Pauline Bernheim Davidson Cahn and Edwin Ross Hearn

Edwin Ross Hearn Jr was born in Brooklyn 15 Jul 1874, the oldest child of Bridget Augusta Heath and Edwin Ross Hearn. He moved with his family to Jersey City by late 1876 and to Bergen County, near Passaic, by 1882.

Bridget Augusta died in 1888. The rest of the family seems to have remained in New Jersey at least through 1892. The historical rosters of the Virginia Military Institute note that Edwin Ross Hearn Jr "matriculated August 31, 1892 from Passaic, New Jersey" as part of the class of 1896. However, he was dropped from the rolls 21 Jun 1893.

By 1894, the family had moved to New York City. Five editions of Trow's New York City Directory, published annually for the year ending July 1, list Edwin R Hearn Sr as living at 158 West 77th Street for the period July 1894 through June 1899. Edwin is not listed in the 1891-1892 or 1892-1893 directories, and I was unable to access the directory for 1893-1894.

Edwin Ross Hearn Sr died in Los Angeles 11 Mar 1899. His will, written 05 Nov 1898, was interesting. He named his brothers Frank J Hearne and William J Hearne as executors. (He spelled his own surname once with an -e at the end and once with.) To his son "Edwin R Hearne" (Jr), he left 50 shares of the capital stock of the Riverside Iron Works in Wheeling, West Virginia. He then divided the remainder of his estate among his four daughters, Elizabeth A Hearne, Mary Frances Hearne, Anna Theresa Hearne and Lillie Lee Hearne. They were to the receive the "rents, issues and income" from the estate, paid out in quarterly payments, for ten years after their father's death. After ten years, they were to receive the corpus of the estate.

This will was to cause future problems. Edwin Ross Jr was, not unexpectedly, unhappy with it and in later years tried to bargain with his sisters for a larger share of their inheritance.

I couldn't find Edwin Ross Jr in the 1900 US Census, but when he was arrested for passing bad cheques 07 Apr 1900, he gave his address as 160 West 77th Street (New York Daily Tribune, 08 Apr 1900). He passed the cheques by representing himself as the son of a dry-goods dealer named Hearn from 14th Street. By the time the police caught up with Edwin, not only were the people he'd paid with bad cheques after him, but the dry-goods dealer was also offering money for his apprehension. He was also arrested in Brooklyn on a similar charge. Reporting on his court appearance there 18 Apr 1900, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle quoted Edwin has claiming, "There is lots of money at my disposal, but the trouble is that I have been spending too much of it for my income of late." Edwin also "volunteered the information that he was a graduate of the fashionable military school at Peekskill." I have no records substantiating this.

Edwin's next move was to join the Philippine Constabulary. I don't know when he joined, but the Constabulary was established by the American colonial government in the Philippines 18 Aug 1901. An article published in the New York Sun 19 Mar 1911 about man-eating sharks mentioned "the case of Lieutenant Edwin R. Hearn." "In 1904 Lieutenant Hearn was grabbed by a shark while bathing in the sea at Tabayas. The officer's left arm was in the shark's mouth right up to the shoulder, and before he contrived to extricate it he had been caried some twenty-five yards out to sea. What he did get out of the fish's mouth was little more than the bone of his arm and he never fully recovered the sue of his arm." Note that this story is not first-hand. It was apparently one of many stories about shark attacks collected by James T Dubois, the American consul general in Singapore 1909-1911.

Edwin returned from the Philippines 15 Aug 1908, arriving in the port of Vancouver, British Columbia, aboard the Empress of China out of Hong Kong. His immediate destination was San Francisco. What's interesting is that Edwin's sister Annie Theresa may have been on the West Coast at about this time.

I don't know where Edwin was in 1910, but in 1911 he married Pauline Bernheim Davidson Cahn in New Jersey. The Brief History and Genealogy of the Hearne Family gives the wedding date as 19 Feb 1911 (p. 767).

Pauline was the daughter of Caroline Mossbach (Massbacher, Massenbach) and Moses "Morris" Bernheim born in Manhattan 19 Sep 1873. Her father had been born in Belgium or France and her mother, in Germany. Edwin was her third husband. Her first was Ferdinand Davidson, whom she married In Manhattan 10 Mar 1892. He died in Manhattan 19 Mar 1902. Pauline's second husband was Simon Cahn, whom she married in Manhattan 05 Jun 1902. She was enumerated as living with Simon as his wife in 1910 US Census on 18 Apr 1910. They seem to have gotten a divorce at some point in the next ten months, because Simon didn't die until 27 Apr 1943.

Edwin v Lillie

Five months after Pauline and Edwin married, on 28 Jul 1911, the New York Sun published a dramatic article titled, "$700 CUT OFF HIS INCOME: Edwin R. Hearn Tries to Compel His Sister to Restore It."

Edwin R. Hearn of Wheeling, W. Va., filed suit here [in New York] against his sister, Lillie Lee Hearn, and the latter's companion, Carrie Hill, to enforce the payment to him of the dividends on 100 shares of United States Steel preferred under a trust deed by which Miss Hearn and two other sisters gave him 100 shares each in trust.

