The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-03-16
GEORGE WILLIAM NogrHEpeR

mans kit to put some shingles on barn
for Mrs. Ball. of 1896 La Sale street.
There YVES a knock, and presently entered
very English and lawyerlike gentleman,
who announced himself as Queens Counsel
j. Fl. Gilchrist, of Toronto. With no sort
of ceremony he said substantially this:
''Mr. Northedge, am very glad to have
found you at last. Allow me to place in
your hands the vouchers and legal docu-
ments for your fortune of $3.50, 7s2 in stocks,
bonds and other securities, the estate of
your grandfather in England"
"Ah, indeed" said Mr. George William
Northedge, and after few more words he
directed his attorney TO take the proper
steps and then proceeded to his work of
shingling Mrs. Balls barn. But the re-
porter was after him even before he had
nailed the last shingle on that barn, and it
soon appeared that every word of the state
ment was true. Mr. Northedge is indeed
a millionaire, and what is more surprising
has had the right to be one since the death
of his father, and that father had the right
some years before that. For twenty. four
years this fortune has been hunting the
Northedges.
1t is a curious story and begins with Sir
William Northedge, baronet and colonel
in the British army, who owned estates in
Somersetshire. His son went into business
and acquired some property, but the
amount is not known. That son had son
William, who removed to New England
long before the civil war; and the present
millionaire was born in Hartford March,
4. 1S41. In ways that are not explained the
connection between the different branches
Of ha 70 iYp hrol-aY, oyd han Of
an indifference which seems strange TO
Americans the youth remained in COM
plete ignorance of his great-grandfather's
estate The immigrant entered the Fed
eral army and became Colonel William
Nortbedge of the Fifty-ninth New York
volunteers.
His son also volunteered in the First bat
talon OF Connecticut cavalry, was wound
ed and discharged, became Grand Army
man, lived the ordinary life of an Ameri-
can citizen and ex-soldier, and being a ma
tive Yankee paid no attention to English
affairs. In 1872, however, he received some
money from q relative. His father, the
colonel, received mention in special orders
for bravery at fredericksburg, but appar-
emily died in complete ignorance of his
rights. In the meantime the wealth of
the aged baronet and his son greatly in
creased; the last life between the present
NOrthedge and that wealth terminated
twenty-fOur years ago, and the new mil
honaire is without a near relative in the
world He is fifty years old, in good
health, unmarried and likes Chicago too
well to leave it, so he will invest his wealth
in real estate and remain there.
Another case hot quite so remarkable
but much more sorrOwful, is that of little
Olive Trowbridge, of New York city; who
is by her aunt's will the heir to fortune
which is expected to amount to 100000
by the time she can take personal charge
of it. The sad feature of the case is that
the aunt disinherited her own son. Few
boys start in life on higher social plane
than did Howell Osborne He was to the
fullest extent of the phrase a New York
swell of the silkiest pattern
At an early age he took to the music
halls of London and the concert saloons Of
New York, and finally exhausted his moth