The Secret Parentage of a Bellingham Heir
A custody battle in Bellingham uncovers a hidden family history involving two wealthy men and a child caught in the middle.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
William Arthur Deming, a 13-year-old boy of Bellingham, is the prospective heir to fortunes aggregating $700,000. The boy was raised by A. W. Deming, a canneryman of this city and partner in the Thompson Fish Company. The boy's mother, Mrs. Maude Barnes of St. Louis, recently instigated habeas corpus proceedings in a successful attempt to secure the custody of the boy. Through this suit, the discovery was made that the father was William Barnes, a prominent merchant of Sikeston, Missouri. The boy's parentage had been a mystery until the filing of the suit. Barnes has learned of his son's whereabouts, expresses a lively interest in him, and will probably make him his heir at his death.
“The boy's parentage had been a mystery until the filing of the suit.”
This case highlights the messy intersection of custody, inheritance, and social status in the early 1900s, where legal proceedings were often the only way to resolve 'mysteries' of lineage. It serves as a reminder of how high-stakes family law has remained a fixture of local civic discourse for over a century.
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