The Hermit Rancher Who Died Without Ever Knowing He Was Worth $4 Million

Port Angeles, April 27. — Special. — Ansel White, the man referred to in the Post-Intelligencer of April 2 as being heir to an estate valued at $4,000,000, has been traced to this county, where he died in May, 1896, on his ranch, located between this city and Dungeness. As was stated in the San Francisco papers, it was supposed that Ansel White was one of those unknown bodies found floating in the San Francisco Bay, yet during the past two years W. Pierpont White, a son of Ansel White, has been searching for the lost heir or for conclusive evidences of his death. He was traced from his home in Utica, N.Y., to Missouri and thence to California, where all trace of him was lost.

The nephew then advertised in the Minneapolis papers and in the Post-Intelligencer. From the description contained in the latter paper, V. Clapp, of Seattle, recognized in Ansel White a rancher of Dungeness, whose place was next to that owned by Hon. Smith Troy. He immediately telegraphed this information to Mr. White at San Francisco, and that gentleman came to Port Angeles for the purpose of meeting County Auditor John Troy, who for many years was a neighbor of Ansel White.

The identity of the dead man was fully established during the conversation between these gentlemen, for Mr. Troy recalled many [incidents] of White as having occurred in his early life, as for instance the fact of his having been a schoolmate of ex-Gov. Seymour, of New York. And Pierpont White was confident that he had at last traced the missing heir to his grave. He left at once for New York, stating, before leaving, that within two weeks two attorneys would be sent to New York to this city, whose mission would be to secure legal and conclusive [evidence] in order that the will might be again probated and the estate divided among the sixteen heirs who have been waiting for fifteen years for the information now obtained.

White had lived twenty years on his farm east of this city, and at the time of his death he was 70 years of age. He was a single man, lived alone, and was exceedingly eccentric, yet he was well informed, especially on the politics of the day. Just prior to his death he sold his farm at a nominal price, retaining a life estate in it, and at the time he died was supposed to have in his possession a considerable sum of money, yet none was ever found, and the neighbors were compelled to sell his personal effects in order to pay his funeral [expenses].

[Those] who knew him well [say] that had White known that this enormous estate was waiting him in the East, it is doubtful if he would have ever asserted his claim to it.