The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-02-09

wife and daughter, both OF whom are SIP
posed to be dead. No authentic proof of
their death, however, has ever been fur
nished.
George P. Gordon was a well-known man
in this city and vicinity. By his inventive
genius aud business ability he developed
from penniless youth into a man, who, at
mis- DEATH was worth more than 81 500 600
His property comprised the great Gordon
Press Works at Railway, n. J., a handsome
country residence at Railway, several lots
and beautiful home on Columbia flights
in Brooklyn, great tracts Of land and the
Academy of Music in Norfolk, Va,
and several valuable patents ON his
own inventions OF printing apparatus
When a very young man he married and
in IS49 Mary Agnes Gordon was born. Her
mother died few years later and left the
child to grow up without womAn's train
ing. A dozen years after his first wife's
death Mr.. Gordon met handsome young
woman, many years his Junior, who was a
milliner in a small country town IN Con-
necticut, and they were married They
lived together very unhappily. The young
woman had tastes Of which the husband did
not approve, and disparity in years tended
to widen the gulf between them.
a FALSE FRIEND.
About this time the destroyer crept into
the Gordon household in the person of
Henry Du Boise Van Wyck, handsome
Young man, full of wildcat schemes. who
went about with vials of gold dust in his
pockets which be said came from mines
owned by him in Colorado. Van WICK and
Mrs. Gordon were much together, and their
association changed Mr.. Gordon from an
open-hearted, generous and genial man,
dear to his friends, to one of melancholy.
At times he drank heavily. Van WICK
and Mrs. Gordon conducted the fine
establishment to suit themselves. Mary
Agnes Gordon had developed into a
headstrong, self-willed young woman,
utterly without training At 81 she was
addicted to Incorporate habits, and this
added to Mr.. Gordon's bitterness In 1873
Mr.. Gordon, with his wife and Van WICK.
went to Norfolk. Then it was suddenly re-
ported by Mrs. Gordon and Van Wyck that
Mr.. Gordon was dying. Mary Agnes was
in Alabama, and on hearing the report at
once telegraphed to her stepmothersthat she
was coming to see her father before he
died. The answer was that Mr.. Gordon
could not see her and that she must not
come. Mr.. Gordon died the next day, and
the girl always tainted her stepmother with
the mystery with which his death was sur
rounded.
Very shortly after Mr.. Gordons death his
widow and VanWyck were quietly married.
VanWyck knew that Mr.. Gordon had left a
will, and just after his death telegraphed to
A. Sidney Downe, Mr.. Gordons nephew
and executor, to secure the will and keep it
safely, and the next week the relatives
gathered in the Brooklyn house and the will
was read. 1t proved great blow to the
wife and daughter, and the latter made a
scene. The will left 100000 liz various
legacies to his first wife's relatives, 500, 900
to his widow absolutely, 100000 to his
daughter for life, to his wife and daughter
jointly life income from the residuary
estate, the rest of which. amounting to
about 81 900, 900, was to be disposed Of in a
codicil, which was never found.
Mary Agnes contested her fathers will
aud finally broke it, the will being set aside
on the ground that it was improperly exc
cuted, and the big estate was divided among
the nearest of kin, the wife and daughter
coming in for much larger portions than
before. Mr. and Mrs. Van Wyck built a
beautiful residence in Fishkill, n Y, and
went there to live. Van Wyck got posses
sion of all his wife's property and squan.
dered it.
HINTS OF DARK DEED.
Last winter she and her husband went to
California, and in December Van Wyck re-
turned to Fishkill with his wife,s dead body.
She had died, he said Of pneumonia and
there was hasty burial at Fishkill. Van
Wyck would not permit the coffin to be
opened at the funeral, declaring that the
embalmer had made botch of his work
and that the body was badly decomposed.
Mystery again surrounded death, the cir
cumstances Of which Van Wyck alone
knew. He went to Norfolk to look after
the property there which in the division
had fallen to his wife, and it is thought
that he is still in the south.
Meanwhile Mary Agnes drifted to Europe
-Four years ago at Scheveningen, a water
ing place on the Hague, Miss Gordon met
Samuel Richard Ruyssenaers of the Chateau
de Volkenberg at Stegg, near Arnheim, in
Holland. Her death was reported in this
country on Jan. 81, of last year. A month
later will purporting TO have been drawn
by Miss Gordon reached this country. By
the terms of the will Ruyssenaers, on whom
the silly girl had lavished thousands, re-
ceived four-ffths of her property, amount
ing to something over $500, 200. The rela-
tives of Miss Gordon at once brought suit to
break the will. Lawyer Beckett went to
Paris, where it was said she had died, to in
vestigate the circumstances Of her death.
He learned next to nothing
Among those who read of the hot contest
over Miss Gordon's will was Henry c.
Adams. distinguished lawyer of Orange,
n. j. He recollected that in 1868 he had
drawn up will for George p. Gordon,
thought he must have a copy Of it in his
possession still. and, prompted by curiosity,
searched for it and found it. Then. remem
bering an original will had been left with
his father. Edward Adams, who was a
lawyer and an intimate friend of Mr..
Gordon, he went to the old Adams home
stead in Railway and found the will in an
old brown envelope among his fathers
papers, where it had been placed in 1868.
He took it at once to the chancellor of New
Jersey. who, on Jan. IL, in court, opened
and read the will, and to-day it was ad-
mitted to probate in Jersey City as the last
will and testament of George P. Gordon,
thus cutting Van Wyck and rendering Miss
Gordon's will null and void. "
The rightful heirs to Miss Gordon's prop
erty will now get their dues. They will
come in for most of the estate that was be-