Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1855-11-14
TRUMBULL COUNTY, OHIO, WEDNESDAY

vInced that his own prospects OF SucresS
with his cousin were gone, began 10 con-
slider the possibility OF Lying seige 10 her
fortune in some other way.
WHO was her mother - had been a
question often put TO Annie Bennett by
others, still more frequently by herse f,
bu. hitherto unanswered. Sine had, it is
true, dim recoliecions, indistinct memo
ries of distant country, of strange
scenes, of childhood which had for It's
com J,anion and guide beautiful and be-
nevolent nurse, whom in her uncertain
visions of the past she calle mother
She had dr, ans that were more clear
and vivid. But dreams, visions. and
memories, alike tailed to locate the place
where her childhood passed, or to name
or describe her mother.
John Bennett male a discovery. Ii
was his forte. lie was o No value as a
law clerk OF student. but he was given to
finding flaws in items which he could
make prcuniarily valuable by buying up
claims of which owners did not know the
value.
He found flaw in the execution of
Adam Bennett will. Slight indeed as
il appeared al first, but fatal 10 the pro-
bale and to the will as it proved to be on
examination. In fact the will was worth
less under our statutes which are clean
and remarkably stern on the subject Of
ast wills, aud the properly must descend
to the heir in law of the old man, as if
no will exis ed. The heir was clearly
enough, Annie, but where was the evil
dence of her paternity ? l. consisted
wholly in the scene at the time OF her
fathers death, and there W 5 no legal ev
idence there on which to hang a claim as
grandchild and heir.in-law.
Hence there wa> little hope ofrcsisting
the claim now set up by the brother Of
Adau Bennett, and when at this period
| WIS introduced to the parties, L found
it impossible to afford them any encour-
agement, deeply as | became Interested
in Miss Bennett: and her cause. My sug-
gestion of settlement was met by JuI t
Morton and his son with a decided refu-
sa, they asserting that the proofs of her
birth were of ten fold more value to Them
than her property.
The prospect was as dark for defence
as is often known in lawyers Office,
AMI when, aft. exhausting cur ingenui
ty for delays. W. were at length driven
10 trial AMI defeat. we had bill of ex
crplions long enough to occupy appellate
courts for short Lifetime whil we did
not siacken our exerlion> to uace the
footsteps of the wandering son of Adam
Bennett. In this search no labor or ex-
pense was spared, and ultimate success
rewarded us fully.
| II was no easy matter to follow the
steps Of the truanl boy, especially after
the lapse of so many years. But we
found him at the very siart shipped on
vessel which traded regularly with Ger
many for 10 g period, and We found
that after the lapse OF several years, he
left The ship the other side of the big
waters.
The ship-owner in whose employment
he sailed, was in m ny respects singu-
lar man, and enc of his peculiariti,s con
sisted in Il devotion TO statistics which
led him 20 keep a record ofevery passen-
ger, deck or cabin, that had ever crossed
the ocean in one of his vessels. 1t was
by means OF this record that we learned
that the boy, now grown to a young man,
hId crossed the st a, but in the CABIN in
; cad of before The mast, and at period
some years laIer than his sailor life.
Sill no trace oi his marriage could b.
found. BuI sharp clerk out in emf 10y
had observed that in the same vessel
that brUu. hit him TO America, there came
As cabin passenger, German gentlemen
and his two daughters. The clerk re-
solved in his own mind the probable re-
suls of long passage on ship board
with young ladies in company, and,
with our permission, though We laughed
at the fee bic foundation of his notions he
pursued the plan of search he had laid.
Arguing that a German clergy man
would be most likely to be app led to,
under the circumstances, to marry them,
he obtained without difficulty a list of
the German clergy, Protestant, and Ro-
man Catholic, at this time in the city,
and then hunted them down, man by
man. As each failed to aid him, and
his list grew smaller, instead of being
discouraged he was only the more san
guine of his near approach to the discov-
cry and at length had but one man to
look for, and he was confident that this
one would solve The mystery.
Two years passed before he obtained
intelligence Of this person, who was a
poor Lutheran clergy man, and who, it at
length appeared had returned to Ger
many and died about ten years previous
ly.
Morton, the younger, had become
much interested in young Stephenson's
search, and had mblbed f.i;h in its sac.