Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1900-06-16
HURT HER ANKLE AT HIS GATE.
And His Nieccs Say IL Was a Ruse
of % 90 Win Rich 81.

N'SO>o ooy ts ~ u L
Of % 10 Win Rich 81.
New York Journal: Gone are the
white angels which stood in the gable
end of old Cornelius Van Ness fine
mansion at Cornwall on the Hudson.
Turned to the wall is the picture of
Emma Louise Van Ness, the dead
wife, for love of whom he had these
figures carved. And in the house u
new divinity reigns, a woman of &c
years old. He is SO. The new wife, il
the story told last week to Justice
Andrews in the supreme court by AS.
sistant Corporation Counsel Blandy is
true, is IN adventures who married
the old man simply to get possession
of his vast fortune, and who is a biga.
mist with a youthful husband living.
The story of the angels has been
told in print many times. People
GRAINED their neck as they passed the
house on the main highway between
upper Cornwall and Highland to see
the marble statue which would have
been more in keeping in a graveyard
than against the gable of n house.
Queer stories were told about old
man Van Ness and the wife who was
dead. She came of n very old family,
and q rich one. He was q man of no
aristocratic pretensions; a man who
liked his glass, his fast horse and
n congenial companionship, and who
bad money to pay for what he wanted.
lie was very generous. To Fredcr-
lex East, who managed the spacious
grounds and the stables when the
master was away, he gave a house
and lot in Cornwall worth $4,000 as q
testimonial of his appreciation. To
n friend in need he gave $4,000 not
many months ago. Another friend in
Rochester, whose home was about to
be lost through the foreclosure of a
mortgage of $4,000, he gave a check
which cleared off the mortgage and
left something substantial to boot.
Alice Wood is the name of the new
divinity. She was n good looking
young woman from Orange county,
where her father kept n vegetable
garden in Port Jervis, and where she
is given a. first class reputation.
Last fall Miss Wood was visiting i'm
Cornwall. She sprained her ankle
just outside the gate of Mr.. Van Ness
MIN ull was a
fainting to the house.
Lawyer Blandy declared in court
that the sprained ankle was n ruse.
lie said that the young woman, hear
ing that the old man had n habit of
making love to young ONE and ask
ing them to marry him, had deter
mined to be the II to accept for the
purpose of getting possession of the
money.
Mary East, deposing, told q terrible
story of the alleged Vaccinations Of
the young woman. How she drove to
the house the day after the pretended
ankle sprain and asked to be shown
the place. How she told the old man
she would like to live there all her
life. How she wept tears over a mem
orandum card of Mrs. Van Ness, de-
ceased, and said that Mr.. Van Ness
was n dear old man..
They were married on February 81
of the present year, the old man and
1 Alice Wood, by the Rev. DR.. Eaton,
and Alice came to live in the 'angel
house" after the angels had been sent
away.
Before this the old man had shown
his love in practical ways. He bought
his bride to be n $1,000 house in which
her parents now live. He presented
her with gifts of diamonds.
IL is charged that his generosity
did not stop with marriage; that il
has been quite lavish, indeed, and that
since that more or less happy event
he has managed to get rid of 1921 ,00C
money which his nieces by marriage
say they have an interest in.
The statements made in the aflidav'
its of Mr.. and Mrs. East are of the
kind which usually ornament melo'
dramas. They tell of knives and re
volvers taken from the old man; OF
violent language and threats to kill;
of open confessions by the young wo'
man that she never loved her octo'
genarian husband, but just married
him for his money; of statements by
her that her husband was a beast
Then came the accusation of a pre-
vious marriage by Alice Wood Geo
panied by n letter alleged to be from
n man named Pobe, calling her his
dearest little wife and telling her tc
get all she can out of the old man.