San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-05-15
OTHER HEIRS USING VIGOROUS
EFFORTS TO EXCLUDE HIM
IN THE CASE.
They Acknowledge The Legitimacy
Of His Fathers Marriage But
Deny The Legitimacy
Of His Birth--0th-
er Late News.

->SN L VI n, may IJ'-ll lS " Ollu llllS
morning says:
Every morning, punctually at 9
o'clock during the past two weeks, a
man and woman have appeared at the
| William street entrance of the custom
house and have hurried to the record
| room the moment the doors were I'M
| locked.
There, day in and day out, they busy
| themselves amid the musty mass of
manifests, which have been accumula-
ting there ever since Uncle Sam first
began to collect customs revenues.
This laborious work is to establish
the claim of an American family to the
fortune of a Berlin banker who died
intestate several years ago, leaving, it
| is said, an estate valued at 1900, 900
marks.
One of the searchers is a representa-
tive of the office of Lawyer Edward E.
Mccall, of New York. The woman is
believed to be the agent of a Berlin
lawyer. There left Berlin in the ear
ly part of the year 1887 one Herman
Hahn. He came to America to make
his fortune. Upon his arrival in New
York he opened a small tobacco shop
in The Swamp" He prospered. In
! 1S4S, he was married to Mary Buskey.
Hahn being a Hebrew, the marriage
| took place in an East side synagogue
and the marriage certificate was given
to Miss Bertha May, friend of the
bride, who was the only witness to the
wedding.
A few years went by and Hahn's bus
mess increased. Eventually his little
shop gave way to a larger establish
ment. Finally he became one of the
leading tobacco merchants in The
Swamp" as we'll as the editor of one
of the first tobacco trade journals in
New York.
When Hahn died in 1875, he left a
comfortable little fortune to his five
children and his two sons, Isaac and
Louis, continued business. But few
of his friends ever knew that he was
a relative of the great banker, Hirsch-
field, of Berlin.
About four years ago Louis Hirsch-
field, the banker of Berlin, died intes-
tate leaving a large fortune and an ad-
vertisement was published asking for
information as to his relatives and
Isaac Hahn, the elder son of the to-
bacco merchant believing from proof
in his possession that the banker was
his fathers cousin, through Lawyer
Mccall got Governor Flower interest
ed in the case.
By advice of Mr.. Mccall, young
Hahn, engaged as counsel DR.. Won
Simpson DIR. and Alfred GOtthelf, two
eminent LAWYERS in Berlin and suit
was brought for the fortune. To de-
feat the American heirs, English and
German claimants denied the legality
of Hahn's marriage.
Lawyer Mccall found living in
Brooklyn Bertha May, the only witness
to the ceremony and just as the case
seemed about to be decided favOrably
in favor of Isaac Hahn, he was sum-
moned to this city to look after his
business interests. The steamer he
sailed on was the Elbe, the story of
whose loss two days later made the
whole world mourn. Hahn had with
him many papers of great importance
in the suit, and they of course, were
lost with him.
Louis Hahn, the sorrowing brother,
is now fighting the case in the trial at
present in progress in Berlin. The
English and German claimants con-
cede the legality of the Hahn-Buskey |
marriage, but deny the legitimacy of |
the child.
Moreover, the claimants contend that |
the heirs father was not Hermann |
80 the cousin Of Banker Hirsch- |
field, who came her in 1887, but one |
Heinrich Hahn, who came in 1888 on |
the ship st. Louis. The manifest of |
the st. Louis, it is believed, is what |
the two custom house record searchers
are among other things probing for
as we'll as the passenger list of the ship
in which Herman Hahn came to this
and which it is said was men
toned in the papers lost in the Elbe.