The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-13
MONEY THAT HAS BEEN FORGOTTEN

peculiar ability. 1t also involves gen
ealogical training.
Many dormant accounts in this city
date from civil war days, when the
owners never came back. The army
and navy records have to be searched.
In the old days death records in this
city were more or less muddled. In
1882 a reform was made in the method
of keeping up these records so that
since that time it is far easier to find
out about those who have died.
The investigator usually takes from
the banks books the record of the name
and address and the names of the father
and mother of the depOsitOr, IL they
were set down. At the home address
usually no one is found who ever heard
of the depositor. In some tenements
the investigator will go to every door,
calling often on fifty families. Per-
haps some one viii remember the dead
depositor and recall a relative. If no
other means is found of beginning the
trace old letters are hunted up i'm the
dead mans effects. Searches of the
death records are made. Undertakes
of long standing i'm the neighborhood
are questioned. The books of fraternal
orders are examined. Gradually a lit
tie light breaks in. If the name is d
peculiar one, every person of the name
in the city is written 10. and so the
chase goes on.
One of the cases which has puzzled
one of these agents is that of a man
whose name might be called Williams.
but isn't. A hunt of months has es-
tablished just one fact about Williams.
1t is that he was bounty jumper in the
civil war, and to hide his identity de-
posted his money under an assumed
name. The sheirs of bounty jumper
Williams will probably never get what
he deposited. The amount involved is
$780,
One of the richest women in New
York. the widow of man whose name
was one of the greatest powers in rail-
reading in this country, was surprised
recently to know that she had $4,000
coming to her. She had forgotten all
about the matter. She deposited the
money in early life when she was an
other mans wife and was struggling
along 1t was only a small sum. Then
she married into great wealth. She
never had need of money. As the years
went by she forgot all about the modest
bank deposit of her youth. and was SIM
ply astonished about three years ago
to learn that under her former name
there Was d utpOSil III CERTAIN Ddlk
amounting to $1,000. The banks Off
Gals had not connected the name on
their books with the widow. She took
the money and said she was glad to
find such painstaking effort shown by
the bank people.
In one of the accounts all that was
known of the man who put the money
on deposit was that he made the de-
post before he went to the civil war.
All trace of him was lost after that.
Finally, by search of the army rec
ords, il was learned that a man of that
name had gone to Texas to live. A hunt
in Texas disclosed the Whereabouts OF
the man. He proved his identity and
said he had forgotten about the deposit
After serving in the army until the
close of the war, he settled i'm the south,
and had worked hard for living. The
s1S5 he originally deposited had grown
to about $500.
Another case settled recently was
that of a mechanic i'm Brooklyn who
twenty-five years ago, when he was in
business on his own account, had had
savings bank deposit. Affairs with
him went from bad to worse. The bank
had not heard of him for more than
twenty years. He had moved away
from where he used to live. Gradually
he was hunted down, and he and his
wife were told that nearly $1,000 be-
longed to them If the man could prove
his identity.
By that time he had forgotten that