St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-22
Florence Blythe Grows to
Womanhood While Her For
tune Is in Litigation.
An Legitimate Child Wins
the Prize From an I'm
welded Wife.
Who Was Thomas H. Blythe?
Irregular Ways and
Strange Opinions.

CoHuoCtlou Will the decision Dy the
court awarding the vast estate to an ille-
gitimate daughter whom the millionaire
had never seen, says the New York
Sun. The trial is said to have been the
longest Oh record. Suit was first brought
in 1888. The trial began July Is, 1889,
and it continued without intermission,
except on holidays, until June 81 last.
The court was in session 22S days, and
the taking of testimony occupied 1853
days. or until April 10. There were POS
witnesses examined and 139 dispositions
read. By wise agreement among the
many claimants the case was heard by
judge only. he sitting in the capacity of
both judge and jury. Judge James v.
Coffey, of the superior court, was the
sitting magistrate, and his opinion is
one of the most remarkable and vol
luminous decisions ever rendered. 1t
comprises 10000 words, and it would
ill more than fifty columns.
Who Was B1ythea
The issues submitted to the court
were almost exclusively questions of
fact. There are few technical questions
involved. so that an appeal which has
been taken to the supreme court by the
defeated claimants will probably avail
nothing. But in all the searching from
one end of the world to the other for
evidence there has not been found the
solution OF the greatest mystery in this
mysterious case. namely: Who was
Thomas 81. Blythe? 1t was not
known until his death that there
his career. Since his demise it
has been discovered that nothing
definite was known of him, except that
he left Liverpool on the steamer Ante
lope in 1S49 and arrived in San Francisco
the same year. He was a handsome
man. Slightly below medium height, and
possessed fair education and consider
able sound sense. Immediately after
his arrival he earned living by ped
ding variety of small commodities.
In 1851 he invested his earnings,
amounting to about $500, in the pur-
chase of the block bounded by Market,
Dupont, and Geary streets. He then
went off to the mines, and on his return
grown rapidly, and that his real estate,
being centrally located, was destined to
be of great value. The purchase of that
property was the foundation of the
fortune which since his death was
the subject Of the contest. The little
money he had made in the mines was
spent In the construction of buildings
on the lots. The rents were large, and
in few years Thomas H. Blythe was
a wealthy man. He did not possess
much business tact, as was evidenced
by the enterprises which occupied his
attention during the last. few years of
his life. He purchased a large tract of
land in San Diego, and he spent more
nrfxy fho,,
the whole tract is now worth. He also
entered into colonization scheme with
Gen. Andrade by which they obtained
large concessions of land from the Mex
lean government, and the land has been
involved in litigation ever since. 1t has
been said that if he had lived few
years longer he would have become
bankrupt. He died, however, in time
to leave property now valued at 81, $780,
600 for unknown heirs to scramble for.
Blythe, it appeared, had furnished the
foundation for all manner of stories
about his antecedents. 1t was demon
strated on investigation that he was
phenomenal liar. He at various times
claimed all the countries on earth as his
birthplace, and told the most imprOba-
BILE yarns about his early life. Some of
the swarm of claimants had based their
title to kinship upon some of those
stories, but they grew tired early in the
contest, and one by one dropped out.
No less than fifty hopeful aspirants who
were in the field when the trial began
abandoned their claims. Six parties
staid in the fight to the end. They were:
Florence Blythe, of England, daugh-
ter of the dead millionaire.
Alice +. Dickson, q pretty young
artist, who lived with Blythe for sew
eral years previous to his death, and
who asserted that she was his wife.
Some Liverpool Blythes. who claimed
the dead millionaire as relative.
Some Gypsy Blythes, who set up that
Blythe was the son of Adam Blythe, of
Kentucky.
William Savage, and others of the
same family name, who declared that
Blythe was transported from Liverpool
for larceny, and escaped from Australia.
Some Irish Blythes, who utterly failed
to prove their case, because it was
SHOWN that their man, whom they at
tempted to identify as Thomas Blythe,
died years ago.
The Daughters Case.
The contest really lay between Flor
ence Blythe, the illegltimate daughter,
and Alice Dickson. the quondam
widow. Itw necessary for the former,
in order to DE successful, to prove both
that Blythe was her father and that he
had legitimatized her by adoption. To
secure Widows dover it was necessary
that Miss Dickson prove marriage I'M
der the laws Of'California. Judge Coffey
first considered the claims of the child,
and discussed the remarkable story
brought out in the evidence for and
against h"r. 1t was set up in her behalf
that 81 was the daughter of Blythe and
of JUL Perry, now Mrs. Julia Ashcroft.
and IT, It she was born in London In
Decent sr, 1878. Mrs. Ashcroft was one
of the most important witnesses for the
child. Size told the story of her &C
| qualntance with Blythe in London early
in 1873. when she was but nineteen
| years old.
Blythe returned to San Francisco the
| following summer, but he promised to
return and marry Miss Perry. He knew
| of her trouble, and promised to provide
| for her, which he did. He wrote to her
frequently and the letters, many of
them, were produced in court. Among
them was this memorandum which he
sent to the girl. who took the name of
| Mrs. Wilmot:
Mrs. Wilmot: Vernon Wilmot ff a
boy; Flora Gf girl). T. 81. BLYTHE.
| For three or four years Blythe sent
| SloO duiudlly lOI TIC support OI Tile
child. in which he manifested great in
terest. The girls mother married Ash
croft in 1876, but did not inform Blythe
of the fact. Ashcroft proved a worth
less fellow and he maltreated the child
and tried to compel his wife to eXtort
| more money from Blythe. The child
was finally transferred to the care of its
grandparents. the Perrys, and Blythe
continued to contribute to its support.
In 1888 he began to write to her, and all
the letters were offered in evidence.
| The first one, dated Feb. 26, 1888,
commenced, MY own darling child.''
| and was signed "Florence's Papa.
| Thomas Fl. Blythe"
There were many others, in all of
which Blythe subscribed himself as the
father of the little girl. AS time pro-
| crossed he began to make mention of
his plans to bring her to live with him
| and to become the mistress of his house.
Upon the point of adoption the law of
California is:
The father of an illegitimate child, by