Arizona republican., 1905-04-24
THE DUNSnUIR MILLIONS
A Story of Litigation Lately Alluded
 to by The Republican.

While Attorney T. E. K. Carmac, representing the British government in the Hobbs case was in Phoenix it was incidentally mentioned by the repubH- can that he was one of the chief coun- sel in the Dunsmuir litigation which is being carried on in the courts of Cali forina and British Columbia for the purpose of breaking the will of Alex ander Dunsmuir involving fortune of more than SS.OOO,OOO. in California alone to say nothing of the extensive holdings of the testator in the Duns- muir mines in British Columbia.
 MT. Carnac one day related to a Republican reporter some circumstan- ces of this famous case which have not hitherto appeared in print. The fortune of the Dunsmuirs was founded on the discovery of coal near Vancouv- CT by an old Scotch miner by the name of Dunsmuir It had not been believed that coal existed on the Pacific coast. After Dunsmuir made the discovery he reported it to Admiral Farquhar then in command of the British naval station at Vancouver. Duns- muir told the admiral that the discovery would be of no value to him unless he could obtain money ' The admiral had 2.5OO for which he had no immediate use and he turned it over to the old miner. His flag lieu tenant had saved e5,000 which he put into the pot. The coal deposit turned out so quickly to be much more ex- tensive than had been expected that the admiral sold his share in a short time for $50O.0OO and the flag lieuten- ant disposed of his for S1.OOO,0 900. Both sums were ridiculously low but the Englishmen were satisfied and both returned to England.
 Dunsmuir rapidly grew wealthy and when he died some years later he left his immense estate in equal parts to his wife and two sons James Dunsmuir and Alex. Dunsmuir. He had several daughters for whom he made ample provision. Alex Dunsmuir came to San Francisco to look after the mar keting of the coal at that point and James Dunsmuir remained to superin- tend the affairs of the mine.
 The brothers were men of quite diff ferent character. Alex Dunsmuir was a successful business man but given to dissipation. James Dunsmuir was a man of political ambitions and rose to the post of premier of British Colum- bia which he now holds.
 For twenty years Alex Dunsmuir lived with a woman to whom he was not married. He finally fell into i'll health and yielding to the solicitations of the woman he married her. Before the marriage his brother came to San Francisco and endeavored to dissuade him from the marriage. He could not do so and then he represented to him that his estate was much greater
 
 urged him to make a will leaving ev- erything to him. In the case of his death he promised to provide literally for his widow and also for the Duns muir sisters none of whom had mar ried-
 That will was drawn but under the laws of California it was necessary that 1t should be signed after the mar riage of the testator. It was signed at the wedding breakfast when the guests were all drunk with champagne the witnesses since testifying that they did not know the character of the docu- ment. Immediately after the marriage Alex Dunsmuir and wife left for New York on a wedding trip. Dunsmuir died of cirrhosis of the liver brought on by his manner of living. His wife brought his body to San Francisco ] where it was buried. There she met her brother-in-law who promised her an annuity of S25,OOO. Before the an nuity fell due she died. James Duns-1 muir never fulfilled his promise to his brother regarding the provision for his sisters but took possession of the en- tire estate saying that his sisters were well enough off beside their mother was wealthy and it would be better to create out of his own estate and that | of his brother an immense Dunsmuir fortune.