Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-12-03

any one who knew him in his publ
relations only, as an excellent typ,
of the enterpriSing, energetic, anC
successful American capitalist. HI
built up thriving and busy ,lHq,
town he owned or controlled smelt
ing works, all of very extensive
charater ; he owned pine lands equh
in extent to ten times the area bi
this island f; and be was either the
sole proprIe or or the controlling
stockboldel- ip mil e3 of iron, yiead
silver, copper, and cOrundum il
Michi gan. Missouri Utah, Arizoha
and North Carolina. He was ship.
builder and ship owner, presidehI
of two railroads and sundry indus.
trial enterprises. He was the favoritt
candidate for Secretary of the
Treasury during the anti-J ohnsoE
movement, and was recognized as q
power in powe in politics up to the
day of his death. Altogether, Capt.
W ard seemed one of the highest en-
bodimentS of the practical, pushing
spirit OF our people, man who
had contributed as largely rs any
one living to the material progress
of his age, and who had achieved
deserved success by. sheer force of
working energy and capacity for or
ganization.
In January last Capt. Ward fell
down dead in the streets of Detroit.
The breath was hardly out of hls
body wheE two of his sons,-by bis
first marriage, hastened to secure
the services of eminent counsel to
contest his will. The case was Open
ell last month, and after some ten
days of legal fence and judicial rul-
ings on preliminary points, the
private life of the Michigan million
aire is being revealed on the witness
stand. 1t appears that Capt. Ward
came of a family strongly tainted
with insanity that he had both leg
gitimate and illegitimate children
who were confirmed lunatics. 1t has
been shown that he procured a
divorce from his first wife by gross
fraud, and that two months after
that achievement, he married the
young lady who is now his widow
and the legatee of two millions of
his property. There is, perhaps
nothing very surprising about the
fact that this great industrial chief
of the Northwest should have been
a man of low passions and impure
life. But it does seem a violent con-
tradictiOn to the ordinary ideal of
such a character that he should
have been an abject slave to the
delusions of Spiritualism.
The services of mediums were in
voked by Capt. Ward, not only in
regard to the affairs of his family,
they were his constant recourse in
matters of business. When he
wanted advice IN railroad affairs, he
procured a consultation with the
spirit of Dean Richmond, and none
of his numerous mining ventures
were undertaken without an inter-
view with the spirit of German
geolOgiSt, who answered to the
euphoniOus name of cabbage john
This appears to have been Capt.
Wards familiar spirit. At the dc
tation of the deceased German he
sent out expeditions in search of
silver, and he Obeyed orders from
the same source in opposing the re-
election of Senator Chandler. In
the course of cross-examination the
other day, a female medium went
into a trance in the witness-box, and
made some remarks in German,
though she swore on regaining con-
sci usness that she did not under
stand word of that language. 1t
may be inferred that this seizure was
due to the interest which Capt.
Wards favoite Ttt0nic spirit still
persists in manifesting in his affairs.
Had the deceased millionaire not
taken the advice of the spirits about
his will, his intimate relation with
the unseen world would probably
not have been revealed to the gener-
al public, He certainly had fair
warning while that instrument was
in preparation that there was trouble
ahead, While the spirits-of certain
deceased relatives of his second wife
were engaged in debating the will,
the spirit of his first wife seems to
have come, unbidden, and interrupt
ed Che process.~by exclamations of
indignant protest. This lady had
some reasons for making herself dis
in. ghostly circles. The
spirits not only cOnspired to cheat
her children out of their inheritance,
but they attempted to blacken her
own character. A floral wreath was
painted by blind-folded medium,
acting under the usual influences, and
in the symbolical representation of
Capt. Wards family therein Civ en-,
Que son was omitted ON grounds of
illegitimacy. On the strength of
this artistic piece of spirit business,
the credulous millionaire reDudiated
the son in question, and drove him
to suicide,
The trial which has furnished the
occasion of these extraordinary dis
closures in still in progress. and a
good deal of similar, if not more
unsavory, matter is in reserve. The
bitterness Of feeling excited by the
case seems to have extended to the
lawyers engaged on either side.
The leading counsel for Capt. Wards
widow made a somewhat scurrilouS
personal attack, the other day, on
the chief counsel opposed TO him.
That nothing might be wanting to
complete the Sensational details Ot
the case, Capt. Wards eldest so !,
a confirmed lunatic, was with diff
ficulty prevented from aSsaultmg
one of the lawyers engaged in OPP
posing the claims ofhiS branch of the
family. Altogether, the story which
i in process of revelation at Detroit
is one of those narratives which
would have been called monstrously
improbable in fiction, aud which
has certainly no parallel in real
life. 5yils 8tstia