17. An Uncouth Upstart
Dexter’s new neighbors included the likes of Thomas Russel, one of Colonial America’s richest men, and John Hancock, then governor of Massachusetts. Such elites did not take kindly to an uneducated and barely literate man who’d married into money. They treated Dexter as an uncouth upstart, which infuriated him. He determined to prove that he was their equal. He noticed that upper class gentlemen often held public office, and decided to secure one for himself. So he badgered nearby Malden for an office. Eventually, after dozens of petitions, they made up a BS position of “Informer of Deer” to get him off their backs. Like the title said, the job was to inform the authorities if deer were spotted in Malden – even though town records indicate that no deer had been seen in a generation.
