The Estate That Outran Its Will

Port Townsend, May 9.—Special.—In the office of John McLennan, collector of the inheritance tax of New York, the will left by the late Ansel White is regarded as worthless. He arrived today from Dungeness and will spend several days on Puget Sound awaiting the arrival of a commission from Utica, N.Y., authorizing him to take testimony with reference to White's death.

Mr. McLennan says the situation of the estate is this: Ansel White died near Dungeness, leaving a will bequeathing his property interests to Preston M. Troy. Some two years later L. Edward Crouse, a nephew of White's, died without leaving a will, and his nearest kin, excepting his father, was Ansel White. Eighteen months afterward Crouse's father died, too, and, strange to say, made no provision for the distribution of the property. Under that sequence of facts, and in accordance with the provisions of the laws of New York, Mr. McLennan, who is now representing some of the heirs, declares that White at the time of his death could not have willed or bequeathed away property interests that he may have acquired subsequent to his death. It was nearly four years after White died before he had any shadow of title to the New York property. Troy's will, which Mr. McLennan says is legal enough on its face, omits to make provision for the disposition of property that the estate might acquire subsequent to the testator's death. At best the point of law is of such intricate nature that a big lawsuit will eventually settle the question.

After White comes a horde of distant relatives. Mr. McLennan says there are no less than twenty-seven first cousins, thirty-five second cousins and seven third cousins, all heirs at law, and many of them quite wealthy, some of them being millionaires.