FORTUNE FOR WORKING MEN.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8912, 4 September 1907, Page 1

FORTUNE FOR WORKING MEN.

Two brothers, Lancashire working men, John Howson, a fitter, of Bolton, and Edward Howson, a carter, of Blackburn, have received information that they are entitled to a large fortune left by another brother, William. Mrs Elizabeth Beardwood, a widowed sister of the legatee, who is employed at the corporation baths at Blackburn, says that William Howson was born in 183-1 at Bolton, and when young enlisted in the 98th Foot along with his brother Charles, both being sent out to India, where William remained for 13 years. A relic of that time has been discovered in a handbill announcing an operatic performance by a garrison company in India, on which William figures in a leading role, and on the margin of which he had written, “The Indian Howsons are all right, I hope. The Blackburn Howsons are.” When ho came home he only stopped at Blackburn a few months, then went off to America without saying a word to anybody, and enlisted in the ! Northern army, with which he went through the Civil war. Mrs Beardwood remembered a letter coming to her eldest brother, Charles, now dead, in which William said the war was apparently drawing to a close, and when he came home he should have what would keep him in comfort for life, but no other letters came, . and they gradually came to the conclusion he must have been killed The first intimation to the contrary was when the Blackburn Postmaster, at the request of the a New York lawyer, began to inquire for his relatives. They rad not the slightest difficulty in proving their relationship to the dead man, but so far the New York lawyer had not stated the exact amount of the fortune. The Postmaster -said it consisted of very valuable property in Elizabeth Town, Ohio, and statements had appeared in the press giving the amount at £IOO,OOO and £IIO,OOO, an they oonld only hope it was true.