SEEKS RIGHT NAME.
ELLA POTTER WANTS TO KNOW
WHO HER PARENTS ARE.
WILL APPEAL TO THE COURT.
REARED TO WOMANHOOD BY MR.
AND MRS. POTTER.
Has Lived With Them Since She Was
3 Years Old -- Remembers, She
Says, Her Mother Taking Her
to Strange Place to Live.
Suit in equity to compel Mr. and Mrs. Eli Potter, who have reared her from infancy to young womanhood, to reveal her right name and history is to be brought in the Wyandotte district court by Miss Ella Potter, an accomplished and pretty 18-year-old girl of Kansas City, Kas. She has employed County Attorney Joseph Taggart to represent her.
Miss Porter declares she is not the child of Mr. and Mrs. Porter and has known so ever since she was taken to their home. However, she says they have always claimed her as their own, and when she would plead with them to tell her the facts and make known her true parentage, they would simply laugh at what they called her foolishness.
POSITIVE NOT THEIR CHILD.
"I am positive that I am not their child," said Miss Potter yesterday afternoon at the home of Mrs. Effie Struttle, 804 Minnesota avenue, where she is now living, having left the Potter home July 4 last. "I can just faintly remember playing with two little boys and a little girl, whom I believe were my brothers and sister. I recollect leaving them one day with my mother, who took me on the cars and left me in a strange house with a strange woman. I cried when she left me."
"Do you remember ever seeing your mother again?" Miss Potter was asked.
"Oh, yes. She frequently visited me for what seems now to have been several months, but finally she came and left and I have never seen her since then, that I know of. I used to cry for her and ask to see her, but Mrs. Potter would tell me to hush, that she was my mamma. After I grew to be a good-sized girl I often pleaded with them to reveal to me my right name and tell me who my father and mother were, but they would invariably treat my pleadings lightly, insisting that I was their child and for me not to be so foolish as to think otherwise.
"I am now a young woman, and I am more than ever convinced that I am not the child of Mr. and Mrs. Potter. My only desire and ambition at present is to ascertain my true parentage and see my real mother, if she is living. It is a terrible mental strain to be under, but I shall never have any peace of mind until I have learned the mystery that seems to surround my birth. I believe the courts will do justice to me and compel Mr. and Mrs. Potter to lay bare the secret."
FIRST REMEMBERANCE OF HER.
The people of Kansas City, Kas., first remember Miss Potter as a child of about 3 years old. It was generally understood that Mr. and Mrs. Potter had adopted her. Mrs. Potter has always shown a great fondness for the girl, and until the last year or two they were almost constantly in each other's company. When Miss Potter became of school age she was sent to the Columbia, Mo., seminary. Later she attended school at Aurora, Ill., and at Mt. Carroll, Ill. Miss Potter states that her terms at these schools were short, as Mrs. Potter would send for her to come home.In speaking about her suit, Miss Potter stated that she had engaged County Attorney Taggart to take care of it for her, and that he would commence an action in the next day or so.
County Attorney Taggart was seen last night and stated that Miss Potter had consulted him in the matter of bringing a suit to ascertain her identity, and that he had taken the case. He didn't know just when he would file the petition.
"I never heard of such a suit being brought before," he continued, "but I am inclined to believe that a suit in equity would hold in court, and that Mr. and Mrs. Potter can be compelled to reveal the name of the girl's parents, if they know."
Mr. and Mrs. Potter have lived in Kansas City, Kas., for more than a quarter of a century. They erected a handsome mansion at Eighth street and State avenue in the '80s, which was used for a while as a private hotel. It was burned to the ground about seventeen years ago. They have since erected a home on the same site. Mrs. Potter years ago was a candidate for mayor of Kansas City, Kas., as an independent woman candidate. She was defeated, but received quite a vote.
Mr. and Mrs. Potter could not be seen last night.
