Before
proceeding, a disclaimer is in order. From 1917 to 1953, there were over 60
court proceedings in Carteret County having to do with Alice Hoffman’s North
Carolina property—not including any of the suits involving Salter Path. The
stories of “Alice’s Financial Misadventures” by necessity oversimplify the
complexities of her local cases and make only casual references to legal
battles involving her property in New York City and France. The first two parts
of this series focused primarily on property purchases and borrowing habits
that led to Alice’s financial disaster. The final blow was to come from failure
to pay taxes. Part III of the story concentrates on Alice’s property tax
problems in North Carolina, leading to what Pine Knoll Shores may deem a final
heroic effort by the Roosevelts.
The intervention of Alice’s family in the late 1930s,
culminated in the conveyance of Alice’s Carteret County property from Attorney
Llewellyn Phillips and his wife, Harriet, to John Marshall Mathias, Trustee for
Theodore Roosevelt, III, Cornelius Van Schaak Roosevelt, Grace Roosevelt
McMillan and Quentin Roosevelt. This event, in June 1939, seemed to be an act that
would save Alice’s Bogue Banks property from the hands of less environmentally
sensitive developers. However, in 1941, another legal battle would lead to the
transferal of that deed from this trust to The Alden Corporation.
Carteret County initiated court proceedings, naming
everyone who had ever claimed ownership of Alice Hoffman’s Carteret County
property for failure to pay property taxes dating back to 1927. Alice, in her unpublished
autobiography and letters,[ii]
claimed she had given money to her legal representatives in North Carolina to
pay taxes, and she assumed they had done so. Alice may have had a bad memory or
bad legal advisers or, perhaps, both, but, in any case, the taxes were not
paid.
The county’s tax case could not go forward until all
other cases involving these properties (see Part II) were settled. When
Matthias set up the 1939 trust for the Roosevelts, the court decided the tax
case could proceed. In 1941, the court approved a tax lien and appointed J.F.
Duncan as commissioner to sell the land to pay back taxes, interest and
penalties. The result was a series of sales with multiple bidders, and on April
25, 1942, the final sale took place with the property going to the highest and
last bidder, The Alden Corporation for $17,475. 25—$7,865.25 for the Morehead
City property and $9,610 for the Bogue Banks property.
Judge John Matthias:[iii]
In the interim, in December 1940, Alice Hoffman had tried
to get her land back from Phillips, Matthias and the Roosevelts by conveying
the deed to an entity called “Bogue Banks, Inc.” But, that deed seems to have
been cancelled as a result of the 1942 sale.
In another court proceeding—Alice Hoffman and Bogue
Banks, Inc., against John Marshall Mathias, Trustee; Llewellyn Phillips; The
Alden Corporation; and R. N. Larrimer—she made a final attempt to regain
control of her property. According to Attorney Frank Wooten’s summary of
Alice’s court proceedings,[iv]
“The final judgment in this proceeding was entered at the Special August Civil
Term, 1944, of the Superior Court of Carteret County, by Henry L. Stevens, Jr.,
judge presiding. The judgment was as follows: 1) Mrs. Hoffman was to have a
license to use all of the property except two mile area attached to Atlantic
Beach. 2)...John Marshall Mathias as Trustee for the Roosevelts, holds an
option to purchase the land from The Alden Corporation,” with the understanding
that the “excepted” two-mile area near Atlantic Beach “be sold to free the
property of indebtedness and pay necessary expenses of the trust.”
On June 8, 1945, Matthias exercised his option and the
property was deeded from The Alden Corporation to John Matthias, Trustee for
Theodore Roosevelt, III, Cornelius Van Schaak Roosevelt, Grace Roosevelt
McMillan and Quentin Roosevelt. Pine Knoll Shores thanks you, Judge Stevens.
Matthias proceeded to sell the Atlantic Beach land set
aside by the court to pay taxes and other debts. Eighty-eight acres went to
John T. Taylor for $2,000, and 77 acres went to Ocean Ridge Corporation for
$25,000. (Unclear as to why there was such a discrepancy in price.)
Alice Hoffman did live out her life on Bogue Banks and
was well cared for by this trust, which, at some point, also took possession of
trust monies Alice had from her Grandfather Theron R. Butler and her father,
Albert Green—though the latter may have been depleted by this time.
On June 6, 1950, Judge Matthias resigned as trustee, and
on June 14, Theodore Roosevelt, III, was appointed “Substitute Trustee.” One
other change had taken place: Frances Webb Roosevelt had replaced her husband
Quentin as a member of the trust since Quentin had been killed in a plane crash
over Hong Kong Harbor while returning from a business trip to Shanghai in December
1948.
In the 1950s, the system by which Pine Knoll Shores would
come into being began to take shape. On June 13, 1951, Theodore Roosevelt, III,
received power of attorney for the trust, making him attorney in fact to
represent trust members in property sales/transactions. Signed by all trust
members, they stated: “Our said attorney in fact may cause said lands to be
subdivided into such lots and public streets as he may deem proper and a plat
thereof to be recorded in the office of the Register of Deeds of Carteret
County, or he may at his option elect to sell said lands as a whole, or in
parcels without such a plat.”
They went on to say: “Our said attorney in fact may
provide that the use of the land sold by him may be restricted by covenants
either in the deeds conveying the property to purchases or by separate
instrument providing for restrictions as to the use of all or a portion of the
property.”
After discussing his authority to enter into fishing
leases in the name of the trust, they explained how the trust would work as
property was leased, developed or sold: “He is to disburse to us all money
derived from our said property remaining after the payment of the cost of
maintenance, taxes and other expenses incurred in the management of the property
and after retaining a reasonable amount of money for the future maintenance of
our said property.” He was also authorized to negotiate with Alice Hoffman “as
to the division with her of any money derived from the rent of all or any
portion of the property and from the sale of all or any portion.”
Two years later, Alice Hoffman died. Theodore continued
to exercise his authority as described above. The first stage of development on
Bogue Banks was soon to begin. On May 13, 1957, Theodore Roosevelt, III,
appointed Fred Clarkson as attorney in fact to act as his attorney or agent in
Carteret County and to fulfill the terms as cited above. George McNeill would
later assume this role, and his partner Ken Kirkman would follow after
McNeill’s retirement.
Post Author: Phyllis
Makuck
To contact the author or the History Committee
[i] Eleanor Roosevelt, Day Before Yesterday, Doubleday & Co., 1959.
[ii] East Carolina University’s Joyner Library, Special Collections.
[iii]
https://www.sconet.state.oh.us/SCO/formerjustices/bios/matthiasJM.asp
[iv] East Carolina University's Joyner Library, Special Collections.
Hyperlinks
For information on what may have been The Alden
Corporation: http://www.stocklobster.com/5170pu.html.
If Glen Alden Corporation and The Alden Corporation are one iand the same,
there may be interesting connections with Alice’s Ohio relatives connected to
her grandfather’s department stores. Another story for another time.