Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-06-04
OTTuMW A WOMAN
CLAIMS KINSHIP
MRS. EMMA ROGERS, FORMERLY
OF THIS CITY FIGURES IN
WILL CASE.
DESERTED AT 8 YEARS
Went to Butte, Mont, in Search Of
Father to Find Him Under Diff
ferent Name-story is
Strange Tale.

A former Ottumwa woman, now a
resident OF Butte, Mont, may be an
heiress to 100000. The woman is Mrs.
Emma Rogers, an employe of the
postoffice at Butte The father of the
woman, the late George Quigley,
known as "the horseradish man." IL
lis claimed, changed his name after
going to Butte many years ago from
Centerville, where he is. said to have
deserted Mrs. Rogers, then a three.
year-old child, and her mother, Mrs.
Ebenezer Peugh.
The following letter from Anaconda,
Mont, tells some of the mystery that
surrounds the life and career of this
man whose neirs, man and woman,
both claim kinship to him but do not
know each other:
ger than tale by Stevenson is the
story that has reveloped in connection
with the death of George Quigley, pi-
oneer resident of Anaconda and Butte,
who died in this city ten days ago.
AS the body of the old man was
lowered into the grave in the Hill
cemetery, there stood by, each show
| ing every manifestation of grief, a
man who claimed to be his son, and a
woman who claimed to be his .daugh-
ter, neither speaking to nor recognizing
the other. They had apparently
never met before. The woman was
Mrs. Emma Rogers, an employee Of
the Butte postoffice, whose strange
story Of kinship is not admitted to be
true by the man, Lester Quigley Of
Battle Creek, Mich, who is said to be
the son of the old gentleman who was
buried here.
! George Quigley was known to all
Butte and Anaconda, merely as the
'horseradish man" The old man had
for years made his living by preparing
apd peddling horseradish, and he was
known to hundreds of housewives in
both cities. Mrs. Rogers says that she
discovered the linship two years ago.
She has lived in Butte three years and
had known the old man nearly that
long and had been friendly to him.
One day while conversing with him,
she discovered he was her father,
Quigley having deserted her mother
in Centerville, Ia, when she was but
three years of age.
George Quigley's estate Is said to be
/ WI Ill az lCdSI PIO,OOV. IL llSluuSE
realty in Butte and Anaconda and a
farm in southern Mississippi. Mrs
Rogers will claim share of the es
! tate as the child of QuigIey, whom
she declares was none other than he1
father, Ebenezer Peugh.
Mrs. Rogers came to Ottumwa from
Centerville and later went to Butte in
search for her missing father whom
she had not seen since he had desert
ed her mother when she, Mrs. Rogers
was three years OF age
She located her father but he never
recognized her as a daughter, nor
would he.credit her story Of the posi-
bility of kinship. She obtained q
photograph of the old man and sent II
to relative, Mrs. John Baird, Of
Centerville, who is also relative OF
Quigley (PeughD. Mrs. Baird posi-
lively identified the picture as that Of
Ebenezer Peugh, the father of Mrs
Rogers.
The supposed son, Lester Quigley
of Battle Creek, Mich, does not credit
Mrs Rogers story and will contest
any effort on her part to obtain any
portion of the estate of the dead man
Quigley or Peugh, whichever it is
proved to be.