel
Clemens). Perhaps you have heard of some of his works - "Tom Sawyer,"
"Huckleberry Finn," "Innocents Abroad," "The Guilded Age," etc. It is said
that one of the central characters in the Guilded Age, one Colonel Mullberry Sellers, was
patterned after Colonel " Billy" Muldrow.
Colonel "Bill" started a new city as a promotion on the banks of
the Mississippi. "Billy" was a hot-shot real estate promoter and salesman,
but unfortunately the town -- called Marion City - was flooded out by the
river and the whole thing was a fiasco finally.
Charles Dickens visited "Marion City" when he was in the U.S., and it
is said that his fun-poking at the city of "Eden" in his book "Martin
Chuzzlewit" was aimed at Col. Huldrav's Marion City.
Col Muldrow made the Gold Rush to California (acquired from Mexico in
1848) in 1849, and he became a business partner of John Sutten, the man on
whose land the first gold strike was made in California. Muldrow remained
in California until after the Civil War, and he acquired from Sutter a deed
to property formerly held by the Russian Fur Trading Company during Mexican
occupancy. The property, now known as the Russian River Valley, is worth a
fantastic sum. However, Muldrow never got it. The U.S. never would
recognize the validity of the Russian's possessions under Mexican
soverignty. (These Russians also owned Alaska, and they sold it to the U.S. in later years).
Col Muldrow's branch of the family is almost extinct in the Muldrow name.
All that remains is one 45-year old man living in St. Louis who has only a 16-year-old daughter
- named BETTY! Her father's name is Frank Richardson Muldrow, and he is
employed by one of our largest chemical companies, Monsanto.
