EDWARDS-L Archives

From: joycerhathaway <>
Subject: [EDWARDS-L] Cont. Heirs/News #81
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 07:29:35 -0600

ITEM #81

GENERAL MEETING OF
JANUARY 8, 1927

As it is customary to hold a general meeting after our Executive Council
and Board of Directors' meeting, we opend this meeting to turn the time
over to Mr. Webb, so at this time Mr. Joel Webb and Mr. P.M. Carlisle, were
introduced to the heirs.
The meeting proceeded with the following talks:
Following address by Mr. P.M. Carlisle, , Chairman of the Edwards Heirs
Coproration, Birmingham, Ala.:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am not much of a speaker, I generally can say most anything which I
want to say, but any of us can talk.
The proposition which we are considering here, the Edwards Estate,
appeals to us most different from what it would to most folks.
I feel a personal pride in going after this estate. My knowledge dates
back to the eighties. My grandfather died in "82". My grandmother then
moved in with our family. I, as a child, heard the discussion of this
matter between my mother and grandmother and grandfather. My people have
made several investigations. Mr. Felix Cartlisle, one of my relatives,
lived in New York from 1876 on for some time, so, therefore, you will see
the location of this property is very clear to my people. I am very proud
of my family. I have been in hopes of winding up this case, to have the
date so in hand that we may publish a history of our people.
I have had the opportunity of examining genealogies of our people, and
am so surprised to find that so few of them have been in jail. Our people
have a common characteristic. They quarrel and quarrel, but never get mad.
At the beginning we had no idea of the magnitude of this group. We
believed that practically all of the heirs interested in theis estate were
in or near Birmingham, Alabama. Later we discovered that there were other
heirsin South Carolina. Then we learned of the Mid-West organization in
Indiana and Ohio. These three organizations together with the idea of
combining and uniting their forces. We incoorporated two years ago. It
required us one year to get together in perfect working order. Then Mr.
Webb went to New York to perfect the plans of our consolidation, which had
been incorporated the year before.
Here is the proposition: An ancestor of ours owned this property. We
haven't the paper that we wish, but we do have some positive proof. I have
examined the evidence of the title all along down to us, and find that they
all tell the same story all the way through, but there is a tremendous
lacking of authentic certified evidence. It is an immense task to get this
evidence together and piece it up for us. The last few months we have
gotten very little evidence that was of use. We have been required to
spend our time running down these clues. Some of these prove of no value,
and some are identical copies of what we already have.
I think if each one of us would ask ourselves how far we could go in
proving our genealogies, some of us could prove ourselves, others could
not, but may still be heirs of Thomas Edwards.
We must back up our legal counsel. We have a good chance to win, one
that is worth our effort, and this 1927 is the year I pray we can win this
money for our people. When I took hold of this thing two years ago I did
so because it had been laid down by my father. I formed a consolidation in
Birmingham fron an administrator's standpoint. I went to Mr. Webb's office
and laid before him what I had in mind, and when our crowd came down there
he said he would take it up and do the best he could.
I haven't found an attorney in the United States that hasn't said that
it is a feasible plan, and complimented our organization. Your Board of
Administrators are responsible to you, and you are responsible to them. We
can't do a thing to devastate your right, for you are protected by the courts.
Our organization was organized to keep us folks together and assist us
in solving our problems. We must back up our attorney so that he in turn
can back up our claims for us. Every client has certain rights that he has
enjoyed through this organization.
The next six or eight months, those who are not on the inside working
stand on the outside and pray for the cause. We must help our lawyer, for
he cannot do this alone. I have a rosy hope for you folks. We have aright
to fight for what belong to us, and I assure you we have something to fight
for.
If you people want anything done at any time, I as one of your
administrators will be very glad to serve you in any way possible.

ADDRESS OF MR. WEBB:

