The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-04-26
Vacant Lot
1t Remained For Thirty
Years Without an
Owner
By MARJORIE CLOUGH


the prairie-or, rather, out of the mud
there were dwellings right in the re-
gion which is now occupied solely for /
business purposes. And right in among
some of these dwellings was a lot on
which the owner proposed to erect
store building. Those who owned
homes in the vicinity objected to a
store building being erected near them
and dubbed together to buy the lot
The owner asked the eXorbitant price
of 81 800, but it was thought best to
pay it and keep the neighborhood free
from what would mar it for residences.
There were four persons who Clipped
in to buy the property. but. since one
owner was deemed more advisable
than four, three of them proposed to
play a game of freeZeOut poker, the
winner 10 receive a deed for the lot
But one of the four, being a deacon in
the church and averse to card playing
suggested that they make over the lot
to a trustee. to be decided to the oldest
grandchild of any one of the owners
fifty years from the day the trust
was made. The men were all between
the ages of twenty-seyen and forty
years, and no one of them had a grand
child. One was not even married. New
ertheless. he assented TO the plan; the
document was drawn up and signed
and placed in the hands of the trustee.
In ten years from that time two of
the men interested i'll the lot were
dead. The dwellings in the district
where the property stood were much
run down, being occupied for sa-
looms and small shops. In ten years
more the other two owners had passed
away and the trustee as well, and
/ successor had been appointed by the
court. The immediate vicinity of the
( lot had been steadily deteriorating and
/ was now the worst location in the city
/ But handsome Office buildings We're be
/ ing erected two or three blocks distant
/ Since it was probable that that part of
/ the city would eventually become valu-
! able, the adjoining property was now
held at a high figure. Inquiries were
made for the lot in question. but it soon
came to be known that there was a
reason why it could not be sold, and in
time it was dropped out as n possible
I purchase. .a-.
When forty-nine of the fifty years
] of the trust had passed Edward Eli
son, the man who held the trusteeship
at that time. one day. looking over
some papers in his safe. came upon
the deed of trust and saw that in
about a year from that time it would
be his duty to turn over the lot men
toned to the oldest living grandchild
of any one of the men who had made
the deed. 1t therefore behooved him
to take measures to discover the per
son entitled to the property.
The first step he took in the matter
was to learn the value of the lot and
he found that in the opinions of real es
tate men it was valued at two or three
hundred thousand dollars. He next
made inquiries as to the descendants
of the original owners of the property
and found that while one family had
remained in Chicago the others had
drifted to other places. He found also
that none of them knew of the lot ii
question. and he deemed it advisable
to say nothing about it until he haG
learned to whom the law would com
pei him to deed it. He succeeded fl
learning the whereabouts of the chill
dren of three of the parties to the
agreement, and there We're eleven il
the second generation and twenty-eigh
grandchildren. As to the fourth man
, William Brown, who had been unmar
ried when the agreement was made
t the trustee could learn nothing abou
? MIN. An advertisement in the Chicag,
newspapers failed to bring any re
spouse.
: Some time before the expiration o
the deed of trust Ellison called meet
Ing of all the descendants of the fou
> men who had owned the property h
had been able to reach. Twelve per
. sons attended and nine responded b,
+ letter Having got all the informa
e ton he could from those who wer
= present. including their ages, Ellison
dismissed the1n and wrote to the 9th
ers who had written him. asking thei
ages. OF the twenty-eight grandchi
1ren he had heard of he now had tn
names. addresses and ages of twenty
:, one OF the others he had no informs
ton whatever.
However. a week before the fit
= year period expired Ellison had nal
" rowed down the probable ownership
= one person. Edith Moore. a girl Q
- nineteen. the oldest daughter of a so
i of one of the four original owners c
4 the lot. The trustee had proof that sh
N was the rightful owner unless the III
lie married member of the quartet ha
IL married and had left a grandchild olde
than Miss Moore.
Is Edith Moore was an orphan in yer
IN poor circumstances. She lived in Oh
IS cago and was endeavoring to supper
IS herself and her younger brothers an
a sisters by her needle. Ellison did NJ
= like to inform her that she was prob
bly, heir to fortune until he felt wa
ranted in turning it over to her. b