A ROMANTIC CASE IN COURT

Temuka Leader, Issue 1064, 6 February 1883, Page 1

A ROMANTIC CASE IN COURT

A Norwich (Conn.) dispatch to the New T ork Sun says :—‘ A romantic

case has been brought to tie a'tiiiun

of the Super! or Court in this country. A year or two previous to the M xicun war, Benjamhi E. Brown, a competent schoolmaster, 21 years old, san of a well-to-do farmer John Brown of North Stoninglon ran away from home. His parents never received any Usings of him. He went to Mexico and in the war that began soon afterwaicls served in a regiment of United •'Rates dragoons. As he spoke Spanish fluently, ho mioh beeame interpreter on (ti imral ‘‘ay Im-’s stall’. After I.’e dove of hostilities lie went t > Corpus 0 irisfci and married a beautiful Spanish girl, Innocence CostilK The couple went to Laredo, Tex., an ’ il r- ”wd happily until 1866, when Brown, who bad changed his name after tile close of the Mexican war to Benjamin E. Wrowan, was murdered by brigands. He leT a wife and four phi dren—Pnnk, Benjamin, Juan and Isabella. During his married life lie bail spoken orJy Spanish in bis household, and his I milv, who knew nothing of English, were unacquainted with his real lam ■ or his history prior to his marriage, at about the time that Wrowan was killed, his aged father in North Stoninglon died, leaving Ids farm, worth K'.Ot.Odols or 1 OjOQndols, to six heirs, including the missing Benjamin and his brother .John, the latter <f whom bad settled in Stonington. 111, In 1873, the heirs to the North Stonington pioperty had it sold by order of the Superior Court, and the portion due to em h was properly assigned, wiih the exception of Benjamin’s shore. That was deposited in the Chelsea Savings Bapk, of this city, in the name of Jeremiah Halsey, trustee. At the same time a copy of the Court order was sent to the latest known address of Benjamin. As the family of the dead man were living under a false name, the order never reached them. In 1881, Frank, the eldest son of Benjamin’s widow, determined to learn English, so as to understand the contents of his lather’s papers. After getting a smatteiing of English he found among his father’s private documents a letter from his Illinois brother that furnished the first clue to Wrowan’s early history. The letter was dated Stonington, 111., November 16, 1858, and was signed,‘Your Brother John.’ It spoke of the writer’s aged parents in the country, and of their lifelong sorrow over Benjamin’s early disappearance. The boy, Frank, at once wrote to the Illinois postmaster, asking about John Wrowan. The reply was that there was no such person, but that a man bad lived and died in Stonington, 111., named John Brown, and that bo came from North Stonington, Conn. The boy then wrote to the postmaster in North Stonington, and established in bis own opinion that bis father was B. F. Brown. Through Mr Halsey, the trustee of Benjamin’s share of the Brown estate, Frank secure I the ser-

vices of lawyers in this city to press the claim of the Wrowan family to th'dr portion of the Brown estate. A In aring was ha • bi!-t (reel; b ' r>* t. hief Justice Park i', of ihe 8n •n r . urt.

and a petition n < quit\ oiano-i h is probable that the fi>- r

13. F. Wrowan will soon conn into possession of their share cf th.» Drown estate.