The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-26
BY WILL FROM STRANGERS.
PERSONS WHO HAVE BECOME RICH
SUDDENLY N CALIFORNIA.


Schnub's ~ShinEIe- NnI-LouIs
Philips Extraordinary Luck.
From the New York sun.
Pomona. Cal. July 1O-There are several
instances OF men and women In California
who have become heirs 10 fortunes or up-
ward of a half million OF dollars by the
mercst chance. one or two cases are
known I'm this state where men and wo-
men have received requests Of very val
liable property by persons whom they
barely knew. Take the case of John I5ris-
walter. who died in Los Angeles In the
summer Of ISL, leaving an estate Of over
$4,000 10 two persons who happened 10 be
attentive 10 him in his last and only ill
ness. Briswalter came from some little
town m Ontario. Canada. lie came 10 cal
ifornia ia the sixties. made money in the
san Gabriel mines. and went extensively
into sheep herding.
Briswalter was an ignorant man and
wonderfully industrious. He worked day
and night with his band of sheep. saved
every cent. and bought more sheep and
land. When he was IS he was worth $780,
600 and when he was 60 he had 1900 sheep.
real estate in Los Angeles and a large
ranch near the city. He grew more mis-
erly ia his old age. and for weeks at a
time lived on the meanest fare of com
mon sheep herder, while his annual in
come ranged from $4,000 10 $1,000
one day Briswalter came into Los An
geles TO deposit money in the bank. While
in town he was taken IN suddenly. He
was so filthy that none Of the large hotels
or boarding houses wanted HIM brought
there, and he declared he would not pay
a big price for board and room anywhere
A resident Of Los Angeles, Louis Mesmer
was told that Briswalter was seriously
sick down in the rear OF A saloon. He
knew Briswalter end went down to see
the man. He took pity on the man. and
ordered that the miser. be taken to his
(Mesmer's) house. Briswalter never recov-
cred. A week later the physician told the
sick man that he had a day at most to
live.
but how can I die" groaned the old
sheep herder, Il can't leave all my land
and sheep"
For several hours Briswalter tried to
think as best he could how to dispose of
his property. He had almost forgotten
the very names Of his brothers and sisters.
and had not the least idea whether they
were alive. He sent for stephen NJ.
White, then young lawyer In Los An
geles and now United States senator from
California, and ordered his will immedi-
ately drawn up. lie gave $4,000 to the Ko-
man CatNolic church Of Los Angeles, and
left the residue Of his estate TO Louis
Mesmer and his little daughter. who were
kind to him at the last The father and
daughter thus inherited land ana other
securities that, since the phenomenal rise
is the value of real estate in Los Angeles.
have brought upward Of $4,000. Bris-
walters brother, who lost no time in COM
ing TO Southern California when he heard
of the wealth of his long unknown brother
had died possessed Of tried for several
n hire L a NtylI ftffH f4f
The beautiful Santa Margarta ranch in
the Ojai valley, valued at about $50 00O
went TO It's late owner by the Will Of a
dying friend. Hiram Westcott came to
California, poor and hopeful. some years
before the civil war from Norwaik Conn
! He had the money-making instinct. He
was purchasing agent for several years
for the Huntington, Stanford a Croker
Company while they were building the
Central Pacific railroad and he grew wheat
when the road was finished. He was mar
ried, but had so many quarrels with his
wife that he was glad to let her get di-
Vorce and go away with $4,000 of his
money He never wrote letters, and II
was his boast when he was a ranchman
that he never went 70 the postofiice. He
had to pay the men on his ranch large
wages, because he swore at them so much
and was always abusive. Twice he was
jailed for assaulting men In fit OF an
ger
Westcott died suddenly when he was
about 81 years old, and in the iron safe in
his room was found will carefully writ
ten, giving all his property to a young
merchant, J. d. Patterson, and his wife,
who lived IN an adjoining county. For
some time Patterson could not think why
he and his wife had been the subject of
such extraordinary bounty at the hands
OF Westcott whom he had barely known
and his wife had never seen. But a work.
man on the Santa Margarita ranch ex-
planned II. A year or two previous TO his
death Westcott was arrested for knock
ing down a man with whom he had war
of words. Patterson was one OF the jury
men in the case, and while the jury was
in elaboration the rich ranchman hap
pened to hear through the open window Of
the jury room Patterson say that he be-
lieVed WestcOtt was prosecuted because he
was an infdel, and that. therefore, he Pat
terson would sit there a week before he
would give a verdict against him. West
colt went TO his ranch home that very
night and made a will by which he be-
| queathed all he had to Patterson.
The manner OF bequeathing the rich es-
| tate of Jacob Schaub, Yavhpai county,
| Ariz., has been talked over in camps OF
| miners and prospectors for twenty years
| Schaub was a native of Alsace- Lorraine
| and came to America IN 1851 a poor young
! emigrant with only one acquaintance In
| the country. In time he drifted west, and
! as a teamSter he joined party of people
! starting out from Missouri to drive across
! the plains. For eleven years, or until 1870
| he led the rowing life of a gold-muing
| prOSpectOr IN CalltOrnla ana the SOutn-
west Territories, never hearing either al
rectly or indirectly any word from his ole
home in Germany, and knowing nothing
about the mining camps, Schaub was one
| of the two prospectors who found the Ea
| gle and gold and silver mine in northern
| Arizona, forty-two miles from Prescott. FL
was poorer and more ragged when he and
/ his partner found the Eagle mine than ht
| had ever been before.
Shaub and his partner had no trouble
| IN getting capital interested in such z
| promising mine, and a third partner whc
| put 81 600 in the property and gave his
| experience as practical miner. was taker
| into the firm. In 1873 Schaub was reck
! oned worth $4,000. and a year later hs
had an offer for his share In the Eagle
! Of $4,000. Along in the fall Of 1874 Schaut
! was taken with a low fever-known all
over the Pacific coast as mountain fever
| a peculiar form of miasmic poisoning
| He was Ill several weeks, and a doctor
was called from Prescott to attend this
| patient Schaub became alarmingly i'll
| and one day he was told that his death
was very near. He was asked If he had
| any provision TO make Of his own mining
| interests, and for several hours he tried
to think of some one at his old home
to make rich by a bequest. Then the
memory of the cruel manner in which he