Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-06-01
The Golden
Acre
1t Was Half a Century
Before 1t Produced
Crops
BY F. A. mitchell

piece of prairie land located a couple
of miles from the center of the city of
Chicago. The property was worth
nothing. and the expenses of the suit
were heavy. They were advised by
their lawyers to meet with a view to
effecting a compromise. They anne to-
gether, and Deane said to Dodsworth:
at is impossible for either you or me
to realize anything out of this acre of
worthless land. We're too old. But |
think there's going to be a big city
here some day, and the property in,
say, fifty years from now may come
within the town limits. 1t will then be
worth something. Suppose we leave it
jointly to our heirs?'
THAT would be like dividing an
apple into a couple of dozen parts.
Families multiply, and doubt if the
Inheritance will ever be worth more
than, say, a hundred dollars. Suppose
We arrange so that it shall go to one
person yet unbornY"
Dodsworth was ready for any propo-
sition that would relieve him Of further
bother concerning the property, and
legal documents were drawn up be-
q%ueathing it to such descendant of
either as should be nearest to twenty
years old on June /, 1900. Both men
were over fifty at the time the arrange
ment was made, and both had sons
and daughters.
But none of these sons or daughters
took the slightest interest in the prop
erty that had, so to speak, been put
away for the enjoyment of some one
yet unborn. If, indeed, any of them
ever visited it they saw a part of the
prairie, Oh which, after a rain, stood
a pool of water varying from n to
twelve inches in depth.
When forty years had rolled round
neither Deane nor Dodsworth nor any
child of either was living. There were
many grandchildren, none of whom
knew anything about the acre of prop
erty that had been tied up for half a
century. Before the death of the tes-
tators a fund had been provided from
which the taxes were to be paid, and
a certain firm of lawyers were to pay
them. In 1890 this firm dissolved, and
the duty deyolyed upon their suceess-
ors. By this time the property had be-
come a snug fortune, and there was no
danger of any Deane or Dodsworth
who lived in Chicago not knowing
something about it. But both families
had spread out fanlike and had scat
tered.
In 1898 Ackley & Thorp, attorneys,
were charged with the payment of the
taxes on the acre, and the sums were
sufficiently large to be noticeable. Sid
ney Walker, a young man who had
just been admitted to the bar, was a
clerk in the Office of Ackley & Thorp,
and the payment of the taxes was in
to a knowledge of the strange joint
will of Deane and Dodsworth. 1t &C.
Cured to Walker that when the time
came round to put the property into
the hands of the legitimate heir it
would be important that all the mem
bers of the Deane and Dodsworth fami-
lies should be accounted for. Realiz-
ing that whoever did this work would
doubtless be paid for it, he began a
search for every member of both fam
lilies. But he kept his investigation to
himself.
Roger Deane, aged twenty-five, a
grandson of Elihu Deane, a party to
the will made in 1850, resided in Chi
cago between 1890 and 1900 and had
his eye on the acre as being the posi-
BILE heir. He was a member of most
of the clubs of the city and prominent
socially. He hunted UP all the Deanes
and Dodsworths he could find. There
was none nearer than he to the re-
CURED age. But he found one Dods-
worth, a woman about his own age,
who might be nearer than he. He
made inquiries as to her age, but she
declined to give it on the ground that
a woman's age is her private property.
The truth is that if he knew her age
and it was nearer the prize than his
he might prepare himself to prove that
he was older or younger than she was.
Miss Julia Dodsworth was equally as
prominent in society as Roger Deane,
and the possession of property worth
several hundred thousand dollars would
be as much of an advantage to her as
to him. She therefore concluded to
cultivate him, with a view to getting
out of him his age. Neither would be
on June 1, 1900, much less than two
years above twenty, but no II of the
descendants of the original Deane or
Dodsworth had turned up nearer the
required age, and it seemed probable
that one or the other Of these two
would get the fortune.
As the time drew near for the turn
ing over the acre to the designated
heir Messrs. Ackley & Thorp wrote to
the Deanes and Dodsworths to state
their ages. Roger Deane and Julia
Dodsworth were included in the In
quiries. Each had been endeavoring to