The Republican journal., 1875-05-06
Work For Two Generations of Law
yerS.
New York Sun. I

New York Sum-.
In the rear yard of large livery stable
in Thirteenth street, near University Place
in deep, sunken stone vault lies the body
Of Jacob j. Arden, once a prosperous
knickerbocker farmer. A plain stone slab
lying flat on the ground, upon which the
filth and litter of the stable have accu-
mulated, is all that marks his grave. His
farm extended from what is now Fourth
avenue nearly to Sixth avenue, and from
Eleventh street to Fourteenth street. He
had also pastures between the modern
boundaries of Sixth and Eight avenues
and Thirty-first and Thirty-third streets,
and owned other property on Manhattan
Island. His homestead stood in Thir-
teenth street, between Broadway and Uni
versity Place, until about forty years ago,
when it was torn down
Mr. Arden died in 1901, leaving a wife
and one son, Mr.. Jacob S. Arden His
will provided that the property should al
ways be held by the Arden family, and
while his wife and son were permitted to
use it during their lives. they were debar-
red from selling it, and in the events ofhis
sons dying without heirs the property was
to fall to John Summers, a nephew of the
.
Summers, thinking that his chances of in
heriting the estate were slight, sold out his
prospective title to Dr. Arden for s. 900.
Then Mrs. Jacob j. Arden, regardless of
the stipulations of the will, began to sell
the lands at prices that attracted ready
buyers. She also mortgaged a large part
of the property to John Jacob Astor, Judge
James Roosevelt and others, and at the
expiration of the mortgages Astor and
Roosevelt toreclosed and took possession
OF the land Judge Roosevelt had !. house
on the property at the time of his death.
DR.. Arden died about 1924. and his
mother year later, leaving to her own
family the remnant OF property that she
had not sold or mortgaged. To the Wild
ow Of her son she left not a shilling.
This arbitrary disposal of the property
in defiance of the conditions of the will
was of course not satisfactory to the rela-
tives OF Jacob j. Arden, and they took
steps to recover their lands. They institut-
ed suit in 1929 against the purchasers OF
the land, and employed Colonel Aaron
Burr as their attorney Colonel Burr was
confident of success, but his efforts We're
frustrated, as one OF the heirs, John
Brown, upon whose energy and wealth
the prosecution depended, fell dead in fit,
and his wife refused to carry the suit fur
ther, and the other claimants were not
able to press the case. There it rested for
years.
The suit was revived in 1854. and tried
in the United States District Court before
Judges Nelson and Emmett in September,
1850 Ex- Chief Justice Bronson, En-
Judge Beardslev. VIM. Curtis Noyes and
the Hon. Levi Chatfield were attorneys
for the prosecution. The Judges, one OF
whom then lived in house on the disput-
ed property, decided against the heirs,
but required that the case should be taken
to Washington, as it was of too great inn
portaace to be settled by him. The case
slept in the District Court tor three years
without result, and the plaintiffs charged
that their attorney had been bought OFF
for $780, 900, The suit is again to be Wig
orously prosecuted by the heirs through
Rebecca Rowland, the last living niece Of
Jacob J Arden. The property is valued
at more than $50, 900 600.
Jacob j. Arden's will ordered that his
tomb in Thirteenth street should always
be kept by the family as a burial-place,
with the right Of way to its portals. The
path that now leads to it is the hallway
for livery-horses. The bodies of Arden's
~ tHo 81 isiesrnXants, "nea negro and the other
master in the Revolution, lie with his un-
der the neglected stone-slab.