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- [It is not yet proved that the Isaac Ketcham recorded here is the father of Scudder Ketcham, although it seems likely.]
He was living in 1770 at Huntington, Suffolk Co, New York. He was arrested on suspicion of being a counterfeiter for the British, also arrested were Henry Dawkins, who had purchased the printing press, and Israel and Isaac Youngs (brothers). Henry Dawkins rented a room from or stayed in the home of Israel and Isaac Youngs, whom Dawkins persuaded to purchase a printing press in order to start a printing business. They purchased a "rolling press," which could be used to print the engravings and curriencies being printed by Congress and the new state governments, and installed it in the house's attic. Isaac Ketcham went to Philadelphia to purchse the type of paper used for currency, where suspicions were aroused by his inquiries. He was arrested soon after in May 1776. He was in exchange for leniency, Isaac Ketcham offered to and did inform on fellow prisoners, primarily Thomas Hickey, who were involved in a Tory plot to kidnap and perhaps kill George Washington. "With no motive higher than the preservation of his own skin, Ketcham betrayed them and then began service as a stool pigeon in the jail, so that the Tory plots were quashed in time. Without these sorry rogues, George Washington would never have been the father of anybody's country A new world power would never have arisen. No starry flag would fly from coast to coast. No one is likely to build a monument to Henry Dawkins or the brothers Young or Isaac Ketcham. Still, unintentionally and from the worst possible motives, they saved America." (Bakeless) This story, in a somewhat different form, appeared in Newsday, Long Island Our History series.
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1734 - 1806 (72 years)
[3] 