Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-12-02
A nIIsERLY RECLusE.
Half a Million Dollars Found i'm a
Trank-DisPositiOn OF the Fortune.
From the New York Tirnes Nov q

From the New York Times, Nov a.
On Wednesday evening last, Lyman Al
Ign, an aged boarder at Taylor's Hotel, in
jersey City, was found dead, sitting in
his chair, in his room His death was
duly reported on the following morning,
but there were circumstances developed
yesterday which surround his life and
death with peculiar interest. His brother,
Thomas Allyn, of Groton, Connecticut, in
company with sister, the only relatives
of the deceased, arrived yesterday, and,
with the permission of Coroner Burns,
took charge of the corpse. They exam
ined, also, the two dilapidated trunks that
stood in the corner of their brothers bed
room, and in one of them were found
stocks and bonds, deeds and securities of
various descriptions, representing fortune
of $500, 900.
His life during the last five years had
been most remarkable He was man of
over seventy, and so infrm that he con
sumed half an hour or more in coming
| down from his room to the dining room.
Yet he lived upon the highest floor to save
money, and was never known when upon
| the street to use horse car, saying that
they had the effect to make people lazy,
and he would not patronize them. He
| came from his room to his meals but once
a day, eating the very smallest quantity of
| the cheapest food He sought no society,
and would permit no person to enter his
room but the chambermaid, and she but
once week. While she arranged his
room he invariably watched her closely.
To an observer the room contained very
little that was worth watching. Two old
trunks, scanty wardrobe, made up of
cheap ready-inade coats, two hats, one
white, the other black, and both thirty
years old, patched shoes and boots, copy
of Webster's dictionary, Bible, and a
medical book, were all that the room con-
tanned, and its situation and interior desc
lateness made it a dreary abode The old
man had lived here alone for nearly six
years, declining all the while to see any
visitors, for, he said, they came only be
cause they thought he had money; that
they were mistaken, for he was very poor
and had great difficulty in paying his board
bills.
His brother and sister, who took charge
of his effects, gave our reporter a brief
| ShCttltl HIS llAG. lAE W Do DOlu III IkO-
ton, Conn, in 1897, and was sent at an
early age by his father to work in
grocery store in New London. Finding
that his employer was dishonest, and that
he used false weights and measures, the
boy ran away and returned to his home.
He soon procured situation in another
store, remaining there a number of years,
until, in 1927, he came to New York and
engaged in business as commission mer-
chant. Becoming interested in stock
speculatiOns, under the the advisement
and in partnership with Jacob Little, Mr..
Allyn amassed large fortune, which
subsequent specuIatiOns did much to re-
duce.
lie was bachelor, and had for thirty
or forty years been in some degree averse
TO all society, but his eccentricities were
not so marked as they were during the six
or seven years preceding his death. During
his stay at TaylOr's Hotel he was occupied
entirely in looking after the value of and
| the interest upon his bonds and stocks,
| keeping his business, however, in so great
secreSy that not even the proprietor of
| the hotel had the faintest intimatiOn that
his guest was d wealthy capitalist. His
bills were paid with the greatest prompt
| tude, but beyond this fact no person IN
the hotel had grounds for suppOsing that
the old man had dollar. His occupa-
ton. meanwhile, was entirely unknown,
and many speculations were INDUCED in
by his fellow bOarders touching the work
which kept the reclUse so much confined
to his garnet.
| Wednesday afternoon the bill collector
| took Mr. Allyn's bill to his room, knocked,
received no answer, and could gain no all
mittance. He threw the bill into the
room over the door and went away. The
day wore away, and it was remarked that
the old gentleman was not so prompt as
formerly in responding to the presentation
of his bill Mr.. Fisk, the proprietor,
| went to his room, and receiving no an
| swer to his calls, the door was forced
open and the aged occupant was found
lifeless in his chair.
The examination of the trunk and con
tents disclosed the fact that the old man
owned stock in many of the best paying
| concerns in the country HeOwned stock
in all the principal railroadsin New Jersey,
the Erie Railway, Atlantic and Great
Western, the Morris Canal and Banking
! Company, and the New York Central
Deeds for a large amount or real estate on
Long Island and in the city of Brooklyn,
and a pile of State and county bonds,
were found. With these there was awill,
dated fifteen years ago, bequeathing all his