The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-03-07
MIR. ABEL BAILEY's ESTATE.
a Daughters Stubborn Fight for her Faith
er's Property.

n DauEQL6T D oJuDDOIu ClBub lUl uoI IhLu-
er's Property.
EIGHTY THOUSAND ACR AT sTAKE-THE
STORY oE A BUSY LIFE-AN ILL oMRNED
PARTNERsHIP-sTEALIYG THE Ill MANS
PAPERS.
In a pleasant three-story dwelling at IA
East 129th street New York city, lives a
lady who has greater expectations than
even the most sanguine heir of Anneke
JAMS. Mrs. M. B. Wilkins lays claim to
an estate equal in acreage to more than
one of the New York counties in which it
lies.
This estate, she says, belonged to her
father, Abel Bailey, and was wrested from
him by sharp practice. Abel Bailey seems
to have had III unusual faculty for acquir-
ing property. At the beginning of the CEN
fury be established a ferry line of sail boats
across Lake Cnamplain, from Brldport,
VT, to Crown Point, n. Y. There were
but three houses in Crown Point, and the
surrounding country was q wilderness.
Bailey already owned farms on each side
of the lake, and with the proceeds of his
ferry be bought more land in Bridport. He
also carried on a heavy business as a dro-
yer, sending cattle TO Troy, Albany, and
New York, and investing his profits in
timber land on the New York side of the
lake. In 1920, he opened u large country
store in Crown Point. He built eleven
saw mills. and launched out into a business
80 extensive that 10 q legal document on
record in Essex county he is mentioned. as
owning, among other things, $3.50, 900
worth of lumber, then awaiting purchasers
in Albany. Many grist mills were also
owned and operated by him.
AS his means increased, he went on buy
ing land until he literally owned Crown
Point and the country for mills around.
Pretty much all the business of the place
was in his hands the men bought out be.
came his tenants and employees. He ian
two tanneries, a wooden mill, and a black
smith chop, in which he made his W mill
irons. He established potash and pearl ash
works, and drew a large income from a
a shingle, lath, and clapboard factory. A
branch of his numbering business was e.
tablished on the Au Sable river. He also
bought the ore beds from which is now Ia
ken the famous Crown Point iron and be-
gan to mine them.
At this time, then, Mr.. Bailey owned land
in twenty counties, and with the help of
his wife, practised the avocations of drover,
butcher, miller, lumberman, pot and pearl
ash maker, lath and clapboard maker, tan
ner, blacksmith, farmer, cloth maker, and
miner. He worked twenty hours in the
twenty-fnur.
In 1928 he took into partnership with
him his father-in-law, Samuel Buck, and
sent bin 10 the Au Sable river to manage
his numbering interests there. This Buck
was a country store keeper in Bridpo,t.
He became embarrassed and wound up his
business the debts aggregated about $780,
$50. Bailey, fearing that the property of
the firm would be seized TO satisfy the judg-
ments obtained against Buck, assumed
these deb,s, and at the same time dissolved
partnership with Buck, first securing from
him a transfer-in the shape of a deed-of
all the property which Buck possessed as a
partner. Bucks eldest son, Hiram, and q
person named William Heaton were ap-
pointed trustees OF a portion of the estate
to be held In trust for the bankrupt.
Mrs. Wilkins claims that these trustees
were really employed as clerks at one dol
lar per day. They were bright, intelligent
young men, and much that Bailey should
have personally looked after was left to
them. Bailey, his daughter says, intrusted
to these clerks the drawing up of valuable
papers, the recording of other papers, and
the transfer of property from Bucks pos
session to his. One day he discovered that
every document and instrument that was of
the least value to him in proving the own
ership of his lands had been stolen. Deeds
bonds, contracts, even the old mans &C
count books, had disappeared, and though
search warrants were at once procured no
trace could be discovered. Old Samuel
Buck, whose Indebtedness had been liquid
ate9, impudently declared that it would be
impossible 10 effect any settlement with
Bailey while his papers were missing.
When Bailey threatened to prosecute Buck
and his sons they sought Mrs. Bailey, told
her that they would settle with her husband
and secured her aid in appeasing the old
gentleman. The estate was broken up and
sacrificed by the Bucks, who disposed of
tracts right and left at whatever prices they
could get. The looseness of real estate
transactions in those days was remarkable,
not one transfer in o hundred being proper
ly recorded. Mrs. Wilkins mentions, as a
specimen instance. the sale OF what are
now the Crown Point mines for &c 0
Bailey had paid SO 900 for the ore-beds,
and had spent $50, 900 in working them.
For more than forty years the claimants
and the Bucks have been in litigation. Sam
uel Buck died years ago, and Hiram fol-
lowed him. Helon Buck, the younger
brother (now an old mani, ia the defendant
WV PShuihB SUITS. hUtl Daley Qleu ten
years ago, worth only a song, having spent
a large fortune in his endeavor to recover
the property. Since his death, Mrs. Will
kins has spent all she could rake and scrape
together, and her son-in-law, Dr.. Lawrence
of 100 h street has backed her.
A sister of the brothers Buck secured,
without their knowledge, the deed which
Samuel Buck drew up in favor of Abe
Bailey, and its companion paper, the article
dissolving the partnership between Buck
and Bailey. She obtained these papers in
1882, but no use was made of them until
the present action was begun, In 1872, IN
the supreme court. Judge A ID. Waite OF
Fort Edward was then appointed referee,
and for four years he has been hearing ties
iimony. After the suit was begun. Mrs
Wilkins went to Bucks Hollow, the resi-
dence of the Bucks, obtained leave to searcl
a house In which Hiram Buck had one,
lived. and there found what she describes
as ''bushels of papers under the garrel
flooring and In her fathers chest, bidder