The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1876-04-20
From Abject Poverty to Coronet and q
Vast Fortune.

AVM AUJCC1 VVCAUy W q SV1VuCt anu u
Vast Fortune.
The New York Mercs1ry tells this: :
One year ago, Jacob Heydebrand was a
poor 1ocksmith at No. 116 Hester Street.
One day, while on a Fulton ferryboat,
he met an acquaintance, who asked him
if he was the Jacob Heydebrand whom
the Austrian Consulate was advertising
for. His friend had some difficulty in
persuading him to go to the Consulate
and ascertain whether or not he was the
person wanted. At the Consulate he
was asked if he had been in 1850 at
Bockenheim, near Frankfort-on-the-
Main. He replied in the affirmative.
6 Did you board there with a family
named Schoen, and did you meet at
their house an Austrian officer?" Heyde-
brand replied again in the affirmative.
"What was the name of that offcer?"
g It was Count Jacob Won Heydebrand.
He was Captain in the 9th Regiment of
Austrian Hussars,n he answered..
+" Well, then, you are the man we
WANT So saying, the Consul handed
the astonished locksmith, a bundle of
documents, which he said he had bet
ter have examined by some German
lawyer, and he also informed him that
he was instructed to pay him the sum
of $1,000. The German lawyer to
whom Heydebrand gave the papers
was greatly surprised at their contents,
which were to the following effect:
Count Aloysius Won Heydebrand, a
wealthy nobleman, had died in 1872,
having confessed on his dcath-bed that
the Austrian officer, Colonel Jacob Won
Heydebrand, who had hitherto passed
as his only son, was only an illegiti-
mate child, his real son and heir, who
had borne the same name, having been
set adrift in the world after his mother
had died, by his mistress, Bernhardine
Hoelzel, who had borne him son about
the same time. That wicked woman
possessed such power over him that
she had wrung from him the consent
to substitute her son in the place of
little Jacob, whom she had taken
to her relations in Darmstadt. The old
Count implored his illegitimate son, the
Austrian Colonel, to leave nothing un-
done in order to make amends for the
great injustice that had been done to
his legitimate heir, and to restore to
him, If he should be able to ascertain
his whereabouts, his paternal estate.
1t was then the Colonel remembered
having met at Brockenheim, twenty-five
years before, young locksmith, whose
acquaintance he had sought because the
latter had borne the same name. So
Lr o,,,>1:od - %Lo Coboov fov,,;lx, xrhC
were still living at Brockenheim, and
from them he obtained the information
that the young locksmith had left that
place many years ago for America.
The Colonel thereupon ap-
Piled to the Austrian lega-
ton in Washington, and Jacob Heyde-
brand was extensively advertised
for until found in New York. Among
the papers was an autograph from his
illegitimate brother, the Colonel, offer
ing to restore his paternal estates to
him, and expressing regret at the injus-
tice that had been done to him for so
many years. Meanwhile, Heydebrand
had married poor German servant
girl, who had borne to him several chill
dren. The wife was overjoyed upon
learning the unexpected change in her
husbands fortune, and she prevailed
upon him to go with her Immediately to
Innspruck to enter upon the enjoyment
Of his new position. At Innspruck his
right as the sole heir OF Count Heyde-
brand was formally recognized, and the
poor Hester Street locksmith is now one
Of the wealthiest magnates of the Aus
trian Empire. His wife, the former
servant-girl, was ennobled by special
decree of the Emperor.