This story from the Dayton Daily News includes a photo of James Henry Smith and his family. Smith and his brother were told they were heirs to a $66,000,000 estate left by Sir Francis Drake, a British admiral and buccaneer.
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
When he left his job at the Lima Locomotive Works on Friday, he was, the Lima Republican-Gazette wrote on Sunday, May 18, 1924, “plain old James H. Smith.” By Sunday, according to the Gazette, he was “Sir James Henry Smith,” the main character in a real-life fairy tale.
In a copyrighted, front-page story, the Republican-Gazette wrote that the 68-year-old Smith, of 535 E. Franklin St., had been notified on Saturday that he was “one of fourteen heirs among whom will be equally divided the $66,000,000 estate of Sir Francis Drake, of England,” amounting to, the newspaper noted, $4,714,285 for each heir, including Smith’s brother in Oklahoma.
Along with a share of the estate, according to the Gazette, Smith inherited the “Sir,” a title bestowed on Drake, a 16th century English explorer and privateer, when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.
“The formal notice of his inheritance came to the aged workman from a cousin, James S. Jones, vice president of the Farmers’ State Bank, of St. Edwards, Neb., who is listing the known heirs for the apportionment of their shares of the mammoth fortune,” the Gazette wrote.
The newspaper portrayed Smith, who with his wife, Sarah, raised eight children, as a humble man worn down by a life spent trying to make ends meet.
“His face lined with wrinkles, brought there by worry and strife in trying to provide for his large family, his hands gnarled and knotted, with steady step, and sparkling eye, Smith greets with a smile those who come to offer congratulations,” the newspaper wrote. “He has not allowed good fortune to turn his head, and his mind is not filled with fantastic dreams of what he will do with his share of the vast estate.”
His wife, the newspaper wrote, did allow herself to dream of travel and of the gems purported to be part of the estate. “The prospects for flawless diamonds of great size give her the most ‘kick.’”
On Monday, May 19, Smith was back on the job as a patternmaker at the Lima Locomotive Works. “His demeanor toward his fellow workers had not changed since becoming a titled Englishman, and he warded off the congratulations of his companions with a laugh that was hearty and good natured,” the Gazette reported.
The rags-to-riches tale of James Henry Smith was soon repeated in newspapers from Miami, Florida, to Long Beach, California, and from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. “Smith revealed that during the past fifty years he had never missed a day at work, except for illness,” the Toronto (Ontario) Star wrote May 21. “He hasn’t an automobile and never had a vacation, he said.”
It was a heartwarming story that, it turned out, was built on a foundation of malarkey. There was no unclaimed Drake inheritance.
Trouble with the tale appeared almost immediately and was gleefully reported by the Lima News, the Gazette’s rival. On May 21, 1924 — while Mrs. Smith was fending off salesmen and long-lost relatives — the News wrote that “alleged descendants” of Drake had begun “popping up at various places over Ohio,” prompting the possibility of a statewide investigation.
“Although they have ‘heard about it for the last 35 years,’ it remained for a sensational Lima daily newspaper to bring out a few days ago James Henry Smith, 535 Franklin St., as one of the ‘fourteen descendants and heirs’ of the grim old sea lord,” the News wrote.
The News also printed a United Press story quoting James S. Jones, the Nebraska banker and cousin of Smith who had notified Smith of his windfall. Jones told the wire service there was “nothing official” in the report of Smith’s inheritance and asked the United Press to “suppress further rumors.” Jones, the wire service reported, “was asked whether such an estate really existed, but he refused to be quoted in any way.”
In the meantime, supposed Drake heirs were popping up like dandelions in the spring all over the country, including several more in Lima. None of them, however, took off like the Gazette’s tale of James Henry Smith, a tale that was eventually repeated in England and brought an answer to the question Jones “refused to be quoted on in any way.”
“The mythical millions of Sir Francis Drake have cropped up again in America,” the Newcastle (England) Sunday Sun wrote June 22, 1924, about a month after the Gazette’s copyrighted story. “James Henry Smith, an engineering patternmaker, recently received information that he is one of 14 heirs to the estate of Sir Francis Drake, said to be worth 15,000,000 pounds. The Drake millions at one time became such a nuisance that the American Embassy sent out a specially printed letter to all inquirers stating that ‘There are no large unclaimed estates in Great Britain.’”
In September 1924, a Drake family historian was more succinct in a statement printed in many Ohio newspapers, including the News. “As compiler of the Drake Family in England and America … it appears to be my duty about every ten years to answer repeated letters from members of the Drake family from all over the country asking about the Drake fortune,” Louis Stoughton Drake wrote. “I have to explain to these enquirers stirred up by articles inserted in various local newspapers, that there is no Drake fortune of $66,000,000 or any other amount, awaiting distribution to Drake heirs in England or any other place.”
Tales of an unclaimed Drake inheritance began almost immediately after his 1596 death. “He had no children, and most of his wealth went to his brother and wife,” Richard Rayner wrote in an April 14, 2002, article in the New Yorker magazine. “He was already a legend, and, after his death, improbable stories began to circulate about him. One such story was that Drake’s will was invalid, and might even have been forged. The idea was that Drake’s fortune was waiting for the person who could untie the legal knot, and it proved curiously persistent.”
Of course, untying the legal knot cost money. Footing the bill were those who could be convinced they were Drake’s heirs. Overseeing the scam in 1924 was Oscar Hartzell, whom Raynor described as “an Iowa farm boy who restyled himself as a British lord in London while swindling 70,000 or more Midwesterners.” Hartzell, he wrote, was “one of history’s most fabulous confidence tricksters.” Hartzell died in prison in 1943.
Fame and fortune proved fleeting for the Smith family. Mrs. Smith told the Gazette on May 22, 1924, that the family did not expect to receive the inheritance immediately. Lawyers, “who have been fighting for us for ten years, will have to go to England, I guess, before the final division, or apportionment, of the inheritance to all the fourteen heirs, can be accomplished.” Several days later, Mrs. Smith told the News they had not paid the lawyers anything to work on their claim. She said they would be paid a percentage when the inheritance was received, which, of course, it never was. The Gazette never again mentioned the story.
James Henry Smith, 89, died in August 1945. The News wrote that he was born in Jones County, Iowa, had been a resident of Lima for 37 years and was a retired patternmaker. Mrs. Smith died at age 87 in June 1947.
.
SOURCE
This feature is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Allen County Museum and Historical Society.
LEARN MORE
See past Reminisce stories at limaohio.com/tag/reminisce
Reach Greg Hoersten at [email protected].
