Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1877 — A New Tale of Millions. [ARTICLE]

A New Tale of Millions.

Romance* of love and crime are all very well so far as they go, but stories of treasuretrove and uncounted wealth strike a still deeper interest. It is the omnipotence of wealth that makes the chiefest charms of that wonderful fiction, “ The Count of Monte Cristo." Caves full of shining doubtoons, and pirates’ coves and hiding-places are fuller of fascination than love in a cottage any day or anywhere. Tales of gold tempt all readers. There is afresh story of million^—slso,000.000 in round figures-in which just six people are interested as rightful heirs of the wealth, and many thousands as the present possessors of the vast estates it involves. The heirs are determined and hopeful, but whether the settlers and possessors of the property claimed by the six prospective millionaires are yet trembling in their boots and slippers, it is not stated. At first view it looks like a much bigger thing than Myra Clarke Caines’ New Orleans claims, that have 1 Jng been figuring magnificently in the prints. The new tale of millions is in brief as follows: Col. Henry Becker came to this country from Rotterdam in the year 1741, in the good ship Molly. Becker settled in Philadelphia and prospered. He got a big interest in what were then the suburbs, on the old York road, and what is now the densely settled York avenue. He had sixteen vessels sailing the seas and over $3,000,000 cash in the different banks and savings institutions al the time of his death in 1801. He was a colonizer, and owned the town tit Beckervilie, in Berks County, Pa., and much of the country round about. A valuable Nock in New York is .also claimed by Becker’s wakened-up heirs. The Philadelphia property claimed includes three churches, a dozen large manufactories, one immense sugar refinery and fine blocks of fine buildings—}n fact nearly the whole of York avenue, one end of which is devoted to manufactories, and the other to the luxurious mansions of leading Philadelphians.

Becker was a bachelor. He bequeathed the whole of his wealth to his only sister, Anna Barbara Maodtee, of JjLiaehhMiner, Bolendan. This slater had two sons, Ludwig and George Maudler. These German heirs to Philadelphia bockwoods estates knew of tleir uncle’s wealth, but never made any effort to take possession of it, being perfectly satisfied with their home << nditi< n. pr6s|»erity and wealth. The heirs of Ludwig and George were also well contented with what , they had at, home, and neglected their interests across the sea; and the American fortune, to which their fathers were entitled, finally became a beautiful edition in the family., In the meantime the property was handled and improved by those into whose hands it fell; but exactly how it fell into foreign hands is not yet explained; In 1829, Mr. Henry Burkhardt, of Philadelphia, wrote to certain parties in Germany for power of attorney to take better care of the property belonging to the heirs of Col. Henry Becker. The request was granted, and the document was entrusted to the care of a young man who was going to America, and wlio was charged to deliver it to Burkhardt. This transaction awakened some .interest among the German heirs, bat they seem to have taken no active steps to obtain possession of the property at that time. The six heirs who are moviiig toward the accumulated million* now are welbknoWn and respected citizens of New York, Williamsburg and Union Hill, N. J. Mr. G. Standinger, a grocer of New* York, is the chief mover, and is about instituting court proceedings to recover the property. Standinger’' has a certified copy of the power of attorney above mentioned, signed by all the heirs then living, and dated at Kirchheimer, Bolen dan, Sept. 29, 1829, and bearing all the proper seals. Standinger got this through Jay Cook Livingston, and will soon come into possession of the will made by Col. Becker. In this connection, Standinger mysteriously says: “At the death of a certain person now living in Philadelphia, a startling story will be made public.” It will protably explain why the heir* did not claim their own, and why the property got tangled up in the hands of so many proprietors. > There is necessarily a mysteiy at the bottom of a story like this, if there is any foundation of truth in the tale of millions. Recurring again to the power of attorney given to Burkhardt, Standinger says the old people forgot all about it in time, and their children, as they left one by one for the New World, would joke about their great uncle’s wealth. All the heirs finally came here, and they are now six and moving in solid phalanx upon the richest and most valuable section of Philadelphia. They expect to establish their claims, too, and hope to end their days revelling in the luxury ot $150,000,000. But it is likely they have about as much chance of success as the poorer heirs oi Adam would have in establishing a claim to an equal division of their ancestor’s wealth, embracing the whole world and its improvements, ancient and modern. — St. Louie Republican.