The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-12-02
SEEKING A FORTUNE
Story of CIouded Titles and a
Woman'S Persistent Struggle
MARION VICKR0Y DEAD
Part She Played in Douglas
Avenue Realty.

Marion Vickroy is dead. She had the
life smashed out her by a runaway team.
This announcement will not startle the
average wfchitan, but her death makes
mighty interesting reading to the de-
PENDANTS in the case, the most Of whoml
manage to still maintain their grip on
Wichita realty. Marion was an F. F. Y,
whose ancestral home IS in Alexandria,
Virginia. She inveigled into a matr-
monial alliance a young student Of the
Columbia Law College, Of New York
City, a pompous. gold-headed-cane swell
of the first water. by the name Of
Judge % AIcMurdy, subsequently large
silver mine owner Of Georgetown, Colo
rado, who secured a legal separation
from the fair Marion through a Tam
many referee Of the superior court Of
Gotham Thereupon the judge 90 made
a successful mash on a beautiful and
highly intelligent girl, the only daughter
of q rich old barrister of Lancaster
Pennsylvania. While jaunting out their
western honeymoon, they took in Wich-
tia, and through the kindly Offices Of
Jim" Steele, McMurdy invested the big
end OF his brides endowment in Douglas
avenue and Main street lots, the sequel
to which investment entails the interest
Of Wichita citizens alluded to. McMurdy
EJ.rA
their baby didn't. A couple Of shystering
jac6leg Wichita limbs of the law, name
less here forevermore, who wouldn't earn
a dollar honestly where there was a pos
sible chance TO corral one cr0okedly, con-
cocted a combination with Marion Wick
roy TO beat the innocent owners of the
Wichita properties referred to out of a
million dollars Of values more or less. Suit
Of custer" or of some other loud sound
ing Latin appellation, was brought by
this outlying outfit in the name Of Mar
ion Vickroy, in the federal court Of
Kansas. There seemed 10 ba no defense,
was none, unless Sne divorce alluded to
could be attested, and the superior court
of New York City refused her lawyers
any examination Of the divorce records
OF that city, by order Of the judge. The
Eagle building occupies one of the lots
of that limbo. Judge SIuss and Colonel
AIurdock, in the interest Of the innocents
aforesaid. armed with letters to the Ian
caster judge, hied them away to Alex
andria and New York. They found after
due and diligent inquiry that the entire
population Of that old Virginia munich
pality. where Washington used to wor-
ship, were tied up in such complex ties
Of consequently as left everybody in the
old town related to Marion Vickroy, and .
that the only man in that country con-
versant with her marital relations was
the secretary OF the National Grange.
with Office IN Washington, D. c. He
proving to be more reuceut than a deaf
and dumb asylum they next made sorde
Tammany. They bore a confidential let
ter from the Democratic Pennsylvania
judge and father. to the judge of the su-
.perior court Of New York. How they ever
managed to get a peep at the divorce
records of that court they never divuIg-
ed. But they did. after weeks rum
maging through the archives of Columbia
College, through the old musty city d.
rectories and through innumerable back
street boarding houses where it was sus-
picioned that Judge % McMurdy and his
wife Marion vickroy. had grubbed and
bedded. They not only got q certified
transcript Of the divorce record, but
Photographic copy Of It, by the grace of (
the Tammany Tiger. This evidence
Judge Sluss subsequently. in a quiet way.
had fled in the federal court, as the an
swer to the ViCkroy claim. on the day
that the case was called a brace OF big
eastern solicitors, with a swelling air Of
confidence. strobe in. The one who clear
Cd his throat with the loudest ahem and /
deepest down, catching one sight of that
Photographic answer, bearing the sigma +
ture OF Marion A. vickroy, turned sud (
denly about and without saying good day /
10 the judge or goodbye t. the bar,
hustled on his overcoat and grabbing his F.
associate by the a-m, slid down and out /
on the next train for the east The cloud /.
on the titles TO the Douglas avenue and I
Main street lots had vanished. and with +
ii the job Of the jackIegs unnamed and /
Marion Vickroy's hopes Of a fortune.
The following dispatch. clipped from a
Tuscon (Ariz) paper. tells the rest:
Prescott, Ariz-, Nov. 21.-Mrs. NJ A
Nickroy OF Alexandra. Va died at the
Sisters hospital today. the result OF an
accident yesterday afternoon when she
was out driving with Judge y. I. Griffin
OF this place. A dog frightened the
horse, causing runaway. Both were
badly injured. Griffin may die. The
husband Of the deceased put up the frs
stamp mill in Arizona. The mill was de-
stroyed by Indians and Mrs Vickroy put
claims against the government for SEQ. 600 .
through the courts, but congress failed TO /
appropriate the sum