dabtoe on Family Tree Circles

Mrs. Elsbury, wife of Titanic victim unable to collect damages for death
VICTIM LIVED AT GURNEE
Attorney finds that amount for which company is liable is insignificant. Will receive only fare paid.


Mrs. James Elsbury (Nee Hucker) who lives just West of Gurnee, and whose husband was one of those who perished on the White Star Line steamer (the Titanic,) stands very little chance of ever collecting damages from the company, according to her attorney, C. C. Edwards, who has been working on the case for some little time.
According to Mr. Edwards, a New York court has issued what is known as a monition, restraining anyone from starting a suit for damages against the White Star Line, except in the court where the monition was issued. This makes it very difficult for many to start suit, the ruling, apparently, being wholly in favour of the company.
But this is by no means the worst part of it, he says. There is a law which says that a boat company is liable only for the extent of the salvage. In addition to this the heirs of a victim drowned in an accident like that of the Titanic, may recover the fares of the deceased victims. In the case of the Titanic, all the salvage was four life boats, whose total value will not exceed $4,500. The total amount of fares paid for _______ amounted to $85,000 Thus _____ the families of the victims may recover the amount of fare paid, which will be taken out of the $85,000, the total amount of damages which the company will be obliged to pay for will not exceed $4,500 salvage. Thus if a suit was entered by the relatives of each victim, they would receive as damages only their proportionate share of the $4,500. This fact will cause many people to drop their suits which they had begun as it would cost more to travel to New York and start the suit a-new there, than they could possible get out of it. For this reason it is very probably that Mrs. Elsbury will drop all plans by starting a suit.

Shortly after the fatality, two or three suits were started in Chicago and it was this which caused Mrs. Elsbury to place her case in the hands of an attorney, and that suit be started. The monition issued in New York, however, speedily restrained these suits and it is very doubtful if any suits be started.

The death of Mr. Elsbury is recalled by all. He was returning from a trip to England and chose passage on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. For a long time his fate was in doubt but that he was drowned. Mr. Elsbury was one of the best known farmers in Lake County

James boarded at Southampton in 3rd class ticket number 3902 age 47, occupation farmer.


DEATH OF ELSBURY POSITIVE
Dispatch From the White Star Line Says That Elsbury is Not a Survivor
ALL HOPE IS ABANDONED
Gurnee Man on Titanic Not Among Survivors - -Family Now Compelled to Give up Hope

The last hope of the James Elsbury family of Gurnee that their husband and father, a passenger on the ill fated Titanic might yet be returned to them, was completely swept away when on Wednesday a telegram from New York stated that he was not among the survivors. When news of the disaster first spread, the Elsbury family clung to the hope that he might have
been delayed in starting, but a cablegram from relatives across the water destroyed that hope and proved to a certainty that he was aboard the sunken vessel.
Day after day passed while the family waited in suspense for some word from the missing one, sometimes fearing the worst and sometimes inspired by hope. At times Mrs. Elsbury was sure that he must some way have been saved, but as time wore on and no message came she began to lose hope, feeling that if alive, he would ere this have communicated with her. And then came the report that a man had been picked up in an unconscious condition by the rescue ship, and had been placed in a New York hospital. That he had never regained his reason and that his only utterance were the words "Lake County, Illinois." Then hope sprang anew in the Gurnee home and telegrams bearing Ellsbury's description, were at once sent and his picture was also forwarded. But a crushing blow was dealt the family when the answer came from the White Star Line that the man in question is not James Ellsbury.

All hope of his being alive is now abandoned as is also that of ever receiving his body, and in all probability it will never be known whether the well known, highly respected Gurnee farmer, lies among the unidentified buried at sea or whether he was among the number whose bodies were never
recovered.

He was returning from England where he had gone to help his brother John clear up estate matters after his mother's death. He decided to book passage- -3rd class on the historic ship, the Titanic. His remains were never found. There is a memorial to him in his home town of Stanmoor, Somerset, England.
1900 Census states that he emigrated in 1881.

Living in Warren Twp in 1900 with Eliza and 4 children. Still living in Warren Twp with Eliza and Elbert, George and Bernice in 1910. Memorial plaque at Warren