Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-09-06
THIRTY MILLIONS IN LAND.
Another Widow Gaines Getting Ready
for Long Legal Battles.


I for Long Legal Battles.
/ Counsellor Thomas Carey, ex-Assem-
blyman from Hudson county, y. j., who
occupies Tweed's old rooms at 237
Broadway, has undertaken the conduct
( of suit for the recovery of III, S91
acres of land in West Virginia and Ken
/ tuck, 81. 900 acres of which are in Fay
cite county, KY, the city of Lexington
/ standing on part of the land There
are eight claimants. but Mr.. Carey's chief
client is Mrs. Millar, present lessee of
the Willow Haven Hotel at Pamrapo,
on the New Jersey Central Railroad
Mrs. Millar being applied to for the his
tory of the claim, produced Il ponder
Gus, richly-bound family Bible, printed
in 1853 at Cambridge, which, adjoining
the title-page, contained a list of sub
scribers, among whom was a goodly ar
ray of the nobility and gentry of Eng
land. In the family register was record
ed the fact that Jonn Young, who was
born In the city of Philadelphia, had
emigrated to Alexandria, Va, in 1877,
where he married and established him.
self as a cracker and pilot-bread manu-
| facturer in large stone house, which is
! still standing. His wife, a Miss Marstel-
la, was a connection of the Gusts family
| His business fourished, and he bought
! III, S91 acres in the patent lands of the
! commonwealth of what was then Nir-
/ ginia, situated as follows: $4,000 acres in
Fayette county, 10000 in Harrison and
the remainder in Monongahela, Wash
ington, Kanawha, Lincoln and Mont
/
| the court-houses of the different coHn-
ties and were signed by Governors Pat
rick Henry, B. Randolph, Edmund
Randolph, James Monroe, B. Randolph,
Edmund Randolph, James Monroe, B.
Harrison and Henry Lee The amount
paid varied from 3 to 3 cents an acre,
and IL few instances was as low as half
cent. Young probably invested from
s., 900 TO 81, 900, which, however, at COM
pound interest would reach to-day the
snug sum of about 100000
John Young during the war of 1912
manufactured from the famous brand
of Virginia flour immense quantities of
crackers and pilet-bread for the use of
the American Navy and Army. The
British destroyed thirty vessels laden by
him with this bread, and he lost his
reason and died. His second wife (who
left no issue) either through ignorance
or partially deranged intellect, destroy
ed armfuls of his papers, and hence the
confusion in his affairs Only enough
of the estate survived the embargo law
in Alexandria TO educate his eight chill
dren. Of these John Young, born in
1894; Jacob, in 1898 and George, in 1902,
grew up to manhood, went west and
were never afterwards heard from. One
daughser, Elise, died unmarried, and
the other, Margaret, married John Ball,
of Philadelphia, a contractor, who died
six years ago, leaving his children in
very comfortable circumstances. The
second son, William Henry, born in
1900, went to Baton Rouge, La, and
established the Baton Rouge Gazette
He left one son, William Nash Young,
who is now engaged in cracker-making
in Richmond. Ferdinand Marstella
Young, born in 1904. went after his
brother to Baton Rouge and became an
extensive planter. This old gentleman,
who is now in his seventy-fourth year,
has held various responsible State and
municipal positions, and is we'll known
in Baton Rouge. He has only one
daughter, Mrs. Millar Henry Nichols
Young, born in 1908, the youngest son,
died ten years ago in Baltimore, leaving
no children. He was in the cracker
business, which seems to have been
hereditary in the family, and was senior
member of the firm of Young, Beatty
Il O'Donnell, No. 4 O'DonnelPs wharf.
The children were left orphans at a ten
der age, with only enough money to
support and educate them, and all the
documents having been destroyed by
their stepmother were not in a position
to enforce claims to lands of the exist
ence of which they only knew by hear
say. In 1916, however, the late Joseph
Jackson, well-known lawyer of Rich
mond, who was conversant with the
particulars relating to these claims, hav-
ing been at one time an official in the
land office, found these tracts We're
| awaiting an owner. He instituted in
quiries and found that Ferdinand NJ.
Young, Mrs. Millar's father, was a resi-
dent of Baton Rouge. He opened COM
munications and inclosed blank powers
of attorney for Mr.. Young to sign, stip-
ulatlng that he was to have half the
proceeds and stating that considerable
money could be obtained An angry
correspondence ensued, and finally Mr.
Young wrote to the Virginia Treasury
Department and found no record of
taxes being paid on portions of this
land. He then wrote to the several
county court-houses and obtained copies
of the patents, which are now in Mr..
Carey's hands On account of certain
family disagreements, which are of no
moment to the public, Mr.. Young took
no action in the matter, and during the
war he buried the box containing the
deeds on his plantation near Baton
Rouge. Last year Mrs. Millar visited
her father, whom she had not seen for
twenty years. An entire reconciliation
was effected and on her departure he
placed the documents in her hands. |
Four years ago she leased the Willow
Haven Hotel at Pamrapo from Cottrell |
& Babcock, and invested about $4,000, I
placing her son in charge. On the fail
ure of Cottrell & Babcock she was in /
volved in very vexatious litigation, the |
facts of which have been fully published
in the daily press Her lawyer, Mr.. |
Carey, has full instructions to prosecute |
the suit, which will be begun at the next
sitting of the .United States Supreme
Court.
The property is said to be worth $780,
100000.
The Latest Swindle.
1t would seem hardly necessary to /
canton naonla to bawora of boo11c