The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-30
Charles A. Page Sues for Grand
fathers Estate.
Claims He Was Put in Orphan
age and Forgotten.
MISSES SAWYER DEFENDANTS
As Stepchildren of John s. Irv-
ing They Enjoy Possession.
Page Turns Up Years After
Estate Was Closed.

One of the romantic stories which
occasionally find their way into court
record is being worked out in it's final
chapters today in the suit ia the dis
trict court, of Charles A. Page against
Georgiana and Electa Sawyer for pos
session of a piece of Topeka real es-
tate which was formerly a part of the
estate If the late John S. Irving The
Misses Sawyer, who have resided in
Topeka for many years. were step
children of Irving. while Page. who
also goes by the adopted name of
Adam, was a grandchild Of the man
whose rightful heir he claims to be-
He claims to be a lost heir whose
rights have hitherto been ignored.
The suit is brought to set aside a
judgment obtained in 1904 in Shawnee
county courts hen the step-children
of the Sawyer Irving family were put
into possession of Irying's estate in
default of the appearance of other
heirs. 1t was not until within the
past two years. claims Page, that by
advertising he found trace of his
own family from whom he was sep
arated when. at the age. of five or six
years. he was placed in an orphanage
in Ohio by his mother, who at that
time had married for the second time
and removed to Texas. Miss Geor-
giana Sawyer answered his advertise
February, 1913, bringing him into
communication for the first time in
nearly forty years with members of
his own family.
Sent to an Orphanagc.
John S. Irving. who at one time was
a fairly wealthy proprietor of Kansas
farm and Topeka city property, was a
tailor. living in Richmond, Ind. prior
to 1867. He was a widower with one
daughter the Mrs. Tillie Page who
later moved to Texas leaving her son
In an orphan asylum. In the year men,
toned. Irving married widow named
Sawyer. whose daughters are today re-
sisting the action in the second di-
vision Of the Shawnee county district
court.
She owned some property at the time
of her marriage and her childrens
fight for possession of the Topeka prop
erty which Irving left is to some ex-
tent based upon claim that Irvings
accommodations in Kansas were built
upon the property which Mrs. Sawyer
brought to him in their marriage.
Pages story proves that little at
tention was ever paid to his interests
either by lis mother his GRANDPA
ther after he was committed to the care
of the charitable Institution in Gin
cinnati where he spent his bOyhood
A little Bible with an inscription as
having been presented to Charlie A.
Page by the superintendent of the or
phanage in 1867 was introduced in evil
dence today with some faded photo
graphs and daguerreotype or two of
the boy. his mother and grandfather.
There has not been. apparently. any
question raised as to the authenticity
of Charlie Pages descent from John
:. Irving. He was simply forgotten
for a generation. His wife. to whom
he was married at Marshall. Ohio, to-
day related on the witness stand how
they had from year to year renewed
ha-t off Av-tc ff,.<4 90 h.
husbands family by writing letters
here and there wherever they fan
cied they had found a clue. Page had
been bound OUT from the orphanage
to a man named Adams and lived I'M
der that name in Kansas City where
he has made his home for twenty
years.
When John S. Irving came to Kan
sas about 1880 he brought with him
enough money to buy 700 acres of
land in Chase county which he sold
ten years later. purchasing several
pieces of Topeka real estate. Among
these was lot 1876 Jefferson street be-
tween Fourth and Fifth streets, which
was the principal residue of the estate
after the expenses of settlement had
been paid. Title to it was transferred
to the Sawyer sisters in the suit to
quiet title in 1904.
IrvingS We're Divorced.
Although his wife and step-children
accompanied him to Topeka it appea s
that their domestic life was not en-
tirely tranquil for after living separ-
ated from them for nearly seven
years in the SOS and having been re-
united and separated again. a divorce
was granted to Mrs. Sawyer in No
vtmher, 1890. on the grounds of aban-
donment and gross neglect to duty. \
month before the divorce was granted.
Irving had transferred piece of
property on Twiss avenue, Topeka, to
his wife and she made no claim for
alimony. Pages attorneys. who are
J. Il. Larimer and the firm of Mon
roe. Roark. Mcclure and Monroe. rep
resent that that transfer was the re-
suit of settlement by which the di-
vorced couple agreed to the terms of
the separation. John s. Irving died
In 1903 and the record of the Shawnee
county probate court shows that he
died heirs unknown.
1t was year and a half after his
death that his step-children f!ed a
suit to quiet title to Irving's property
in the district court of this county and
obtained service by publication upon
''rillie Page Charles Alfred Page and
their unknown heirs" AS no response
was made to this notification to ap-
pear and defend their title, the court
eventually entered judgment in favor
OF the Misses Sawyer and they entered
into actual possession of the property.
Mrs. Sawyer-Irving died about nine
years after her husband.
Saw ,ers Assert Rights.
Judge z. T. Hazen and r. H. Cav,
attorneys for the Sawyer sisters. have
today been putting Mr.. and Mrs. Page,
who are principal witnesses for their
side, through stiff REORGANIZATION
to show that their efforts to locate
members of his family were not con-
Quoted with the energy or system
claimed in the Page petition. Their
defense will rest to a large extent
upon affidavits showing the part
which Mrs. Sawyer had in building up
the estate in contest.