The researches of Dr. J. J. John have developed some very interesting particulars regarding the transfers immediately preceding Boyd’s purchase in 1826. Walter Brady, sheriff of Northumberland county, 1815-18, subsequently became embarrassed financially, and the upper part of the Clark tract, of which he was then the owner, was attached upon an execution involving eighty-three dollars fifty cents, entered in favor of Michael Zuern. It was several times offered at sheriff’s sale and at length found a purchaser, August 19, 1824, in Jesse Major, a gentleman of uncertain occupation, variously accredited as a burglar, counterfeiter, and horse thief. Tradition asserts that he had been but recently released from jail, and happened to be passing by at the time of the sale; no one seemed disposed to bid on the property, and, having made an offer of twelve dollars, he was forthwith declared to be the purchaser. To the surprise of every one present he produced the money in gold; but to a person unaccustomed to the acquisition of property by honorable means its possession was more of an incubus than a pleasure, and after making several visits to his purchase he next endeavored to sell it.
About this time Mr. Major evinced a strong desire to own a horse — an aspiration not foreign to his nature, but which, probably for the first time in his life, he was prepared to gratify according to the ordinary methods of purchase. As Dr. J. J. John aptly expresses it, he offered his “kingdom for a horse.” Having found several specimens of coal in the creek, between Clay and Webster streets, he induced a blacksmith at Paxinos to give them a trial; they were accordingly placed on the charcoal fire, but had no sooner become hot than fragments exploded in every direction, and the new fuel was pronounced a failure. Undismayed by this, he continued to exhibit his mineral samples in the course of his peregrinations over the country, and, while his efforts as a real estate agent were doubtless persevering, and did more to attract public attention to this locality than anything else at that time, they were not rewarded with immediate success.
At length, in the spring of 1826, Major found himself one evening at the hotel of Joseph Snyder, in Kush township. Mr. Snyder had an old gray horse, not a very desirable specimen to the ordinary observer, but sufficiently so in the eyes of Major to prompt him to suggest the transfer of his land to Mr. Snyder and take the horse in payment. The proposition was respectfully declined, but Snyder directed the impatient and impecunious real estate owner to John C. Boyd, who, he said, was disposed to speculate. Major promptly interviewed Boyd, and as the result of their conference his double purpose was accomplished — he sold his land, at the consideration of two hundred thirty dollars, and secured a horse, valued at fifty dollars. And, with the object of his ambition at last attained, Mr. Major bad no further connection with the history of Shamokin. The growth of a town in its incipient stages was not calculated to interest a man of his tastes.