The New York herald., 1922-12-03

$500 a year, also my black girl Sarah. a
good horse, a chairs, and one-half my
dwelling house as long as she shall remain
widow and no longer. / also bequeath
my black boy Isaac to my eldest son
David"
= william Molenaor and Mrs. Holston
think that when Martin the First wrote
"a chairs" he meant "a chaise" One
hopes that it was so interpreted at the
ume In 1872. so many decades before
Mayor Hylan and the Transit Commission
mad even begun to quarrel about transit
reHef for Washington Heights Great
Grandmother Molenaor would have found
horse and chaise extremely convenient.
But tradition is silent about the old lady.
1t only records the wastefulness of her
sons. who promptly squandered their rich
inheritance Their acts are the basis of
the Molepaor case against the present
owners of the land. for Martin the Second
held and his son Wilfred holds that under
the terms of the will they had no power to
sell any of the property; they had merely
a life interest.
perienced penman, doubtless became
weary toward the end of his long docu-
ment and imagined that he had inserted
a certain important something which he
had failed TO insert At any rate. near
the close occurs this:
TO my daughter Catherine Gordon. the
wife of Charles w. Gordon 1 give and be-
queath my lots of ground at the corner of
Orchard and Division Streets, under the
same restriction and provisos with my
three sons already named - that is all
her legacy shall descend to the heirs of
her body. and in case of deficiency of the
same it shall descend to her brothers or
their heirs"
Here comes in the faulty construction
of the will. In foregoing sections be-
queathing the Washington Heights and
Fort George property to David William
William and Dewitt Clinton. there was no
intimation that they were given merely a
life interest in the same. Such an idea
never occurred to the legatees-or stay
perhaps it did and they resolved to have
their fling while the fiinging was good
Anyhow they plunged forthwith into reck-
less speculations and in no time at all
were so deep in debt that most of the prop
erty had TO be sold under the hammer. It
was purchased by good. old. shrewd early
settlers of upper Manhattan, such as the
Dykeman, Lorillard and Walton families
who settled down on it. improved it, be-
queathed il to their descendants or sold il
and so in time il came to the hands of the
present holders.
In 1870 Martin Montrose Molenaor.- a
lusty chap of thirty-two son of David
William. got to thinking one day of his
landless state. Here was he, born and
brought up in New York. where his an
cestors had owned such wide acres and he
owned not foot of ground What right
had his father to part with that property?
From musinS he passed to poring over the
will of his great grandfather and so
lighted upon the intimation, which he read
as a clear command. that the Molenaor
land was not to be sold or let out of the
family. Without backing and without
means he went to law, entering a blanket
claim to various tracts of land estimated
IN all, roughly. at the value of $500 900 900,
and he battered away until, finally. the
case reached the tate Supreme Court. In
February. 1916, the case was thrown out
OF court in a decision handed down by
Justice Blur, but little thing like that
had no effect on Martin or on his son.
wifred
There were times in the long contest
when Martin the Second wearied a bit.
once he fled to Colorado, where, living the
life of ranchman, far from the tantalizing
sight of the pronertY he believed to be