Page Two
University’s Escheats Fund, Now $450,000,
Will Be Much Greater When Unclaimed Bank
Deposits Are Added to It According to Law
- -
Escheat being an unfamiliar word, perhaps it had better be
defined at the outset of this article. It has a history that goes
back for centuries. The starting definition of escheat in the Cen
tury dictionary is “the reverting or falling back of lands or tene
ments to the lord of the fee or to the state.” Another definition is
“the possessions which fall to the lord or state by escheat.” For
the average citizen, not interested in the fine points of law or
capable of understanding them, it will suffice to define an escheat
as real or personal property for which there is no legal claimant.
For example, if a bank fails and if there are some deposits for
which the liquidators cannot find owners, these deposits become
escheats. Similarly, unclaimed meter deposits with a utility com
pany become escheats; and so do unclaimed moneys held by county
clerks; and so does real estate’ for which no heir can be found after
the owner dies. The time which must elapse before unclaimed
property becomes an escheat is fixed by law.
The original Constitution of North Carolina provided that all
escheats should belong to the University. This provision has re
mained unaltered through every revision of the Constitution and
is in effect today. Kemp P. Battle’s “History of the University of
North Carolina” tells that some of the buildings, in the early days
of the institution, were partly paid for out of escheats. The pres
ent state of Tennessee was part of North Carolina in the 1780 s
when soldiers of the Revolution were paid off in warrants for
lands in the public domain in western Tennessee. Some of the
lands there, never claimed by the veterans to whom they-had been
granted, became escheats to the University.
Throughout the century and a half since it was founded the
University has been receiving money from escheats. How much
it has received in any particular period has deluded a good deal
on the energy devoted to hunting out and collecting escheats. Dur
ing most of the time the inflow of money from this source could
be properly described as a trickle.
When the Consolidated University came into being fourteen
years ago the University’s escheats fund amounted to $85,000.
This belonged to the University in Chapel Hill, which had been
the whole University up to that time. It was distributed as fol
lows: $45,000 as an addition to the Kenan fund for professors’
salaries, $20,000 for the Southern Historical Collection, and $22,-
000 for the uses of various departments.
Since Consolidation, there has been accumulated an escheats
fund of about $450,000. This is maintained as a separate and
distinct endowment. It is invested, and only the interest is used
by the University. Some of the principal of the fund may be
transferred to the student loan fund, but such a transfer is not a
grant but a loan on which the student loan fund has to pay in
terest. Likewise, part of the escheats fund might be used for the
construction of a University dormitory, but, if this were done, the
money so used would be a loan on which interest and installments
would have to be paid out of the dormitory rentals.
More than one-third of the approximately $450,000 constitut
ing the escheats fund of the Consolidated University came from
unclaimed deposits in closed banks. About $<5,000 came from
unclaimed meter deposits, unclaimed salaries and wages, and un
claimed dividends of utility companies. About $25,000 came Dorn
(Continued, on page fix)
Josephus Daniels Will Be 84 Tomorrow
(Continued from firnt page)
columns a day in addition to the "Rhamkatte Roaster” and ha>
delivered many addresses in different parts of the country.
While in Mexico, being a member of the foundation committee
of the American Legion, he returned home to make addresses al
several of the annual conventions of the lx*gion. In 1940 anc
again in 1944 he was a member of the platform committee of the
Democratic National Convention.
Mr. Daniels began writing books in his 60’s. In 1922 he wrote
"Our Navy at War” and compiled a book (“The Navy and the
Nation”) containing the addresses he had delivered while Secre
tary of the Navy. In 1924 he wrote “The Life of Woodrow Wil
son,” which probably had the largest sale of any book written )>>
a North Carolinian—nearly 100,000 copies. This, adjudged the
best book of the year by the State Literary and Historical As
sociation, won him the Patterson Cup.
Since he was 75 he has written the following books (which con
stitute his autobiography, though they have different titles) :
“Tar Heed Editor,” 544 pages. . . . “Editor in Politics,” 624
pages. . . . “The Wilson Era” (peace-time), 614 pages. . . . “Tht
Wilson Era” (war-time and after), 655 pages. The third of these
won him the Mayflower Cup.
Today he is serving (not just nominally, but actively) as a
member of the executive committee of the University trustees, a
trustee of the Methodist Orphanage in Raleigh, a member of the
Woodrow Wilson Foundation, a member of the Franklin Delanc
Roosevelt Foundation, and a member of the Jefferson Memorial
Commission which erected the monument of Jefferson in Wash
ington. He has been a delegate to every Democratic National
Convention since 1896.
