<The June 28, 1896 "New York Times" tells of a number of separate disputes in the chess world, some of which became quite heated over odd matters. The Manhattan Club had two new interesting cases. Mr. Elwell, an adviser to Jackson Showalter, had opened some letters not intended for him, and forwarded them to the club. Innocent mistake, or an attempt to keep Showalter playing for Boston in a match rather than Manhattan? [...]

I decided to look a little further at these disputes. "The Times" writes on Nov. 3, 1896, that Justice Maclean, in the Supreme Court yesterday, ordered the Manhattan Club to reinstate John D. Elwell, who had been expelled on Oct. 8. He had been charged by the club with malfeasance in tampering with the United States mails. The envelope, in fact, bore Mr. Elwell’s name and business address, the sender neglecting to write “in care of” rather than addressing it directly to him. Somehow, the issue reemerged later, since a report on May 10, 1898 says that Supreme Court Justice McAdam refused to reinstate Elwell. Supreme Court intervention in a chess dispute? And why were they so hot to kick him out over what seems to be an innocent mistake?

<J.D. Elwell, Promoter of Chess, Dead at 87; Backer of Pillsbury

Quite unknown to the present generation, John Duryea Elwell was a force to be reckoned with during the later years of the last century. These, to Brooklyn chess players, were the "glorious '90s," when Pillsbury triumphed at Hastings; when the Anglo-American cable matches began; when the Brooklyn Chess Club was champion of the Metropolitan Chess League and Frank J. Marshall, a resident then of Brooklyn, followed Pillsbury's example and invaded Europe.

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A human dynamo and man of varied experience, Elwell made things hum whenever the spirit moved him. It was he who collected the fund which enabled Pillsbury to go to Hastings. He engineered the memorable public dinner given the victor at the Pouch Mansion in Brooklyn upon his return from England.

At that dinner the late Judge Josiah T. Marean, president of the Brooklyn Chess Club, read a cablegram from Sir George Newnes offering a trophy for competition by cable. The suggestion came from Elwell. The series of matches stirred public interest as few chess happenings had been able to do.

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