The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-02-04
FAMILY SECRET
 OF HENDERSONS
 GIVEN TO PUBLIC
Alleged Granddaughter Is Not Blood Relation and Not the Heiress to Hen= derSOn Millions

Washington, Feb 4.-(UP)-Reve-
 lations purporting to show that Mrs | Beatrice Van Rensselaer, Henderson Wholean is not the granddaughter
 of Mrs John E. Henderson. Sr, nor the heiress to the millions left by the former Senator Henderson, Missouri, came to-day as d surprising after math to the recent offer by Mrs Henderson to donate to the govern ment 8 $300,000 mansion for future vice presidents.
 Mrs Wholean, immediately after this offer, filed suit to have Mrs Henderson removed as trustee of the Henderson estate "on account of her inca pacity."
 Mrs Henderson, nearly 90 years old and for many years a society leader here countered with the as- sertion that Mrs Wholean is not her grandchild. but was taken from a founding home in Washington near ly 25 years ago.
 Secret court documents made pub lie by Chief Justice Wheat of the district supreme court showed that in 1924 Mrs Henderson had adopted the supposed grandchild as her daughter, stating in the petition that her parents were unknown. The adoption papers, signed by Justice Hitz, had been sealed in an envelope and locked in a safe for nearly seven years.
 It was learned to-day that the aged woman has cut off her grand daughter" from any further share in the Henderson estate. Investigators for Mrs Henderson are understood to be seeking to learn Mrs Wholean's percentage.
 Until 1928, it' was learned to-day, the aged woman had believed the | girl she knew as Beatrice Tender
 son to be the daughter of her son,
 John H. Henderson, Jr, and his wife.
 the former Angelica Schuyler Cros- | by. Then, through an old servant
 who became angered at the girl and said he was "as much a Henderson as she was," Mrs Henderson learned that her son and his wife had per- petra.ted a hoax in representing the girl as their child.
 According to the story told by the servant and later vouched for by others, Mrs Henderson's daughter in-law merely had pretended to be lconfined at a retreat in nearby Ball. ston, Va, before announcing the birth of her child. Upon return ing here she brought with her girl taken from a founding home by a nurse named Ml3S sylvester. The secret, according to Mrs Henderson, was known only to a few persons, several now dead.
 Representatives of Mrs Henderson are seeking to locate Miss Sylves- ter"
 Other surprising angles in the strange case also have been revealed since Mrs 'Wholean filed her suit in district supreme court. It was learned that secret court documents filed :n 1924 apparently showed Mrs Henderson knew the girl was not her blood descendant. | These documents indicated she
 sought to adopt her supposed grand
 daughter. Mrs Henderson said to-
 day she was not aware such docu-
 ments had been filed. It also was stated to-day by Mrs Hendersons' representatives that Mrs
 Wholean knew before her marriage
 that she was not the blood kin of
 Mrs Henderson. They said that in
 1923 the girl returned bequest of
 $100,000 to the heirs of her supposed
 maternal grandmother. | Mrs Henderson, whose husband
 was a senator during the post-civil
 war period, is said by her attorneys
 and physician to be 'entirely com | petent."