The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-07-23
nIaterial for a Noxel.

S IneiCOurtsO OF Appeals OF Kentucky
has just decided the 'tJack Lee' case,
named from man who died at New
port, in 1866, intestate, and without
known heirs to his estate of some
$50, 600. In 1858, the widow and
children of VIM. Lee, of New York,
half brother of Jacks, filed their
answer and oss-petition, setting up
claim to the whole estate. The final
result was the confirmation of the
right of the property to the heirs of
VIM. Lee.
1t then appeared that the decedent
was born in New York, about the
year 1900, appeared for a few years in
the character of law student, but
passed his time in dissipation, and
having spent G small patrimony, dis
appeared between 1922 and 1924.
Between the lattor date and 1928, he
arrived in Newport, where he gra-
dually rose from stable hand to a
bar-keeper; and, at last, proprietor
of coffee-house, became less in
temperate than before, and gradually
economical, if not penurious.
In 1860, Ann Eliza Selman Iate
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 theory of their case was,
that in 1922 or 1923, Lee came to
Maryland as q tailor, and in 1924, at
Hancock, in that State, married and
had two children, James and Ann
Eliza. He was dissipated, and did
not get along well with his family,
whom he abandoned in the fall of
1927. and the last known of him in
Maryland, was, las the Louisville
Journal, from which We take these
particulars, says,) his going with n
string of horses to East Tennessee,
''for mail contractor named Re-
slde"-strange that the once famous
Reside should dwindle down to an
indefinite article, with his name mis-
spelled. In ten or eleven years, Lees
wife, believing him to be dead, mar
ried one Farrell.
About the year 1916, Farrell and
his wife, with the Lee children,
removed to Cincinnati, and, some
years afterward, Ann Eliza Lee,
having grown to womanhood, mar
ried Garrett Selman. Selman took
his young wife and went to Newport
to live. Here she heard of n man
named John Lee, who was, ut the
time, keeping q grocery, and, the
namo being the same as that of her
lost father, she began to inquire into
his history and antecedents. Find
ing that, in age and personal appear
ance, he agreed with the description
of her father, and, further, that he
had come to Newport about the time
her father had abandoned her mother
in Maryland, she told her mother
that she believed this Newport Lee
was her father. The mother was
greatly shocked at this, as she had
again married and raised another
family of children; aad, in the Cath
olic Church, of which she was 81
devout member, such m offence was
mortal sin. After somc months of
effort. the daughter persuaded her
mother to go to Lees grocery and
see him, which she did, in company
with n Mrs. Conlan. under the pre-
text of buying some candy, and
affirmed, in the most positive terms,
that she knew and recognized him as
her husband, and could not be de-
ceived.
They had reason, also, to believe
that Lee recognized them, and that
he intended to make himself known
to them. Shortly before. his death
he introduced himself to Selman, the
husband, and told him that he
wished to see him on important bust
ness. Selman was then on his way
to New Orleans, and told him that
on his return he would como and sec
him, but before Selman got back Lee
was dead.
Three witnesses who knew Lee be-
fore he left New York city, say that
within n few years after he left there
he made several return visits, and
that he told them, on these visits,
that he had married and had one or
more children.
The heirs of William Lee, of New
York, claim that Jack Lee, of New
port, Ky, was born and brought mp
in Read street, New York; was, for
two or three years, a student Of law
with one Thomas Phenix, on Murray
street; that he left the Empire City
about the 1st of Scptcmber. 1894.