The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-09
A MILLION HANGS ON A TOE.
VALUABLE TEXAS OIL LANDS IN
DISPUTE.
The Title to Them Depends on Which Toe
Mary Kingston Had Crippled When
She Was a Girl-Claimant Appeared
Unexpectedly After OIL Was struck.


Mary Kingston Had Crippled When
she Was a Girl-Claimant Appeared
Unexpectedly After OIL Was struck.
ORANGE, Tex, Oct. Son the identity
Of an old womans crippled toe depends
the title to a million dollars worth OF prop
erty in the Batson oil district Of this State.
The toe was introduced as evidence in the
suit lust tried at Houston, but the jury
could not agree as to its genuineness, and
the case goes back to the calendar for
another trial
Twenty years ago Mary Kingston was
left widow with one child, girl Of five,
and a tract OF land on the Batson prairie
where she lived. The land was then
worthless piece of property. and Mrs.
Kingston abandoned it and removed to
Harris county with her little girl.
Shortly after that she disappeared, de-
sorting the child, who was taken by sister
of Mrs. Kingston, who lived bn the Batson
prairie near the abandoned Kingston
property. A year or so later word was
received by this sister, from the western
part of Texas, that woman had died
and been buried there who said her name
was Mary Kingston and that she had a
sister and other relatives, including
daughter, at Batson and in Harris county.
About a year ago, following the oil de-
velopment at Beaumont and other places
in that field. oil was discovered at Batson,
and a great boom in land ensued. The
abandoned Kingston tract became the
most valuable territory in that locality.
Mrs. Kingston's daughter had been cared
for and raised by her aunt. When the
prairie tract came thus into prominence
sr otoh tlhi
right to it as heir at-law Of her mother, and
an offer of 81, 900 900 was made to her for
the property.
She refused 1t, and the development
of the territory put her in possession Of
some Of the finest wells in the State. There
has been much decline in oil values during
the past few months, but Miss Kingston's
income from the property is at present
$500 month.
1t is less than year since the Batson
field came into prominence, and when the
Kingston wells were at the height of their
prosperity a bent and shrivelled old woman
appeared at Batson and announced that
she was the long missing Mary Kingston.
supposed to be dead these twenty years,
and that consequently the property was
hers.
MISS hlIlSSJOll ilhtl Solti oh laiScio Va
the tract at big prices, her title to the prop
erty being thought beyond question. II
the claim of this old woman were estab-
lshed, the purchasers OF the land would
Of course have no ownership in it, and
serious complications at once arose.
Miss Kingston denied the old woman's
assertions, as did the aunt, Mrs. Buckles,
and all other relatives of Mary Kingston
except one brother, Joseph Gerson. He
took sides with the claimant, declaring
that he was satisfied that she was his sister,
Mary Kingston.
The claimant said that she had heen liv-
ing in Fort Bend county ever since she dis
appeared and had herself sent the news
that she had died. II had been her in
tention never to correct the belief that she
was dead but having learned of the sudden
wealth that had come through the once
worthlesss Kingston tract OF prairie, she
resolved to return to Batson and claim the
property, as it was hers.
The case came up in court at the trial.
Mrs Buckles on the witness stand made
the declaration that Mary Kingston had
had crippled toe, having cut of the tip Of
the big toe on her right foot with an axe
when girl. The nail had grown out and
down over the place where the tip had been
and turned under the end of the toe.
II the claimant was Mary Kingston,
tho witness said, that mark OF identifca-
ton would still be present.
The claimant was put on the stand. She
said she had crippled toe, and removing
the shoe and stocking from her right foot,
proved her assertion.
But the crippled toe she produced was
not the big toe Of the foot. 1t was the toe
next to the big one. And It had not been
cut on, but showed evidence OF having been
mashed of. 1t had no freak growth OF
nail
She declared that her sister had testified
falsely as TO the toe and the way she had
crippled it. The genuine crippled Mary
Kingston toe, she said, was the one she was
putting in evidence.
She was sustained in this by Joseph Ger
son who accepts the claimant as his sister
MARY Kingston. William Odle, who mar
neo sister of Mary Kingston, swore that
me real toe that Mary Kingston crippled
mmhen she was girl was the one Mrs.
Buckles had testified to.
Upon this contradictory evidence the Jury
Iii Iii NOT come TO an agreement, and no
verdict could be arrived at. The interests
a. slake are so great that unless a COM
ho'nlse can be effected with the claimant
d Az case viii come up for retrial, and that
ntSpnten crippled toe is likely 10 Use up q
~ ~ neai OF the Batson oil field In lawyers
~ ana costs before II is settled who has
"e u'e 70 that 81 900, 900 worth Of property.