Iowa Old Press

Davenport Daily Leader
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
April 2, 1902

Irish Estate Falls to Woman at Ottumwa
    Ottumwa, April 2 - If the statements made in a letter received by Mrs. J.K. Smith are true that woman is one of two heirs to an estate in Ireland valued at $1,000,000. The strange part of the story is that Mrs. Smith was entirely unaware that she was related to any person who could lawfully call such a princely sum of money as his own. As yet she has taken no steps toward verifying the alleged facts and to securing her inheritance. The news of her good fortune seems to have slightly dazed her, although she does not doubt its truth.
    Beyond the facts contained in the letter Mrs. Smith knows nothing. She says she received news from her sister, Mrs. Nettie McIntosh of Muncie, Ind., stating that her uncle John Morris of Dublin, Ireland was dead and that his estate is valued at the princely sum of $1,000,000. The letter also said that Mrs. McIntosh and Mrs. Smith were the only heirs. This uncle it appears from the statements made by Mrs. McIntosh, departed this life on Feb. 29 last, and here the epistle ends.
    Mrs. Smith is an assistant superintendent at the Janey Manufacturing company.

IOWA BRIEFS.
 - Red Oak will pave some of her principal streets.
-  A lodge of the Independent Workmen will be organized at Clinton tonight.
- The Henderson Herald has suspended publication, owing to inadequate support.
- The epidemic known as pink-eye is raging among the pupils of the Chariton schools.
- Over $60,000 has been pledged in Iowa since Jan. 1 for erection of Y.M.C.A. buildings.
- A bell weighing 900 pounds and costing $200 has been placed in the belfry of the M.E. church at Oxford.
- Waterloo citizens have formed an organization to buy the Fairview cemetery grounds and will pay $20,000 for the same.
- Rev. Jonathan Lee of Henry county recently performed his 507th wedding ceremony. His first ceremony was performed in 1857 when he was 17 years old.
- Fred Gilbert of Spirit Lake won the fifty bird shooting match by Kansas City, for the Sportsman's Review trophy and thus takes absolute possession of the cup.
- Roy Russell, a Hanlontown youth, was struck by a Northwestern train and killed. He had been out hunting, and sat down on the track and it is supposed fell asleep.
- Mrs. Martha Glesier of Dubuque was seriously injured by being struck by a street car. She was caught under the fender, and so badly injured she may be a cripple for life.
- Mrs. Decker of Keokuk, wife of A.C. Decker, of the Decker Manufacturing company, and one of the most prominent lodge and club women in the state died suddenly. She was 51 years of age.
- Postmasters appointed - Chrisholm, Monroe county, N.A. Rice, vice Minnie D. Haan, resigned; North English, Iowa county, M.S. Brown, vice F.Duffield, resigned; Summittville, Lee county, T.S. Brown, vice C.C. Mullikin resigned.
- Boone county relatives of the Earl family, who were brutally murdered in Louisiana have returned from the scene of the crime. They say there is no doubt of the guilt of the man Batson, accused of the crime.
- James Adams, who was killed in an elevator accident at Des Moines and who was supposed to be a pauper, was worth in the neighborhood of $30,000. He lived in squalor, but he had $15,000 in bankable notes and $2,600 in cash hid away in his hovel. He also owned a 700-acre farm in Marion county.

Submitted by C.J.L., July 2005