The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-16
BIRMINGHAM MEN
 ARE INTERESTED Ancestors Owned Valuable New York Property ATTEMPT 10 RECOVER Some of the Property Includes Million aire Row And Central Park
 Occupies Another
 Portion.

1T anything ever comes ol lHe eiioAs recently inaugurated in New York to recover 100 acres in the very heart of the city, including a greater portion of Central Park, several Birmingham fam lilies will secure good portion Of the proceeds
 John T. Cowan of Dallas. Tex. who is' a cousin of A. s. Cowan and the late Mrs. W. H. Denson of Birmingham, IS in New York city looking up the deeds on the property. The New York Times of Sunday gives the following account of the matter;
 Joseph T. Cowan of Dallas, Texas, who believes that he owns 160 acres of land In the heart of New York, including the greater part of Central Park, said yes terday that he had been offered by syn dicate of six prominent men in Wall street s15O0O 900 for a quitclaim to his claim, or s2O 100000 if he would accept one-ffteenth interest in the estate, leav- Ing the balance to the syndicate. MT. Cowan is confident that he owns the greater part of an estate on Manhattan with fifty other heirs. He says that the offer was a trife of what he expects to get.
 The property which he believes he Is entitled to an interest in runs from the East rivar, at Seventy-fifth street across to the North river, and extends to with in a few feet of One Hundred and Twen- ty-third street. MT. Cowan, who is ac- companied by his attorney. Rhoades Ba- ker, is staying at the Hotel Marlborough.
 Millions Are Due.
 According to his story, millions are due him and the other heirs through the neg lect of the city to pay the rent of an acre under an old lease made by the original owner of the property.
 Andrew, the son of John Hartzfeidef' of the Hartz Mountains, went to Wales, where he accumulated enough to Journey to America in the year 1722' said MT cowan yesterday afternoon. He was granted by Lord John Montgomery, then governor of New York, and New Jersey the 100 acres, which still belong to the estate. That land takes in much of Mil lionaires' Row. on upper Fifth avenue private dwellings. great apartment houses hotels and tenements, together with places of business and in fact large
 
 'sNew York was then a village, and James, his grandson. a farmer who titled the land, found that not altogether prof itable. He did not like the climate, either, and decided to go south. The city offi- cals offered to lease his property. They offered him s1 an acre rental on the land, and it was used for pasturing the village cows. The lease to the municipality was drawn up and signed March lz l795, and Hartzfelder went first to Philadelphia, where he changed his name to Hartsfeld Anglicizing it because it was more popu- far that way.
 Later he moved to Wake county, N. C., where he died leaving nine children. have three wills in which the Manhattan estate is included among the assets, and have found two of the old family Bibles, one of them, with the ink so faded that it can be read only with microscope. In these, which were practically wills, the 16o acres leased in New York are care fully recorded. These were found In an old trunk in Tennessee, stored away in garret In the same trunk was a certified copy of the lease. I have another copy diSO CtTtiHtu III ddbAtioh fiafS aotAcio directly bearing on the lease and the ef- forts to collect the rent from New York
 "when I was a youngster I remember very well hearing my grandfather say to my uncles: Boys, you will be million aires some day. New York is growing, and will cover the whole Island of Man haitian before long, and if you live you will certainly have more money than anybody ever dreamed of on the expira- tion of that lease
 Another Attempt.
 ''In 1876 my uncle, J. M Hartsfeld of Mobile. came to New York and tried to break the lease. He was not successful, owing to hidden records and corrupt poll tics. He returned home and died two years later.
 Among the most interesting of the documents proving our right to the es- tate are the certified expense accounts of an ancestor, who came to New York an business connected with the lease. He travelled on horseback, and evidently had a pleasant journey, according to his diary.
 Now the lease expired eleven years ago, so tHdl ulutF liit idWS ol 4ScW UT hs making the limitation twenty years, we have nine years in which to prove our case. We have documentary evidence more than sufficient, including a certified copy from the records that were destroy ed in the fire of the hall of records in 1851 during the celebration of the lay ing of the Atlantic cable. We have 8 map of the city clearly indicating our prop erty, the only other copies being own ed by a few old families of New York President Roosevelt has one of these.
 T am not going to give the names now, but there was lawyer from Ohio who came here at the time of the expiration of the lease. He represented certain heirs in Missouri. Returning. he told them that the expiration of the lease ended their claims and brought back with him s75,000 At the same tinie ten books of the records disappeared. in- cluding the records of our ancestors lease.
 We know the lawyer who paid him. and where the books are If my p-oofs were not sufficient I would not have been offered the big sums that are small in comparison with what I will get with the other heirs.