Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....James, David P. April 29, 1915 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nan Wheaton wheaton1624@yahoo.com July 1, 2016, 1:26 am Daily SEntinel - Tuesday, May 4, 1915 DAVID P. JAMES LEAVES ESTATE AGED MAN WHO PAID WITH HIS LIFE FOR CRIME AGAINST SOCIETY Left Considerable Cash Which a Grateful Country Had Paid Him for Having Offered His Own Life on the Altar of Liberty. When David P. James died last week at the State hospital for the criminal insane he left an estate valued at $1,500, for which there are heirs but no one knows where, and which had accumulated from a pension of $12 a month which has been paid him by the government while he drew out the miserable balance of his life sentence for murder. Slowly the monthly pittance and the interest thereon grew and just as slowly the old man's strength waned until at the age of 84 years he passed away having paid in full the penalty for the crime for which he was sentenced. His remains were buried in the state cemetery at the hospital and did not find their way into the pickling vat. His pension provided him with a decent burial. His remains were the first to be carried to the grave in Ionia's new motor hearse. Somewhere, sometime, David P. James had six children living. They are gone, perhaps dead, perhaps living. No one knows where they are. A son George was last heard of in Three Rivers nine years ago. But he has disappeared. The brood has scattered and each has gone a different way. Each month regularly from the government has come the $12 pension voucher and each month it has gone into the bank. The old man had those delicacies that he wanted and from his money he even bought a photograph and records with which to cheer himself in the bleak life of the asylum. Candy, tobacco, oranges, popcorn were bought for him as he wanted them, and yet the little bank account grew, When he died there was approximately to his credit the sum of $1,500. When his last expenses and the cost of his burial have been paid, there will remain a snug sum of money. His children are his heirs, when they can be found. Perhaps they well get $200 each if they are all alive. If not each will get more. Some of them will never be heard of. Some may be found and come to claim the money that accumulated while David P. James paid in full with his life. Additional Comments: State Hospital cemetery File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/j/james33073nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 2.8 Kb