The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1890-03-22

people are rich, and most Of our people
are very Door; but we have as our lawyer
honest Eugene B. Travis, of Peekskin,
who has worked on this case for years; he
has the papers that will prove our clear
title to all the property, and, as far as
heard from, there is enough of it to give us
a million or two apiece" just then the
deep diapason of the grand organ an
nounced the opening of the service, and a
chorus of sweet singers chanted an anthem
of praise; then all settled down to hear one
of those wonderful talks, you could hardly
call them sermons, though they lifted the
thoughts and hearts of men to God with
the power of Pentecostal rain. At the
close Of the service my attention was at
tracted to the crowd for moment, and
when l looked around the heir of Anneke
JAMS Bogardus was gone.
The story of Anneke Jams is ever inter
esting, and one of the early traditions Of
New York, which has been carefully nursed
and kept, and, though sleeping for time,
has awakened full of life, growing more
powerful and strong as the years roll by,
! till at last it has taken form and shape in
corporation bearing the somewhat strange
title of "The ADneke JAMS Bogardus
Literary Association" the main object of
which appears to be to get all the heirs in a
compact working body, and when that is
done the future action will be a matter of
after consideration.
Anneke Jams Bogardus has been in her
gave two hundred and seventeen years,
and the entire property said to be her in
hertance is valued at thousands of millions
Of dollars; and if she were living now and
in the enjoyment of her own, she could
buy and sell all the Astors, and Vanderbilts,
and Jay Goulds, and Rothschilds, who
now control the money marts of the world.
She was born in Holland in 1902, and was
married to Ruloff Jams when she was
twenty years of age she was the daughter
of Woolfert Webber, who stood very near
to William the Second of Holland, known
as the Stakeholder, and from whom he re-
ceiYed some large and substantial grants OF
property in New Amsterdam. Woolfert
Webber was a man of great Importance
colony, and his daughter Anneke was one
of the bellies of the town.
Gospel privileges were few in those days
in old Manhattan. A good old Lutheran,
one Dominic EyeraIdus Bogardus, had
just been brought over from Holland, and
he expounded the Gospel in an old wooden
house on Pearl street, not far from the
site of the present Produce Exchange.
Ruloff Jams paid the debt of nature while
Anneko was still in the bloom of woman.
hood the Domino Bogardus had lost his
better half a little while before; he dis.
covered, no doubt, that it was not good
for man to be alone, so he proposed to the
widow Jams, and she thereafter in history
is known as Anneke JAMS Bogardus. A
portion of her property at her death is
covered by the beautiful Church of the
Holy Trinity, and IS said to be held by q
lease from Anneke Jams Bogardus in 1866,
just three years after Anneke Jams
Bogardus was dead and buried. The
|, lease was said to be executed for ninety
nine years, and consequently expired in
1866, At that time the whole country was
in state of high ferment; the Sons o.
Liberty was active, events were rapidly
hurrying on, which let to the Revolution
/, rhe Anneke JAMS leases were lost sight O
by the heirs; not so by the Trinity Corpora
tion, they claimed renewal of the lease
which was duly executed by somebody IL
l766 for ninety-nine years more, and thes
leases expired in 1866, and then the heir
began to organize to try and get their own
, But that was not all there was furthe
J grant that took big slice out of Broad
way, clear across the city, taking in old St
Johns Park, where the freight depot o
the Central Railroad now stands, wortl
several millions of dollars, in future addi
y tion to the prospective fortune of her luck,
descendants are seYentY-two millions o
dollars now in the banks of Holland jus
waiting for the heirs to prove their title
and come and take it away. The first
S Trinity Church was begun in 1896, and
opened for worship in 1897, its first rec
, tor being the Rev. William Fletcher. A
f new building replaced the old one in 1740
I and tins was consumed IN the great fire O
l776, when the Sons of Liberty were sup
posed to have fired the city, just after oc
cupation by the British, No attempt wa
t made to rebuild Trinity Church till lonI
t after the Revolutionary War; for until thu
Episcopal Ritual was amended the minis
tiers would insist on reading prayers TO
! the king instead OF the President, anC
0 nearly raised riot. The next church wa
l. built in 1888, and stood till 1889, when /
was torn down to make room for the pre-
sent beautiful structure. It's corporation
has the right to perpetuate itself, and ha
sternly resisted all attempts at Legislative
l. inquiry into its condition or affairs, and I,
the outside public it is a sealed book
silent as the sphynX and as impenetrable
+ That a strong effort will be made to cal
= this rich corporation to an accounting
+ there is little doubt; hundreds, if not thou
sands of millions, are involved in tn
7, fight. The heirs are quietly getting to
+ gether and believe they can win, and eacl
It side adopts the same battle cry, "Dleu e
d mon droit," and let us hope that God an,
the right may win. The Trinity Corpora
tion is fabulously rich, and can well affor,
to give these heirs a million each and still
have enoughto to spare.
Fifty years ago there was a bruiser il
S New York whose very name was terro
It among fighting men-he was known a
. Awful Gardner. His name was Orville
s In those days that name meant something