Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1916 — HARRIET GRAY [ARTICLE]

HARRIET GRAY

: Unknown Fate Brought Out Who She Was

by ESTHER VANDEVEER

My mother died when I was a little girl and my father when I was twenty. I understood from my lawyers that the estate left by my father would give me a comfortable income, and, since I had no ties at home, I concluded to travel. Hearing of friends about to sail for Europe, I secured an invitation to be one of their party. Before going I set my house in order and did what I had been long averse to doing, looked over family papers that had been accumulating for years. There was a trunk full of them, pnd I set about examining them with a view to destroying such as could be of no further use. Many of them needed but a basty glance, and some scarcely needed that. I found one envelope marked “Harriet Gray” and, opening it, took ©ut a number of miscellaneous papers, consisting mostly of receipted bills. There was a deed to a lot on one of the business streets in the city In which I lived, the maker of the deed having transferred the property “ip consideration of sl.” I didn’t think the paper of much importance, the lot being of so little value. The envelope also contained a will drawn by Edward Oglesby in favor of Harriet Gray.

I hafl no knowledge of business matters, apd if I had I doubt if 1 should have considered these documents of any Importance. They were yellow with age and had probably been in the trunk for many years. Ilad they not

been oosolete father would doubtless have removed them long ago. Probably every one who had once been Interested In them was dead. However. I concluded to put these papers, together with a few others I thought it best not to destroy, in a tin box. The other papers I burned. Having made all necessary arrangements, I went abroad. During my absence 1 fell in with various persons, among others a young man named Schuyler. Ned Schuyler was seeing Europe on SGOO. My first sight of him was one evening when sitting on the porch of an Inn located on the bank of one of the Swiss lakes 1 saw him coming up the road with the springy step of youth and evidently ns light hearted as if he had had a letter of credit in his pocket for 100.000 francs. He ate supper at the inn and In the evening made the acquaintance of our party.

The place being attractive as well aa Inexpensive, we all remained there for some time, boating on the lake, climbing the mountains bordering on it and visiting the sights in the neighborhood. Somehow in all these excursion# Ned Schuyler fell to me. Americana meeting abroad often become intimate, and there are more matches mad® while traveling for pleasure than under any other conditions. At any rate, such was the ease with us; not that we made a match, but we wanted to make one. The reason we failed was the pride of the man. He had educated himself, and .it had made him independent A wife with an income ol her own would not be a drag on him. but he was too proud to ask a woman to marry him;-while not able to support her. It seemed to him like saying to her, “Marry me and spend your own money.’’ We met at several places while abroad, the persons I was with' thinking it to be by accident, but there was no accident. We arranged meetings. The last of these meetings abroad was at Genoa, from whence I sailed for home. We lived in cities in America not far distant from each other, and I •xacted a promise from him that he would come to see me after his return. My lover set out on a tramp to Nice the day before my steamer sailed. 1 was very disconsolate at having part *d with him and while wandering about the hotel took up the registei and turned the pages to the name he had written In it. He had signed his name Edward Gray Schuyler. Something In the name was familiar

to me, but I could not tell' in what part On the voyage I thought a good deal about it and one day it occurred to me that I had confused the names in my mind with those in the papers i had found in the trunk at home. There were Edward Oglesby and Harriet Gray, but no Schuyler. The day after my arrival I got out the tin box and selecting the envelope marked Harriet Gray went through every paper in it thoroughly. There were a number of them, but they were mostly accounts, checks that had been paid and returned by the banks, tax receipts, etc. The only two names that seemed to have any connection with Ned Schuyler were the Edward in Edward Oglesby and the Gray in Harriet Gray. One morning while reading a newspaper I saw the following notice:

The handsome office building. No. street, has been finished is now ready for occupancy. Occupants of other buildings in the neighborhood are to be congratulated, for the lot on which the building has been erected remained vacant for many years. It formerly a part of the Oglesby estate, which at the death of Edward Oglesby fell into litigation long delayed.

Here was the name. Edward Oglesby, staring me in the face again. I recalled that I had seen it in the Harriet Gray papers and determined to get them out again and learn if this notice hud any connection with them. I read the description of the last name in the deed, and. while there was no number given, the street was named and was the same as that on which the new building was located.

Had I connected Ned Schuyler with the matter I should have been eager to learn more about it As it was, not knowing how to proceed for information, I did nothing for several days. 1 hen one day I went to my lawyer’s otiice to pay some taxes, and while there I concluded to mention my find and ask how 1 could learn something in the matter. My father had done business through the firm for many years, and it was now carried on by Mr. Tucker, the grandson of the original head. After handing him the funds for the taxes I asked him if he <knew anything about the new building of which I had read in the newspaper. “I should think so,” was his reply. ‘‘l inherited a suit about it for clients of my father.”

“Who was the owner, Edward Oglesby, and what had my father to do with him?” “Edward Oglesby owned the lot on which this building of which you speak stands. lie and your father were intimate friends and both my father’s clients.” “Who was Harriet Gray'?” “Mr. Oglesby’s stepdaughter. Mr. Oglesby had no children of his own, and it was supposed that he would leave his property to her. But be died intestate. She claimed that he had left a will in her favor, but it was never found. She declared that it had been left by her stepfather in our keeping, but a careful search among our papers failed to produce it. We had a great deal of trouble with the man she married. who would not believe but that we had feloniously destroyed or withheld the will. Indeed. I think the charge was indirectly the cause of my father’s death.”

By this time I was suppressing a wild excitement. I rushed to ask one more question, but dreaded to do so. fearing that I would be disappointed In the reply. Finally I found voice to speak it. “Whom did Harriet Gray marry?’’ “Her husband's name, I believe, was Schuyler." The riddle was solved. Ned Schuyler was the son of Harriet Graj' and took a part of his name from Edward Oglesby, Ills wife’s stepfather, and part from his mother’s maiden name. As soon as I could gather my wits I went on asking questions. My next was: “Suppose a will of Edward Oglesby leaving all his property to Harriet Gray should be produced now. How would it affect the property?” "Her heirs would claim it, and in the end undoubtedly the courts would give it to them.”

A happy girl i was when I went home conscious that I had the key to a fortune for the man I loved. He was to arrive within a few days, and I resolved to impart the finding of his mother’s will first of all persons to him. One week after his arrival he kept his promise to come to see me. I could scarcely wait to make inquiries confirming my theory as to his identity, bu* when l did I was told by him that his mother’s maiden name was Harriet Gray and her father was Henry Schuyler. I had the will in a desk near by and. taking it out. handed it to him. I kept my eyes fixed on his - face while he read the document, and it was a study. Being an only child, he saw at a glance that if the will were genuine the right to the property described was vested in him.

When my find was reported to Mr. Tucker and his astonishment had abated I asked him how the will could have got into my father’s possession. The only explanation he could give was that the papers of the two clients had got mixed In the affair and that these papers belonging to Mr. Oglesby had been handed to my father. He had doubtless put them away without looking at them.

Ned Schuyler effected a compromise with those in possession of the estate that was his by inheritance, and it made him rich. He was obliged to give up a great deal in order, to avoid litigation, but even with this surrender his estate was worth much more than it had been when the will was made Since Ned was now far richer than I he no longer scrupled to ask me to be his wife. Besides, it was I through whose instrumentality his property came to him.