Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-11-11
WANT HIS WEALTH
Queer Fight For the Posses.
 sion of a Fortune.
THE CASE OF JONATHAN HUNT
scOrned While He Lived, the Money He
 Left Now Causes Contention.

He Had No Right to a Fathers Name
 Descendants of Samuel R. Smith, His
 RePuted Father, Trying to Prove That
 the Relationship E1isted-JOnathan'a
 Eccentric Life and Mysterious Death.
 MoRRIsvILLE, N. Y, Nov. 11.-A short time prior to the war of 1S12 8 certain Widow Hunt, living on 8 farm near what is now the seat of Colgate Uni versity, in Hamilton, then @ settlement, gave birth to 8 son, over whose pattern ity gossips wagged their tongues, but for whose being no man was ever held responsible.
 Living near Hamilton was Samuel R. Smith, a we'll known business man. In 1920 Smiths wife died, and shortly afterward he married the Widow Hunt. Jonathan Hunt, the reputed illegitimate son, was never publicly acknowledged by Samuel R. Smith to be his son. From this marriage were born three children -Adon, Sidney and Charlotte, after ward Mrs. Adams-who were always spoken of as half-brothers and half sister of Jonathan Hunt.
 Jonathan Hunt, while yet boy, went to New York City and became a boot black and newsboy. He prospered, and at thirty-five was spoken of as wild speculator. But as the money flowed in he invested it in land on Manhattan Island and in the South.
 In the mean time Joathan's mother had died and her husband had married again, and by the third marriage other children were born.
 By 1845 Jonathan Hunt was reputed one of the wealthiest men in America. a pncaaSao6 noil1i0nd hut hia tricity was the talk of New York. In January, 1S47, Jonathan Hunt was in Charleston, s. O. Early on the evening of the 17th of that month he left his hotel for a short walk, from which he never returned. None that knew him ever saw or heard of him again.
 To-day the descendants of Samuel R. Smith are trying at the special term of the Supreme Court of New York, to prove that Jonathan Hunt was the son of Samuel R. Smith and that they are of the blood of Jonathan Hunt through the father, who never owned, him as 8 son in his lifetime.
 If these allegations shall be proved, about fifty descendants of Samuel R. Smith by his third marriage, will claim to be entitled as heirs at law of Sidney Smith, lunatic, deceased, one of the devisees and heirs of Jonathan Hunt, to S0V6n-nluOuS OL a4l O1 Olun0y On1Gn' s real and personal estate, now said to be valued at much over $1, 500, 900 and con sisting of properties in New York City and in. Alabama and other Southern States.
 The case is being argued before Judge Parker. Senator John E. Smith, of Morrisville; ex-Congressman Mason and s. w. White, of Hamilton, and Judge Countrymen, of Albany, appear for the plaintiffs, and W. Mann, John E. Parsons and ex-Judge Russell for the defendants. It is agreed that William Herman, of Utica, brother of exSenator Herman, shall act as referee
 The records are being overhauled, and gravestones, old papers, diaries, news papers and letters are being drawn upon for evidence.
 Thus the litigation over Jonathan Hunts millions, their once possessor dead and his bones lying no one knows where, may perhaps secure for him after all these years the right to possess even in death a fathers name.