River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-12-04
RAG-p1cKER's GOOD FORTUNE.
Aged and POverty-StriclSen Woman
of Cork, Ireland, Inherlts Rich
American ESTATE.

1t is doubtful IL fortune ever
tumbled into the lap of person
less likely to use it to advantage
than the 100000 which the United
States supreme court recently award
ed to 65-year-old Hannah Callaghan,
OF Cork, as her share in the estate
of her cousin, John Sullivan, who
died in Seattle, Wash.
Wrinkled, haggard, with a narrow,
pointed nose, thin lips, bitter
tongue and aggressive disposition,
the woman who has just inherited
100000 earned her living until few
Gays ago as ragpicker. For years
she has made her home in squaid
little room in a narrow alley appro-
priately named as Crone's lane, in
Cork's worst slum, writes n foreign
correspondent of the Chicago Chron-
icle. She began life as a crochet
worker and once earned as much as
five dollars a week. Then she got
to be a scrubwoman and made less,
and of late years she has collected
homes, sold fruit and generally lived
from hand to mouth. She has been
somewhat partial to gin. When the
news reached Hannah Callaghan the
other day that she had inherited half
OF John Sullivan's fortune-Edward
Corcoran, a poor Dublin artisan, got
the other half-the old woman was
so bewildered that she could hardly
realize what it meant to her. She
heard that her cousin had died in
tRStDfn h11f hoI DF
her own chances of getting a share
of his estate that when American
lawyers came to her several months
ago and offered to push her claim she
made no trouble over signing an
agreement that they should take half
of any sum they succeeded in get
ting awarded to her.
This does not mean, however that
the old woman was f1eeced by her
American attorneys. For six months
they have worked like beavers to
get her inheritance, and the trouble
they took and the ingenuity they
manifested certainly entitle them to
a pretty stable fee, if not as large
one as they have gained. Since
Hannah Callaghan became an heiress
a clergyman in her neighborhood has
been looking after her to see that
no one takes advantage of her. The
precaution is necessary, for the old
Irish woman, who hasn't yet decided
to leave the dirty little room in
which she has lived for so long, is
being harried by people who have
suddenly discovered themselves to be
relatives" of hers, disinterested
souls who would be willing to as
sist her to invest her money as well
as gallant suitors who love her for
herself alone. John Sullivan, the
builder of the fortune which Cor
coran and Hannah Callaghan have
inherited, was born in the same Cork
slum in which the old rag and bone
picker has lived so long. He became
n sailor and finally was shipwrecl1ed
on the coast of the state of Wash
ington. He built himself a cabin and
afterward a second one, which he
rented to man who happened along.
Finally he had a whole village of
shanties which he owned, but just as
it was beginning to bring him in
little something in the way of rent
the whole settlement was burned
down.
Sullivan still owned the land, how
ever, and he rebuilt upon it, and
eventually, as one of the founders of
Seattle, grew rich.