Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1877-09-15
A QUEER COMPLICATION.
Caused by the Return to His Family In
Michigan of Minor NJ. Brown, After He
is Declared Legally Dead.

Michigan of Minor NJ. Brown, After He
is Declared Legally Dead.
From the Adrian (Nich.) Times, Aug IS
A quarter of a century ago, one New
Years morning, Minor NJ. Brown, a
farmer, who lived near Rome Center, in
this county, called his wife and three
sons about him to bid them goodbye.
He was going on long journey, going
where hundreds of others were rushing
at the time in their mad excitement for
wealth-going to California, where he
would build up for himself and family
fortune. So he left his farm of so acres
in charge of the three young boys and his
wife. For four or five years he dug away
with pick and spade and blasted the
rocks with powder. During this time he
wrote letters to his wife and family,
and declared that his thoughts roame1
often back to Rome. Finally his letters
ceased, and the wife, wailing, waited in
vain. She wrote and wrote, but there
came back no answering note. The
years rolled on and were buried with
the past, and the Brown family came to
think that the paternal Brown was
buried, too. OSmer c. Brown, one of
the sons, remained at home and worked
the farm; another. Ross, went out into
the world to become the architect of his
own fortune. A third, Oscar, went to
that sunny southern cline we read so
much about. The war came and Oscar
Brown changed his name to "Walter
Hardy" and, forgetting that he was a
Roman, donned the gray and fought for
the Stars and Bars"
Seven years after Mrs. Brown received
her last letter from her absent lord, the
law, of course, considered him dead.
Fourteen years passed, and finally 81.
when, of course, Minor NJ. Brown, of
Rome, Lenawee County, Mich, was
dead, dead, dead. Last November. the
widow, Mrs. Julia A. Brown, came be-
fore the Probate Court, applying for
letters of administration upon the estate
of Minor Nj. Brown, deceased. 1t was
then that she made the statement, the
substance of which we have recorded
above, that her husband left her in JAN
uary, 1852, and that for over 81
years she had heard nothing whatever
from him, although she had made dill
gent effort to discover his whereabouts.
A day was appointed for hearing, and
finally Petit Seelye of Rome was appoint
ed administrator. A part of the prop
erty had been sold off, when last week
the dead Brown, Minor Brown, the
miner, turned up alive and walked into
Juge Beaman's office, where the records
showed that he was dead. Brown in
sisted that he was alive, and the Judge,
after becoming convinced that Brown,
although dead in law, was alive, advised
the returned Californian to go and see
some lawyer and devise means to recon-
Gle the matter.
Now here is neat little question for
he court TO decide. Browns estate has
been partially administered upon, but
as soon rs Brown returned to Michigan
he went directly to the house of his son,
Ross Brown, in Clinton County, this
State, to whom he has sold out the old
Rome homestead. Meantime, during
these years, Osmer G. Brown, who re-
NAMED at home and worked the farm,
married, and afterward died, when let
tiers of administration were granted up
on his estate, his estate being his inter-
est in his fathers estate. Thus it will
be seen the case is somewhat compli-
Gated.
Minor NJ. Brown is now an old man,
with a gray beard, and is somewhere
about 40 years of age. In equity and
law his claims to the farm may be good,
but in justice and right he ought not to
have dollar Of the property which his
family has held during the more than
score of years he has made them be-
lieye him dead. We have understood
that he will apply for divorce. This
simply means that he will deprive the
widow Of her share of the property, for
what other excuse can q man 80 old as
he offer? Michigan is q State of easy