The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-02-05
SLICE OF EIGHTY MILLION MAY GO
 TO LOCAL CLERK
Forrest E. Ellman, Bridge porter, One of Heirs of
 Vast Fortune.
NINETY NINE YEAR
 LEASE HAS EXPIRED
Land Tn Philadelphia and Oil City Included In Ire
 mendous Estate.

l Forrest F. E1leman, a clerk in Meigs Co. and living at A Lewis St. | is elated. His elation is most natural for he has just been informed that he may participate in the division of an $80, 10000 estate-eighty million. Not only is this amount of money almost beyond the grasp of the imag- nation, but according to reports from Troy, Ohio, where first intimation of the possibility arose, the manner in which it devolves upon the heirs of one Marmaduke Coate is unique and shows that leases made for a century sometimes are called even in the pres+
 ent age. It is believed that this lease | made for 99 years, is the first to be called at expiration in the United States. What action the courts will take and how much of the present property will revert to the heirs are questions that may make famous case in the courts of this country
 Forrest El1eman of this city, has
 been a clerk in this city for about three years, prior to which he worked in large New York stores and came from Ludlow Falls. Ohio.
 / He recently received word from Philadelphia lawyers that he was one which is in litigation. He was later advised by his relatives in New York State that he would be expected to aid in the fight.
 
 Ohio and printed Jan. 29 in Dayton, w. R. Elleman, of West Milton, Ohio, g. clerk in the county auditors office l discovered a lease in the archives that had expired. Its perusal showed that several well known Miami county families may share in an $80,000,000 estate in Pennsylvania, through the provision of the 99 year lease clause. The publication says 'sGr. and Mrs. Elmer Pearson of Troy, MT. and Mrs. l.. M. Elleman of Ludlow Falls, and
 MT. and Mrs. L. M. Elleman of Pleas ant Hill, Ohio are the persons who may gs4lare in the estate and with other relatives they have placed the case ir.s fine hands of a St. Louis at torney, whe is now in Philadelphia Idopking ouf for their interests
 t.Ninety-nine years ago the ances- tors of the E9Ilenans and Pearsor1s leased several thousand acres of what is now inc most valuable land in Penn sylvanfa with the provision that at the time the lease expired the land with all other Improvements would revert back to the heirs of the ori- gina1 owners.
 s"The land has been developed by the Rockefeller interests and today the value is estimated at $80.ooO,00O. In c1uded in the land is the whole city thousand acres in the city of Phila- delphta.
 s"The ancestors of the Miami cour- ty families who procured the origi nal lease are Marniadu1<e Coate and wife, Arthur Coate and wife and son, James, William P. Sarnanry, Caleb and Alice Mendenhal1, Eliza Farnes and James MenderhalI.
 ''The last two named persons were closely related to Daniel Boone, one of the pioneers of Ohio and Kentucky. The lease expired last year and just before the holiday relative noticed an advertisement for the heirs of the land published in Philadelphia news paper, and at once steps were taken to locate all the heirs It is pToba b1e that 200 heirs will appear before the case is brought into court The fight for the recovery of the lands and improvements will be made in Phila- delphia, and it may be several years before all the litigation can be set tied"