Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1901-03-14
GILMAN CASE SETTLED.
No Contest Over Millionaire's
Estate.
MRS HALL WILL GET $4,000
Housekeeper Produced a Mysterious
Paper. which Had Much to Do with
the settIement-whole Amount In
yolyed Only Is, 900, 900.


volved Only 100000.
New York, March 13.-Merry Mrs.
Hall played yesterday the card she had
up her dainty lace sleeve and won. Her
prize will not be the vast fortune that
the old millionaire Gilman was thought
to leave behind him so reluctantly. But
Mrs. Hall does win at least S125, 700.
The many lawyers in the case preserve
careful secrecy about what took place,
but some of the heirs are not so dis
Greet
Whether Mrs. Halls document was
the last will and testament of George
Francis Gilman, ii never is to appear
publicly should the compromise agreed
| upon yesterday afternoon by a confer
ence of claimants be carried into legal
effect. The paper, having played Its
part, is to disappear forever.
Yesterday was day Of feverish
activity for all the claimants and their
lawyers. At the close of the day two
important things had developed. 1t was
known that instead of the Gilman es-
tate being $50. 900 its value is bare
ly s3,0OO.OOO. The mystery that sur
rounded 1t had added the other cipher.
From the first two men alone have
known accurately the true condition of
Gilman's affairs. These men were old
Henry E. Knox, Gilman's attorney for
years and the sole man he trusted,
and George Hartford, business man.
ager of Gilman's 2S5 tea stores.
High Hopes Dissipnted.
Altar many aoufarannaa fhasa two
men yesterday came before the group
of attorneys representing all the claim
| ants, including Mrs. Hall, and showed
them that the estate was not the i'm
mense fortune over which they had
planned such a war of years. These two
men, disinterested personally, made
plain to the heirs that litigation which
would carry a suit through the courts
of two states into the supreme court
of the United States simply would d.
vide the three millions among the law
yers.
To emphasize this these two men
with their intimate knowledge Of GIL
| mans affairs, laid before the lawyers
of the claimants all the deeds and other
| papers of the Gilman estate locked in
the big safe In the headquarters Of his
| tea company. From these papers 1t
was seen that George f. Gilman owned
about S50O,000 in the state of New
York. the bulk of this being In business
ventures and real estate. This sum
| represents the actual value of the prop
| erty, its face value being seriously i'm
| paired by various mortgages.
As a matter of form messengers
| were sent to the safe deposit compa-
MES OF New York with inquiries as to
Gilman having a box at any of those
places unknown to Mr.. Hartford or Mr.
Knox. II was not found yesterday
that he had any such boxes.
Nature of Paper Not Revealed.
From what Frazier Gilman said In
his excitement last night 1t is probable
that Edward Hatch of Hatch & Wickes
of 100 Broadway, attorneys for Mrs.
Hall, produced the much dreaded pa
| per which Mrs. Hall has been con-
| cealing by their advice. The possibili-
| ty OF it being n certificate of her mar
rage with Mr.. Gilman is eliminated by
the fact that Mrs. Hall never has been
divorced. 1t could not have been an
l
cause she never had child, nor could
1t have been a document proving her
own adoption, because such a paper
would have been valueless without an
act of the Connecticut legislature. and
such an act never has been passed.
1t seems certain. then, that the pa
per which so quickly brought about the
beginning of a settlement after the
comparative smallness of the estate
to be fought over was known was a
will. That it was In Mrs. Halls pos
session was proof that she had a
share in the inheritance.
Mrs. Halls position was weakened
by the extraordinary eccentricities OF
the Old man who drew the will, by the
abnormal hatred he had shown for his
natural heirs and by the peculiar in
fluence she had over him. These facts
would have made her willing to COM
promise with the natural heirs, who
had made preparations to fight against
admitting such a will to probate ell
ther In Connecticut or New York.