The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1868-09-02
JACK LEE.
A MARYLAND AND KENTUCKY ROMANCE.

AOo1 lOuuIClC duQ exciting character, lD(
read like a sensational novel.
! The following is brief abstract of the
principal episodes of this legal drama
Like many modern novels, the story goe.
back half century, and begins thus:
John or Jack Lee was born in the city O
New York about the year 1900. John, il
his youth, was very dissipated engaged il
horse racing, ck-fighting and the like, ant
IN few years had spent all that his father
had left HIM, and some time between 1922
and 1924 disappeared from New York.
He went to Newport in 1925, in very d.
lapidated condition, but after while found
means to open coffee house, and began tc
prosper. He was, however, an inyeterate
gambler, and liable to the ups and downs Of
thatset Of improvident persons.
lie was considerable of an epicure, and
never failed to indulge bis appetite for lux
urious eating when he could do so without
much expense to himself One CT Lees
strange eccentricities was an excessive fond
ness for cats and canary birds, and his store
always abounded with number of them
When he would go out Of morning to the
beefstand, three OF four cats could always be
seen following him, with tails erect, whining
for their portion.
Lee died inestate in 1853, and no one olaims
ing the administration Of his estate, the
Campbell County Court committed its admin
istration to Charles Stricken, then acting
sheriff, who filed ispetition in equity against
the creditors and unknown heirs for settle
ment Of the estate. In 1858 the widow and
children of William Lee, Of New York, a
half brother of jacks filed their answer and
cross petition, setting up claim to the whole
estate. The final result was the confirmation
Of the right Of properly to the heirs Of Will
liam Lee.
In July, 1860, five years after the death Of
Jack Lee, Anna Eliza Selman 0ate Lee) and
James Lee instituted suits of ejectment in
the Circuit Court, claiming the estate of Jack
Lee, deceased, as his children and only heirs
The circumstances ON which their claims are
founded, and which deYelope the most TO-
mantle part Of the case, were as follows:
Sometime about the year 1922 or 1928, a
young man ramed John Lee made his appear
ance near Hagerstown, Maryland. He was
travelling withan Irishman named Ryan, who
was tailor, and seems to have been accom-
pan LUZ titC iuCu CuSdSCu III CONSTRUCTING INC
national road from Baltimore to Wheeling
In the fall Of 1923, Ryan and Lee arrived
| at Hancock, Maryland, and worked there as
jouraeymen tailors in the shop of one McClel-
Ian. Lee in the meantime became acquaint-
ed with young woman in the neighborhood,
named Catherine Garaghty, the daughter Of
respectable old man who had accumulated
some property, and who kept a tol-sate near
Hancock. In April, 1924, Lee married
Catherine. Her father set them up in tbs
little town Of Flintstone, near Cumberland
| Lee worked at his trade here, but was of
| dissipated habits, fond Of horse racing and
gambling in small way, and inattentive to
business. They seemed not to have lived
| happily together, on account of his Irregular
ties. They had two Children son named
James and daughter named Ann Eliza. In
the fall Of 1927 he abandoned his family, the
daughter being a few months old Several
witnesses testified that he left Cumberland,
Md, in December 1897, and went to East
Tennessee, for mail contractor named Rec
side, to assist in taking horses there to stock
line running from Virginia to louisville,
Tennessee This was the last known of him
in Maryland.
His wife fuding chat she was abandoned,
returned with her two children to live with her
father and brothers at Hancock Here she
r mained some ten OF twelve years, when,
supposing that Lee was dead, she again mar
riea man named Farrell.
About the year 1915 Farrell ard his wife.
with the Lee Children removed to Cincinnati,
and some years afterward Ann Eliza Ice,
having grawn to wonlanhQnd, married Gar
ret Selman. Selnlan took his young wife
and went to Newport to live. Here she
heard Of man named John Lee, who was at
the time keeping grocery, and the name be-
ing the same as that Of her lost father, she
began to inquire into his history and ante
ccdents Finding that in age and personal
appearance he agreed with the description OF
her father, and further, that he had come to
Newport about the time her father had aban-
doned her mother in Maryland, she told her
mother she believed this Newport Lee was
her father The mother was greatly shocked
at this, as she had married again, and raised
another family Of children and in the Cath
Ole Church, of which she was devout mem
Der, such an offence was mortal sin.
As to the time when Lee came TO Newport
there was much contrariety OF testimony,
some witnesses testifying that he was there
as early as 1924, and others that he came in
1923.
The heirs of William Leo, of New York,
claim that Jack Lee, of Newport, Ky, was
born and brought up in Reade street, New
York was for two or three years student
of law with one Thomas Phenix, on hurry
street; that he left the Empire City about
the LIST Of September, 1923, and arrived in
Newport, Ky, in October of the same year.
| They brought forward evidence to prove
that their New York and Newport Lee had
existed for many years as distinct being
from the tailor Lee; that while their Lee
lived in Newport, the tailor still lived IN
Maryland.
The National LatcNyencer, (Dcmocratlc)
treats upon the Radical misrepresentation OF
the spirit Of the Democratic convention IN
Mississippi 1t charges upon the Schcnck
Congressional committee aud its carpet-bag
adherents the malicious reports now being cir
culated concerning the Democracy of that
State, and says that the object of the South
ern Radical carpet-bag Vire-pHllers IN trying
| T., f,,oa r, session Of Congress in September