Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1901-11-11
ROMANCE ENDED.
THE STRANGE STORY OF
D. S. DIBBLE.
The Estate is All Settled
and the Money Has Been
Given to the Wife he
Had Neglected for
81 Years.

One of the strangesb happenings
ever recorded in the history of Rich
mond-it reads so much like ro-
nance that first-class play as mod
ern plays go could be built upon it
without the exercise of any v.ry ex-
tensive amount of imagination-was
completely settled up and ended Sat-
urday night. The final se.i lementk
the estate of the late d. S. Dibb.<
was effected and the last money paid
over to the rightful heirs. With
much of the history of the matter our
readers are already familiar; how
that Mr. Dibble came here, set up in
the commission business; was a
straight forward, honorable citizen,
valued as a friend by all who knew
him; a prominent and influential
mem Der of the Entire Nous club and
also of the T. p. A; finally died here
with apparently no friends on earth
beside those his upright methods
had made for hime here. Then came
the unfolding of the romance. Be-
fore his death be had never invited
or allowed any inquiries into his
family or friends in the past. The
years gone by were to him as
sealed book and he never referred
to them in any way. He was
supposed to have no immediate family,
and had said to Frank Chambers,
who was his bookkeeper and conf
Dental clerk, that if he had relative
on earth he did not know it. His
sudden death left things in a very pc
culiar shape. There was business
so firmly established that it could al
most run itself, with man in charge
capable of carrying it on, unlimited
creait, and money in the bank, and
no head to the business. Mr.. Dib-
ole was buried and then Mr.. Chamb
ers was left to wonder what to do
with the property thus forced into
his charge and finally sent the matter
into court, and under this direction
the business was closed up. Mean
time the publicity given the affair in
the papers had started rascalS to
thinking, and many schemes were
tried, to get this estate of a dead
man with no protection except that
of honest men and the court. Let
tiers began coming from every part
of the union claiming relationship.
Then there were other dishonest at
tempts. Three separate persons, one of
them in an adjacent state showed up
with notes signed by Dibble for So
600 with many years of interest ac-
crued, which were clear forgeries and
proved so. One man came here who
was a brother of Dibble and it took
the strongest of court pursuasion to
convince him that he was not. He
came here all ready to be appointed
administrator. The matter was
placed in the courts, however, by
Mr.. Chambers and thus protected by
the strong arm of the law. Finally
one day man came into Mr.. Cham
bers' Office and handed him a photo
graph, asking if he knew who that
was. Mr. Chambers replied that it
looked like some one he once knew.
The man said, Yes, it is D. S. Dib-
ble; the picture was made many years
ago though" His name was II. j.
Tibbetts, from Ravenna, Mich. He
was a second cousin of Dibble 5 and
had affidavits as to his name, his
residence and business. Stranger
than all, be said Dibble had a wife
and five children in New York. WHICH
information nearly knocked Mr..
Chambers off his chair Mr. Tib
belts had with him the affidavits of
the wife and the children, With full
power of attorney to represent them.
Then the strange story all came out.
Twentythree years ago DiOole
was located in New York and not do
ing any good for himself or mis- fami
". He had w.fe and four children.
The fifth child was Oorn two months
after he left home and he never saw
or knew of its existence. His broth
er, then living at Muskegan, Mich,
wrote him to come west and try what
he could do and be finally came. in
tending to send for his family if all
went well. Things prospered with
him, but he did not send for his fam
lily. Though their relations had been
pleasant, he sent them little money,
wrote them few letters and then
apparently forgot them. They seem
to have kept track of him to some
extent, however, and one of his
daughters once visited him in Mus
kegan, but of late years they never
corresponded, even,a and he sent them
nothing. The wife supported the
family taking in washings and do
ing other work until they were able
TO shift for themselves.
The matters of the estate were
thus placed in shape for settlements.
Mr.. Tbbetts finally came here with
relinquishments of all claims on the
estate from all the children, who are
all now over 81 years, giving il all to
the mother. Mr.. Tbbests has been
here three days. Saturday night he