Bakersfield, Vermont, USA
1902 - THE BRIGHAM MILLIONS. Recent Suit of Herbert F. Brigham, of Bakersfield.

Boston, Mass., July 8. - Once more the millions left by a Brigham of Bakersfield, will be fought for in Massachusetts, and the recent action, of Col. Herbert F. Brigham, of Bakersfield, Vt., in asking the United States court to determine his rights in the vast estate left by his uncle to build a hospital in Boston, means that one of the greatest legal battles of the century is on, says a Bakersfield, Vt., despatch in The Journal.

Colonel Brigham is a financier, lawyer, political celebrity, and, - Vermonters say, a royal good fellow. He will lead the forces seeking to show the invalidity of the will of Peter Bent Brigham, who died 25 years ago last May, leaving a million and a half of money, as the basis of a fund which he designated should be used a quarter of a century later to build and endow a hospital bearing his name.

Since Peter Bent Brigham died the fortune he left has been carefully managed, and to-day it represents a fund of more than $4,338,000, and it is for the division of this sum that Col. Herbert Brigham of Bakersfield, will fight.

Wealthy Brighams have always had a penchant for endowing hospitals and educational institutions. The first, Peter Bent Brigham, whose will is now the subject of contest; the sedond, Mrs. Sara B. Jacobs, who bequeathed a large sum to the academy here,a nd the third, R. H. Brigham, who left nearly $5,000,000 for the founding of a hospital for incurables.

There have been strong points of similarity in the making and giving of Brigham millions, and always a contest over the disposition of the money in the end. The Peter B. Brigham will reposed in the archives of the probate court for a trifle over 25 years before the contest came, but it came just the same.

Colonel Brigham, the nephew, who seeks a share in the millions of the man who died 25 years ago, asserts that the main provision in his uncle's will - the establishment of a hospital for the care of indigent sick - is void, because of the law pertaining to the amount of money which charitable organization might hold under the statutes at the time of the old millionaire's death.

May 8 the trustees of the fund procured the formation of a corporation through special act of the Massachusetts legislature, authorizing a capitalization of $5,000,000, and is now about to enter into arrangements for the erection of the hospital.

In his bill of equity, filed a few days ago, Colonel Brigham seeks to restrain the corporation from spending the money left by his uncle, and in retaliation the trustees of the fund met Tuesday in the office of their president, Andrew Cochrane, and appointed a committtee to secure legal counsel and fight the nephew.

August 4 the subpoena in the writ filed by Colonel Brigham is returnable to the United States court. On that date the first gun will be fired in the big battle, and to-day both sides to the coming conflict are girding up their resources preparatory to the mighty struggle.

In this town there is no name so well known as that of Brigham. The family has left the stamp of its personality upon this section of Vermont in such a manner that it can never be removed. In Bakersfield the stranger wonders why the places was not called Brighamsfield, where stands the Brigham Academy, the Brigham house, the Brigham cemetery, Brigham st., and other legacies of Brigham residence innumerable.

In the social, political and financial life of the town a Brigham stands pre-eminent and dominant. He is Col. Herbert F. Brigham, the man whose action in contesting the will of his millionaire uncle has caused consternation among the trustees of what promised to be the greatest and richest hospital in New England.

Colonel Brigham when a boy lived and worked in Bakersfield, and, when through school went to Boston, and, following in the footsteps of his uncle, and cousin, tried his luck in the restaurant business. For three years he worked for his relatives,a nd then, tiring of the monotony and seeking a higher sphere in life, entered the lwaw department of the Ann Arbor University,a nd after graduating returned to Bakersfield, studying law in St. Albans with Judge Start, of the supreme bench, whose son is now his law partner.

Colonel Brigham has made a high reputation of the bar of the Green mountain state, and has an eviable record in politics, although a thorough going Democrat in a rock-ribbed Republican community. His personal popularity is immense and he madee the strongest candidate of his party for the highest office in the state in over 40 years, and at the close of the campaign of 1900, one of the most memorable from a Democartic point of view, he was so highly esteemed by his successful opponent, that he was made chief of the new governor's staff, the first time in Vermont history that a Democrat served on the staff of a Republican governor.

Previously, in 1882 an 1884, Colonel Brigham represented his town in the legislature and was on both occasions the unanimous choice of the Democrats and favored by many Republicans for speakership. During the first Clevevland administration he was in the consuar service in Canada, and later for many years the chairman of the Democratic state committee.

St Albans Messenger
St Albans, Vermont
July 8, 1902

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