The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1915-05-04
FROM KEYBOARD
To VAST FORTUNE
Telegraph Girl InheritS Halt
of S22, 100000 Estate.
DUE TO AUNT'S ROMANCE.
With income From Rich Mineral Lands
In California. Tennessee and West
Virginia, Mrs. Halves Orders Big
House, Bungalow For Her Parents
and a 100 Foot Steam Yacht.

and a 100 Foot Steam Yacht.
Stranger than fiction is the story OF
the change I'm the lot OF Mrs. Lillian
NJ. X. Halves of Jacksonville, Fla.
From al obscure telegraph operator
she has jumped to the ownership OF
a half interest In a fortune of about
$22,O00.oOO In copper. coal and timber
lands.
Mrs. Halves Is a brunette thirty years
Of age. She was born In Bridgewater.
Somerset, England, and came to the
United States with her parents while
a small child.
The vast property, which is shared
equally by Mrs. Halves and her broth
er, Thomas Hawkins, for the past
eighteen years chief engineer OF the
Westchester Electric company, Mount
Vernon. n. Y, consists of copper lands
and mines In the Exchequer mining
district, San Bernardino county. Cal.
valued at about S6.oOo.00O; also 4OO.-
600 acres of coal and timber lands in
Franklin district, Marshall county, w.
Va, and ferro manganese and iron
properties In Tennessee and West Vir.
ginia. valued ut s16,Oo0.000.
Old Aunt Had Romance.
The story has its beginning I'm Great
Britain, where many years ago Miss L
Atwell. the great-aunt of Mrs. Halves,
was a much beloved companion and
friend OF Lady Towle, a wealthy and
nrorr4nnn elwv ann4ol 4r.vrO - IN,~Io- NJ
a~ristocracy. When Lady Towle died
she b~equeathed to Miss Atwell a large
sum OF money.
The great-aunt was not without her
romance. She had a girlhood sweet
heart, a sea captain, who while on a
voyage was lost with his ship and crew
and nothing ever was heard OF them
again. The death of the captain lear
ly Frustrated the young Englishwom-
an, and she came to America.
Here she was induced to invest her
fortune in what was then considered
waste land located In West Virginia.
Tennessee and California. But. as has
proved, the land needed but the Midas
touch Of modern scientific achievement
to transform 1t into wealth beyond the
dreams of avarice.
Began Work In Her Teens.
The great-aunt died March 4, 1914, at
the age OF nlnety-seven years, having
spent her life In solitude, refusing to
be comforted for the loss of her girl
hood sweetheart. Her only compan-
Ions were Mrs. Halves and her broth.
er. The two children we're always Civ
en- to understand that they would some
day come into possession Of all her
land.
Sixteen years ago the young Lillian
obtained a position with the Postal
Telegraph company In New York. She
was then a girl In her teens
Her parents live at $50 Washington
avenue, Bronx, New York city. the ia
Their being now a retired business man
Nine years ago In New York she mar
ried Banks O. Halves, whom she had
known since she was four years old
now a successful architect and marine
engineer.
Mrs. Halves has purchased an eighty
and one-half acre plot OF land neal
Jacksonville, where she will erect
$4,000 residence. Ten acres are to bt
set aside for a winter home for bel
parents with a $1,000 bungalow. She
has contracted with a New York boa
builder for a 100 foot steam yacht. ant
she and her husband contemplate
spending several months Of every yea
cruising.