Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-08-17
PECULIAR Will
CASE NTERESTS
LOCAL Resident
John keith1s> Request of $50.
600 toMrs. Edith SpreckeIs
May Be Involved


A sensational will case story. with
an angle which touches beqnest OF
$4,000 to Mrs. Edith Huntington
Spreckels, now in Honolulu, has come
here from San Francisco.
The story is that told by Mrs.
Louise Thomson In Los Angeles.
Briefly, 1t Is that she is the daughter
of the late John Keith. a wealthy min
ing man, and suddenly she has APP
peared from the unknown to claim his
half-million dollar estate
The story she tells to explain her
long absence from the scene Of Keith's
later life is one of the most curious
In court annals.
Thirty odd years ago. according to
Mrs. Thomson's narrative OF, her brok-
en- life, John Keith and his daughter,
Louise, were shipwrecked off the
Alaskan coast. They were separated,
Passengers chung to ice packs John
Keith saw on a floe girl whom he
thought was his daughter and saw her
disappear into the sea.
Rescued BY Esquimaux.
He believed her dead She was
IL
conscious and took her TO his igloo.
And there, in an EsQuimaux village
the girl Louise, who was Mrs. Thorn
son, lived for is years, and almost for
got her race.
At the end of that period Mrs.
Thomson said she was found by white
trappers and recognized. She was re-
turned to her old home in British CO.
lumbia, only to find her husband was
married again and with family Of
five children. Her father had not
been heard of.
Heartbroken she returned to the
Esquima.ux village to live out her life.
Then, in 1912. Mrs. Sarah j. Tedford.
an aunt or sister-in-law, sent for her.
Since that time she has been with
Mrs, Tedford and It was not, she says
until she saw q notice of the death of
John Keith in the newspapers that she
knew her father had survived the
wreck in Alaska.
The San Francisco Chronicle says
that John Keith's will left 100000 to
his brothers and sisters. Mrs. Edith
Huntington Spreckels was bequeathed
$50, 900, and Mrs. Willard G.. Chamber
lain $4,000 and a limousine The
University of California had q claim
for $4,000 and it was because of
dispute over that claim that post
ponemeht of the probating Of the will
was granted.
Keith, II is said, never. mentioned
that he had q daughter. Only one
paragraph in the will indicates that
the. testator had any thought of a con-
test. He wrote:
Anyone contesting and successful
ly breaking this will shall be allowed
$5-no more.
No mention was made of any child
in the will, and this the lawyers say
makes it possible for a child, who can
prove that Keith was her father, to
take the entire fortune.
Mrs. Thomson's story was imme-
diately contradicted by relatives of
Keith, among them Luke Davis, a ne
phew, and Amos Keith, a brother.
They say Keith never went to Alaska
at ALL
Concerning the disposition of the
estate, the Chronicle of August IL,
SAYS:
..The only distribution OF the estate
made so far was the presentation uil-
der the provisions of Keith'e win of
a limousine to Mrs. Willard G.. Cham
berlain and an auto to Charles McCord,
who was Keith's chauffeur. Further
of the estate will be held
up probably by protest on August %
Of Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. Tedford
1t was said yesterday that Mrs.
Edith Huntington Spreokels, who was
$50, 600 by Keith, had sold
her legacy to Morris Windt of the
Eagle Tannary. Mrs Spreckels is said
to have withdrawn her petition for a
distribution of the estate