New York Times
LONGFELLOW’S SON CUTS OFF NEPHEWS
Professor Dana and His Brother Lose $50,000 Each for "Socialist Opinions."
LEAVES ESTATE OF $509,901
Collection of Paintings, Left to Boston Art Museum, Valued at $65,078.
The appraisal filed yesterday in the estate of Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow, artist and son of the poet, shows that he left an estimated $509,901, and that when he made codicil cutting off his nephews, Professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana and Allston Dana from a quarter interest in the estate because of "Socialist and pacifist opinions," the lost $50,000 each.
Professor Dana, who is mentioned in the will as Harry Dana, is a Harvard graduate and was expelled from the Department of English at Columbia in 1917 for disseminating doctrines of disloyalty. He joined the Rand School later, and has been living with his brother in Cambridge. The codicil to the will, made Oct. 7. 1915, said:
"Owing to the Socialist and pacifist opinions of my nephews, Harry L. Dana and Allston Dana, I strike out their names from my will as legatees thereof."
Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow, who gained a reputation as an artist, and whose portrait of his father is one of his notable works, was born in 1845 and died at the Hotel Touraine in Boston on Nov. 10 last. He divided his time between his home in the Boston hotel and the Hotel Belmont in this city, but his legal residence was in New York. The bulk of his estate was in securities valued at $436,406, of which more than $50,000 was in Liberty bonds.
$200,000 to Boston Museum
Mr. Longfellow’s art collection, which he left with his own paintings to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, was valued at $65,078. He also gave the Museum of Fine Arts $200,000, to be paid after the death of his wife, Mrs. Harriet Spelman Longfellow, now 74 years of age, who receives the income from the residuary estate for life. The residue amounts to about $400,00 and after the payment of the $200,00 to the museum, there remained $200,000 to be divided under the will among the nephews, Richard H. Dana of this city, and Harry L. and Allston Dana, and a niece, Mrs Frances DeRham of Cold Spring, N.Y. Because of the codicil, Richard H. Dana and Mrs. DeRahm will get the entire $200,000.
Mr. Longfellow left to his sister, Alice M. Longfellow, who occupies the Longfellow home in Cambridge, an art object worth $50, while one worth $600 went to his nephew, Richard H. Dana, and one valued at $150 went to his sister, Mrs. Annie L. Thorp of Cambridge, one of the two surviving daughters of the poet. His own sketches and paintings, which go at once to the Museum of Fine Arts, is valued at $5,725. The museum does not get his valuable collection of art until after the death of his wife. He gave only $1,000 each to five nieces, Alice L., Annie L. and Erica Thorp, Amelia T. Knowles and Priscilla T. Smith.
The report shows that under a royalty agreement between the hers of the poet and Houghton, Mifflin & Co., publishers of his works, the heirs will receive $1,000 a year. The agreement was made some years ago, but was continued in 1919 until 1925. Ernest W. Longfellow was entitled to a fifth of this payment, so he share for three years is appraised as $660. The appraiser found that the jewelry owned by the artist was valued at only $70, consisting of three scarf pins, a gold watch and chain and three pairs of sleeve buttons.
The most valuable paintings in the collection of Mr. Longfellow were the following: "Early Morning (Tryon), $2000; "The First Snow" (Metcalf), $1,000; "Twilight" (G. H. Davis), $1,000; "Lake at Villa d’Avray" (Corot), $1,000; "La Sentier" (Corot), $3,000; "The Window" (Couture), $4,000; "Evening at St. Prive" (Harpignies), $2,500; "Cupid and Psyche" (Diaz), $1,000; "Portrait of John Dunlop" (Romney) $5,000; "Portrait of Mrs. Wright" (Romney), $10,000; "Unfinished Head of Lady Hamilton" (Romney), $3,000; "The Mill Stream" (Thaulow), $2,000 and "Lavinia, Tristian’s Daughter" (Bordoni) $1,000.
Longfellow Home Trust
The report set forth the details of the Longfellow Home Trust, under which the heirs of the poet agreed in 1913 to set aside the last residence of the poet, with its contents, known as the Craigie Home on Brattle Street, Cambridge, to be occupied during her lifetime by the poet’s daughter, Alice. The trust agreement provided that after the death of Miss Longfellow it is to remain in the family until twenty years after the death of the last grandchild, when it is to be turned over to a corporation, and if none of the grandchildren cares to occupy the home for three years in succession it is to be taken in charge by the corporation at once.
The trust agreement recites that the poet’s home is to be "maintained for the benefit of the public as a specimen of the best Colonial architecture of the middle of the eighteenth century, as an historical monument on account of the occupation of the house by George Washington during the siege of Boston during the Revolutionary War, and as a memorial to Henry W. Longfellow."
The appraiser taxed the value of Ernest W. Longfellow’s interest in the Home Trust at $492, while he had a further interest of $1,863 in a trust created by Thomas G. Appleton. He had bank deposits of $7,815 in New York and Boston. His largest stock holding was 550 shares of American Telephone and Telegraph stock.