One day last week Mr. Daniels attended a celebration at Flora
IN NORTH CAROUNA 1
Mote people drink Adamic Ale any cdicr. I
Va\mb \ ” * * r I H
THE CHAPEL HILL WEEKLY
Macdonald College at Red Springs. He went from Raleigh by auto
mobile (180 miles for the round trip), was on his feet for most
of the 8 or 10 hours he was at the college, and sat through the
ceremonies on a hard wooden bench without a back. When he got
back home after midnight he was full of animation and stayed up
a while longer to show the Canadian, Angus Lewis MacDonald,
who had gone to the celebration with him, some of the pictures
and framed newspaper cartoons hanging on his walls.
The next night he left for New York to attend a meeting of the
Woodrow Wilson Foundation. In her column, “My Day,” pub
lished on Tuesday of this week, Eleanor Roosevelt told of meet
ing him on this visit to New York. She applied to him the word,
“remarkable,” and wrote: “This second World War saw him
ready to go back to work on his newspaper just as though he were
a young man. ... I am devoted to Mr. Daniels, and I only hope
that old age will make me as wise and kindly as he is. I haven’t
so many years in which to catch up to him, however, so I doubt if
I can hope for his wisdom.”
The Football Schedule
The University football team
will have five home games next
fall as follows: V.P.1., Sept. 28;
Maryland, Oct. 12; Florida, Oct.
26; Wake Forest, Nov. 16; and
Duke, Nov. 23. Other games will
be with the University of Miami,
Oct. 4; Navy, Oct. 19; Tennes
see, Nov. 2; William and Mary,
Nov. 9; and Virginia, Nov. 30.
Last year’s team won five and
lost five.
ANNOUNCEMENT
To the Democratic Voters
of Orange County:
I hereby announce my candi
dacy for re-election as Sheriff of
Orange County subject to the
Democratic Primary of May 25,
1946, and will appreciate your
help and support.
S. T. LATTA, JR.
OUR SEALED HOOD SAYS ...
w*t\
THE MILK BOTTLE
EVERY BOTTLE CAPPED {
WITH A STERILIZED
SEALRIGHT HOOD FOR
your ..»
Milk bottles must be handled fat \
milk protection we “seal in |W
purity” by hooding our bottles. m f
Special' machines in our dairy >P
apply sterilized hoods after the ~ «~***^
bottles have been filled and No hands but your own can touch th%
capped. They come to you pouring Up of the bottle which brings
11 y 7 our milk to you. Our SEALRIGHT
doubly protected, capped with HOOD cannot be opened without de
a regular cap and covered with tection. Take no chances with milk
insist on double protection.
a tamperproof hood.
/Tseaj]rightT\
{•MnAinuttvKtJ
Durham Road Dairy
PHONE 3722
General W’illiam Lenoir
Lenoir hall (the University
eating house) is named for Gen
eral William Lenoir, first presi- j'
dent of the University board of
trustees. He was a hero of the
battle of King’s Mountain and
was president of the state sen
ate. He died at the age of 88, the
last survivor of the original
board of trustees. General Lenoir j
has a descendant now living in
Chapel Hill, Mrs. Sam Fisher.
CANDIDATES FOR THE
BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS
We hereby announce that we
are candidates for the Board of
Commissioners of Orange Coun
ty, subject to the Democratic
Primary on May 25th, 1946.
Ben F. Wilson
Collier Cobb, Jr.
Hubert Laws I
Expert Cleaning at Reasonable Price?
The University Cleaners
On the Corner Opposite the Post Office
TELEPHONE 4931
Help Build Up the County’s Total of War Bond Sales 1
Wedding Flowers
Bridal bouquets and decorations for the home or church
by experienced designers.
REHDER’S
Chapel Hill Flower Shop
(Opposite Post Office)
WIRE ORDERS ANYWHERE PHONE 4851
Member of Florists Telegraph Delivery Association
Carolina Inn’s Revised Schedules
Main Cafeteria
Breakfast Luncheon Dinner
Weekdays 7:00- 9:15 11:45-2:00 5:30-7:30
Sunday 8:00-10:00 11:45-2:00 5:30-7:30
Dining Room Schedule
Breakfast Luncheon Dinner
Weekdays 7:30-11:0(1 12:00-2:00 6:00-8:00
'
Sunday 8:00-11:30 12:30-2:30 6:00-8:00
Friday, May 17, 1946