I deferred until today to tell Mr. Carlisle a secret which I had
intended to tell him. I wanted with me his pleasing personality.
I am gratified today that you people may hear me say that I haven't
anything against any man or woman. I know that you folks want to hear what
the lawyers have to say. The lawyers must be cautious. They are often
miinterpreted and often times perverted. A man who has been taught the
ethics of manhood and womanhood does not want people to misunderstand him.
We have over five thousand people interested. I have enough for one client
to handle. i have the privilege of associating with people of all types
and knowing the relationship between client and lawyer. I should like to
spend at least a day with every one of my clients. I do not know otherwise
than to put the interest of my client above that of my own.
I have been on this case nearly two years--two years ago next month I
went to New York with Mr. T.C.McCain. This trip was intended chiefly to
spy out the land and to determind whether or not it would be worth while to
pursue the matter further, and to make report to our people back in
Birmingham. And,if need be, to file a law-suit, but it was never our
desire to file a law-suit. In discussing this matter with the New York
claimants we first met an absolute rebuff. As we discussed the matter
daily with them, they grew less hostile, and finally appeared friendly.
It has taken a long time, some say too long, but I have been on some
small cases longer than this. I shall be very glad in the brief, which I
am preparing to give any man the honor of the document which has
presented.?? If I had known the vast horizen which this case covered, I
don't know what I might have said at the time I was approached to take the
case.
If you are one thousand miles from us when settlement is made, you will
be cared for the same as if you were side by side with us.
I forgot to say at the outset that I am here by invitation, and if I had
of known everything to be so lovely, I would have come without an invitation.
I want it said at the end that everyone has received a fair and just
deal. If I can find any man that can get in the lead and make this touch
down for us, I will get behind him and put him in the lead and give him the
honor. We can not all agree. We can not appreciate a man's position until
we place ourselved in his position and get his viewpoint.
We have had to do a lot of thing that might seem foolish to you people.
I am working for you, and your interest is before mine in this case. I
would rather win this case for you than do anything else on earth.
If you understand me and I understand you, we will win this case without
any trouble, and it will be glorious, or we will lose and lose vistoriously
and know that we should not of gained.
Out of our five thousand, there is not 1 per cent whose hearts are not
beating in unity.
This is a case one hundred and fifty years old, and I have been working
upon it alsmost two years. I have worked on some small cases much longer.
In my experience as a lawyer, I have settled cases that hadn't any more
evidence than we have, and gotten the money. There are so many things
which you can not do. You can not give me evidence, but you can give us
your sympathetic co-operation
We went to New York last fall. We went down and filed administration
papers. We got the bond. We didn't file your names; that wasn't
necessary, for we can file those tomorrow if the title company is ready.
We have paid our bond for another year. If we should obtain this money
tomorrow, I could increase the bond before the administrators could issue a
check. The administrators are bonded to protect you.
We have enough evidence out of the records of New York to file a law
suit. You don't want that. Be patient a little long. The friction is
daily disappearing.
"Truth some day will spring from earth while righteousness looks down
from heaven."
The good Lord should not answer our prayers until we are ready to
receive them. I would not be a conscientious attorney in this case if I
did not look to the righteousness of God to guide me. I have trusted
providence to work for you in this case. God does not work so fast as we do.
I receive letters from all over the United States and Canada. I just
received a letter from England commending me for guarding my words.
I would be unfair as a lawyer if I told you that you were not going to
get some money. I want to live this year to win this case for you folks
and fifty more years to spend the money.
I have some wonderful work taking place in London, England. I have a
lawyer working in England, a New York lawyer who went to England in 1904
and has been located there since that time. He is doing remarkable work.
I don't care where Thomas Edwards got the property, just that he did own it.
I sent the deed made by Mr.P. M. Carlisle to a lawyer friend of mind in
New York to be recorded. Changes in the form of the deed were suggested by
New York authorities. These changes were made, and a proper deed forwarded
to New York and placed with the recorder for record.
We were forced to select lawyers in New York to help us who do not have
clients owning building on our ground. For, of course, it would be avery
unnatural thing for a lawyer to make some step which would conflict with
his client. An article in the English Chronical states that the English
lawyers do not regard this case lightly. It requires fifteen days for me
to receive a letter from England. If there is anything of great
importance, we cablegram. They have found an old den containing old papers
before 1783. In order to get into this vault you are required to pay 10
pounds or $50.00 in our money.
You folks are now in the right spirit, and we are ready to receive it,
and from the fact that you folks have gotten in the right frame of mind, I
am going back with 10 percent more energy, and I am going to step on this
thing and go full speed.
We are looking in England for some valuable papers--the crditors' bill,
the grant, lease to the English government, etc. if there was a lease to
the government, we are going to find how much the English government failed
to pay Robert Edwards for the barricks. Elizabeth Edwards had a bank
account in the London bank dating from 1820, with 2 percent interest on
savings and 2-1/2 percent on bonds. All that I want is facts. If England
has a dollar which belongs to the Edwards Estate, we will get every penny
of it. I hope New York will do as well.
We have four pillars upon which to stand:
FIRST--We have Number. Do right by everybody. Whatever we do, be sure
that we do right by every man. I am not afraid of New York, for one man
and God are stronger than the whole United States of America. I have a
hunch that there is perfect harmony.
SECOND--Financial background.
THIRD--Legal Status. I am ready to talk in New York, but I want to hear
more from England. I want to go to those business men and tell them what
we want to do, and see what they want to do. Then I want a leader from
each of your groups to act on the proposition. We are exactly alike.
FOURTH--Morale. We are not all poor, but we are poor enough to be
honest. When we are all 100 percent in generosity and unanimity of spirit,
we will be ready to step on the gas and work to full capacity.
May the Lord bless all of you.
These men who have been closest to me in the work do not know all of my
burdens. I have tried to spare them all possible burdens which I could
carry alone.
When I went to New York I wanted the title company to help me out, but
they said Mr. Webb, we can not do that. We went then to get the records.
They have eleven courts in New York. Eleven places to get records. The
index of the Edwards Estate had been destroyed. We consulted Mr. William
at Washington and he notified us that they should be in the dome. We went
there and found all but one which we needed. In those days the court was
on circuit, had a case here today and there tomorrow, thus the records had
reason to be widely scattered.
There is no one concerned in this case who would like to finish quite so
well as the lawyers. I want to be fair to you. I must e fair to you,
therefore you must be patient until we are ready.
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• [EDWARDS-L] Cont. Heirs/News #81 by joycerhathaway <>