The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-31
PETER GOELET'S MILLIONS
More About the Alleged Marriage of
the Dead Millionaire,
a Strong Chain of COrrOborative Circum-
stances, but a Distressing Absence
of Positive Proof
.nm a slnn Corre.nnndent of the journal.

al SONNeg bAAo 0i
containing a short but romantic story in
which the wife of George Meyers, a farmer,
living in Sugar Creek township, Parke
county, figures as heir p~resumptive to the
estate of the late Peter Goelet, estimated at
$23, 0o0, 900. Understanding that further and
more definite information could be found at
Rockville, the county-seat of Parke county,
a Journal reporter visited this place yester-
day. He learned that on last Thursday
Wilson S. Wolf, a New York lawyer,
had visited the courthouse and examined
the records to find if there was any entry of
of a marriage between Peter Goelet and
Martha J. Buchanan. This marriage is
thought to have taken place on the fourth
day of July, 1916, and the issue of this mar.
rage was a daughter, now Mrs. Meyers,
born Sept. 6, 1S47. An examination of the
records failed to disclose the proof sought
for, and yet Mr.. Wolf is not disappointed at
the result of his search. He claims that he
has strong ~presumptive evidence that Peter
: Goelet and Martha ]. Buchanan were mar
ried, but cannot find any clew as to the coun-
ty in which the ceremony was performed,
and as Goelet was a cattle dealer, and NOV
ing about from place to place, it might
have taken place either in Parke, Fountain,
Montgomery or some of the neighhoring
counties, or further east, perhaps in Ohio or
New York. He proposes 10 continue his
search until this missing link in the chain
of evidence that Mrs. Meyers is the daughter
of thes two persons is complete. Goelet was
a cattle buyer from 1874 to 1847, something
over three years, and did business in western
Indiana and eastern Illinois, a section of
country that in that day was noted for cat
tie raising, a business IN which it now has
no p~reeminenoe. For a time Goelet and
the woman who was recognized as his wife
lived either in the northern part of Sugar
Greek township, in Parke county, or across
the line in Fountain, and it was
while living there that Mrs. Goelet
gave birth to a daughter. About the same
time Mrs. McElwee gave birth to a son. The
son died soon after birth, and Mrs. Goelet
dying two or three months after the birth of
her daughter, the child was left by the
father with the McElwees to be cared for
while he went to New York to attend to
some business. 1t was some time after this
hat Mr.. McElwee, who feared the little girl,
to whom he and his wife had become much
attached, would be taken away by the father.
wrote to Goelet informing him that his child
had died, and soon after this the McElwees
moved to Missouri. After living in Missouri
for several years, the little girl having grown
to womanhood, and the first Mrs. McElwee
having died and the widower having remar-
ried, the family moved back TO their old
neighborhood. Here the adopted daughter
married George Meyers, a young farmer, and
together they began housekeeping in a hum
bic way. Meyers is yet in very ordinary cir
eumstances, and he and his wife and their
child, a boy thirteen years old, now live
near Yeddo, a little village in Fountain
county.
Mr.. Wolf, the lawyer, is an Indiana man,
and went to New York city from Waveland,
twenty-ope years ago. He had known Peter
Goelet, the millionaire who died about two
years ago, and had frequent business deal
ings with him for fifteen years preceding his
death. When he saw the mother (the
daughter of Goelet) he saw no resemblance
to the millionaire, but when he was shown
the boy, who has, unlike both his father and
mother, light hair and blue eyes, he saw a
remarkable resemblance to old Peter Goelet.
In 1879 McElwee was taken sick, and be-
ing. as he thought, about to die, he made
division of his property, giving each of his
children, with the exception of the wife of
George Meyers, who had always believed
herself to be his daughter, an equal share of
his property. He left her nothing. She
naturally felt badly over being disinherited
in this way, and wrote to McElwee in Mis-
souri,, asking why he had put such a slight
upon her, and in what had she failed in her
duty to him. This letter he answered.
calling her his dear child. and that he.
had always loved her as a father, and then
disclosed the story that she was the daughter
CT Peter Goelet, in New York city. who had
believed her to have died when a little girl.
Soon after this McElwee died and Mrs. New
ers wrote Il letter TO Peter Goelet. Getting
no answer, she wrote by some ones advice to
the postmaster of New York, so the story
goes, who informed her that Goelet,had died
a few months before, and that she would
find out all about his affairs from the execu-
tor OF the will. Two letters were written to
which no answers came, and the matter was
dropped for a considerable time. Finally
some relatives of Mr.. Wolf living near by.
rememberig the New York lawyer, advised
her to write to him. She did so, and he has
been quietly working UP the case for some
time. Mr.. VOLTS law partner has gone to
Missouri to hunt evidence in the
case. With twenty-three millions at stake
and the prospect of an enormous fee, these
legal gentlemen propose TO leave nothing
undone that can be done to establish Mrs.
Meyerss claim. McElwee's widow, his sec
Ond wife is now. it is said, living in Attica.
1t is said that Mr.. Wolf went to see her re-
Gently to find out ii she had any family rec
ords that could be made of use in the case.