From "Cincinnati Enquirer," September 26, 1896
Cincinnatians awoke on the morning of Sep 26, 1896 to discover that there was a baron in their midst, heir to a “colossal fortune.” According to that day’s Cincinnati Enquirer, one Warren H. Spohn of Hamilton, Ontario, was on his way to London with a battered family tree and some family heirlooms to prove his brother, residing in the Queen City, was the true fifth Earl of Ludlow, Viscount Preston and Baron Ludlow of Ardsalla in Ireland.
John Lee Spohn, the heir prospective, lived rather humbly in Cincinnati’s West End, operating a small photography studio and gallery. He and his family arrived in the United States from his native Canada in 1882. Spohn was married to Mariah Laster of England. The couple had three daughters, all married and all also living in Cincinnati. According to the Enquirer:
“He has always known and cherished the fact that he was the lineal descendent of the house of Ludlow, but, being a modest and a poor man, never boasted of his ancestors nor mentioned the fact even to his most intimate friends, nor attempted to prosecute his claims in the Courts of England.”
From "The Leisure Hour," published 1888
Spohn’s brother, Warren, said the newspaper, had amassed a “considerable fortune,” and took on his brother’s case. The stakes were high. If successful, Spohn was likely to obtain title to most of the county of Shropshire in Wales, including a decaying but historic castle left vacant by the last earl’s demise 54 years previous. The estate was estimated to be worth more than $20 million, generating $90,000 annually in 1896 dollars.
According to newspaper reports, the last recognized earl died childless in 1840. The late earl had a nephew living in Hamilton, Ontario. This nephew died, leaving only a daughter, who married and gave birth to John and Warren. It was on this indirect line of succession that the Spohn’s claim rested.
Mariah Spohn was not at all averse to becoming Lady Ludlow, according to the Enquirer:
“Mrs. Spohn is greatly excited over the prospective fortune awaiting her husband, but goes right on working in his studio just the same as though nothing was happening. If she turns out to be Lady Ludlow she says that she will surely see the old castle before she dies and bring back at least some relic of the defunct heritage.”
A couple months later, the Enquirer published portraits of the three Spohn daughters, Lillie, Maud and Ada or, respectively, Mrs. T.J. Ryan, Mrs. Thomas Van Hart, and Mrs. Frank A. Moeschl Jr.
“The daughters of Mr. Spohn would not lose by any kind of comparison with those of the most firmly established Earl of the English nobility.”
After that—nothing. Sadly, it appears John Lee Spohn’s momentary baroncy went unacknowledged by the peerage back in Old Blighty. No fortune flowed into Cincinnati and Spohn maintained his photo studio until his death in 1908.
A little digging suggests that the Enquirer had, perhaps, oversimplified the situation a bit. The Hamilton [Ontario] Spectator published a rather condensed version of the Enquirer article, but appended some local flavor because the Spohn boys, both John and Warren, were born and raised in that town. The Spectator [September 28, 1896] noted:
“The writer of the dispatch is somewhat mixed in his facts, but there is some ground for the story. Warren H. Spohn is the man referred to as living in Milton. He is well known in Hamilton.”
Here is a useful hint for scholars conducting historical research: When the local newspaper identifies someone as being “well known” in that particular town, it is most certainly not an accolade. Such is the case for Warren H. Spohn, who has many unfortunate appearances in the pages of the Hamilton Spectator, beginning when he was apparently not more than 14 or 15 years old, almost all of which involve appearances before one magistrate or another, facing charges of alcohol-fueled fisticuffs and amateurish flimflammery. One of the few non-criminal mentions in the local paper appeared in January 1896:
“It is said that Warren Spohn, of this city, has been notified by a firm of London, Eng., barristers that he is one of the heirs of a large estate in Wales. Mr. Spohn’s grandmother was a daughter of Earl Ludlow. He is going to England as soon as he gathers up the family records.”
From "Debrett's Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom," 1838
It’s at this point that Warren remembered primogeniture—the English custom of passing estates and titles to the first-born son. Warren was the second-born. His older brother, John, lived in Cincinnati. Per the Hamilton Spectator:
“Several months ago he was very flush and spent money freely, telling his friends that he had fallen heir to a great fortune. He went to Cincinnati a short time to visit his brother, John Lee Spohn, who was known as ‘Spur’ when he used to be a detective here.”
Wait! What? Sure enough, John Lee Spohn, Cincinnati photographer, had once been John “Spur” Spohn, detective in Hamilton, Ontario. A review of the newspaper clippings from 1881—the extent of Detective Spohn’s service—suggests he was not a particularly good detective. Although he made a few high-profile arrests and displayed some fortitude in capturing criminals, Detective Spohn was often found too inebriated to perform his duties and far too often accused of brazen shakedowns of suspects. He got fired in October 1881 and packed up for the United States shortly thereafter.
There is no record that either of the Spohns, John or Warren, got any traction at all in their appeal to acquire the Ludlow fortune. The Hamilton Spectator knew it was a long shot.
“It is possible that the Spohns have a good claim to the fortune, but ‘Spur’ will have to get along without the title of the Earl of Ludlow, as peerages don’t descend in the female line.”
Warren Spohn died suddenly, aged 72, in Buffalo, New York, where he and his wife were living in a hotel. He was buried in Hamilton, Ontario.
John Spohn kept his photography studio open at various West End locations until his death in 1908 from tuberculosis. He is buried in Wesleyan Cemetery in Northside. Mariah died in 1924 and was interred next to her husband.
Here is where another mystery emerges. Canadian-born John Lee Spohn, the claimant to the earldom of Ludlow, was buried in a U.S. veteran’s grave. At the age of 18, Spohn enlisted in the 163rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served about 6 months in 1864. Why he was in Ohio and why he returned to Canada remain a puzzle.
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