Hearn said in his complaint, filed yesterday, that his father, Edwin R. Hearn, died here in 1899 leaving about $500,000. He made direct bequests to his three [sic] daughters, but gave the the plaintiff only a share of his residuary estate. He says that his share amounts to only $20,000, while his sister Lillie got $175,000. Because she thought there ought to be a more equitable division she and her sisters gave him the income of 300 shares of Steel preferred. After the income had been paid for one year his sister Lillie renounced her agreement.

Hearn charges that Carrie Hill has obtained control over his sister because the latter has no education and business experience, and he wants to compel her to account for her management of his sister's property. Attached to his complaint is a letter written by his sister's counsel to his own lawyer purporting to be instructions from his client regarding the trust deed. The letter said in part:

As she knows this amount of money will only be a temptation to Ed, as it gives him the very opportunity he wants, plenty of money to spend for badness, and he will not have to work and earn a cent as he always said he would not do. She will never believe he has reformed until she has other proof than his own word. She also feels that she and her sisters have shown disrespect to their father by doing the very thing he would not do and would have done if he had thought Ed deserving of this.

Hearn got an order from Supreme Court Justice Giegerich permitting him to serve the complaint by publication on the ground that the plaintiffs are evading service.

(The plaintiffs had left for Europe 28 Jun 1911 and didn't return until 24 Nov 1911.)

Several things come to mind. The first is that this is a lot of brou-ha-ha over $700, even by 1911 standards. The second is that it's pretty rich for Edwin to imply that Carrie Hill was mismanaging Lillie's money simply because Lillie refused to continue paying it over to Edwin.

There are other things that don't add up. I don't know if this is Edwin's fault or that of the Sun. If three of Edwin's four sisters had set up a formal trust, each contributing 100 shares of stock, then the income would automatically been paid to the trust (a legal entity in its own right) rather than to the sisters. It sounds as if Edwin was never given the shares themselves but was only told that his sisters would give him the income. (Annie Theresa was dealing with her own trust problems at this juncture. I'm assuming that the other two sisters were involved the "trust deed" were Elizabeth Augusta and Mary Frances.)

The description of Edwin Ross Sr's will is exactly backwards. Edwin Ross Jr was given a direct, relatively small bequest, after which the residuary estate was divided evenly among the four sisters. In Heise v Wells, it's repeatedly stated that Annie Theresa's share was "of the value of $125,000 or thereabouts." Logically, Lillie too received $125,000 rather than $175,000.

Finally, let's consider that $20,000 was, in 1899, a lot of money. Edwin had that plus at least enough education to get into a post-secondary educational institution, even if he only lasted one year. Plenty of young men at the start of the 20th century started off with less and did more.

I have no information as to the results of Edwin's suit against Lillie.

Married Life

Pauline and Edwin had one daughter, Augusta Paula, born 24 or 25 Oct 1914 in Kingston, Ulster County, New York (per census returns and passenger manifests). What's interesting is that one of Edwin's Heath cousins, Charles Heath, had parents-in-law who lived in Rosendale, 13 km SE of Kingston. The Heaths were often up that way for long visits. At least twice Charles brought his mother up with him, and on one occasion cousins on his mother's side. However, I haven't been able to find any evidence that Edwin and Charles ever connected.

A court calendar listing published in the Kingston Daily Freeman 09 Dec 1915 includes the case of "Ernest Leudecke vs. Edwin R. Hearn, for assault."

Another article published in the Kingston Daily Freeman 09 Apr 1918 describes how Edwin learned the day before that Lillie had died 06 Apr 1918 by reading the death notice in the New York American "while journeying to New York."

By January 1920 Pauline, Edwin and Augusta (age 5 years, 3 months) were living at 507 Oriental Avenue, Atlantic City, NJ. Edwin was in business for himself as a "speculator."

Edwin died in Atlantic City 28 Mar 1923. I don't know where he's buried, but my best guess is the Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson NJ where his mother is buried.

Pauline Remarries

By early 1929 Pauline had remarried, her fourth husband being Harry Morrison. She and Augusta were living with Harry at 1 North Massachusetts Avenue in Atlantic City. I know this because on 12 Mar 1929 Pauline and Augusta returned to NYC aboard the SS Olympia, which had sailed from Southampton 06 Mar 1929.

The 1930 US Census found the family at 1 North Massachusetts Avenue. Harry had been born in or about 1873 in Colorado. He was working for the city as a policeman.

Pauline and Augusta went on another cruise in January 1931, leaving NYC aboard the SS Ulua 03 Jan 1931 and returning 25 Jan 1931. Then two years later, Pauline went to Bermuda - but without Augusta. She returned to NYC 30 Oct 1933 aboard the Queen of Bermuda, which had sailed from Hamilton, Bermuda, 28 Oct 1933.

Augusta's absence from the 1933 cruise has me wondering if she's the Augusta P Hearne who married Jacob D Graff in Philadelphia in 1933. I'm also fairly sure that she's the Augusta P. Hearne, divorced, who was enumerated in 1940 at a boarding house at 170-04 33 Avenue in Flushing, Queens. In 1935 she'd been living in New York City. She was working as a receptionist.

I have no further information on Pauline or Harry. Augusta Paula died 29 Jan 1945 and is buried in the Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson NJ.