The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-08-06

CURIOUS STORY OF IIFES YICTSSI-
TUDEs.-IHe Heir to an Immense For.
tIille.-For some weeks past, says the
buhaIo Express, the interest of the
whole country has been excited by
paragraphs in the papers relating to a
fortune of $35, 600, 600 in England, said
70 have fallen to Mr.. Halsey Church,
OF Stockbr1dge, Massachusetts, and by
him been turned over to his daughter
and her husband, mechanic named
Eli Walker, residing in Hartford. Con-
necticut. We shall probably astonish
our readers this morning by Informing
them that the claims Of Mr.. HalseY
church and OF his daughter, Mrs. Eli
Walker, have been completely over
turned, and that the real heir to this
uent Oh Erie county, who for thirty
years has been living upon a modest
farm within six miles from Buffalo.
The Monte Christie thus suddenly ele-
waited to rank among the RothSchilds
and Astors Is Mr.. John Church, West
phalis, In the township of Aurora.
"A week ago Saturday last, as Mr.,
Church was reading the CRTistidn Id
1oeGte, to which he piously subscribes,
his eye fell upon one of the paragraphs
70 which we have alluded, and his Sys-
tenn we suppose, must have been slow
~ electrified by the intelligence it bore
him. In the name of Mr.. Halsey Church
he recognized that of a younger BROTH
er, Tor forty years neither seen nor
heard from. Forty years ago, it seems,
this John Church, now nearly eighty
years ofage, LETT his family relatives
at East Haddanl, Massachusetts, under
some circumstances of disagreemenE
which prevented any Communication
and then emigrated to the then tsf
West, !" of Western New York. Never.
afterward heard from by his younger
brother, Halsey, the latter, long ago
resigned himself to the conviction that
death had left him (Halsey) alone, the
solitary representative of the family OF
Church. - :
For thirty years, as we have said,
Mr.. John Church has been living at
Westphalls, on a little farm of twenty
hve or thirty acres, worth, at the ut
most, not more than $1,000 or s., 900.
contented, no doubt, with his posses
stons, and never dreaming of wealth,
beyond the little to be gathered from
his scanty acres. His first glimpse of
the gorgeous vision which such figures
as SS5.OOO,OOO summon up, was caught,
as we have said, a week ago last Satur-
day. The Monday following, advised
and prompted by some of his neigh
bors, Mr.. Church came to this city and
that evening took passage upon the
cars, bound for Massachusetts. Four
days ago his family received letters
success OF his mission. Mr.. Halsey
Church had recognized him as his elder
brother and the rightful heir to these
thirty-6ve millions, and the Walker
family had abandoned their proposed
visit to England, after a fruitless at
tempt, through Governor Seymour, to
obtain a power of attorney from him.
What his next step will be we cannot
say: The age of Mf. Church will un-
doubtedly prevent his visiting England
in person, but some of his family may
be expected to make the journey soon.
The great fortune of Mr.. Church con-
sfsts in the main, we understand, Of
British government securities, but in
cludes two large estates on the Thames,
not very distant from London. 1t de.
scends from a great grandfather of Mr..
Church, and has been held for many
years past by an elder brother of
Ihomas Church, his father, who came
to this country some time In the last
century. The late possessor died with
out heirs, and his S$5, 600, 900 have been
patiently waiting several months for
the American descendants of Thomas
Church to present themselves,