100 Year Old Weblog ~ News From 100 Years Ago That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

August 12, 1908

HEIRESS ENDS

LIFE WITH ACID.

ONCE WON PRIZE AS MOST BEAU-

TIFUL GIRL IN MISSOURI.

WEDDING WAS SET FOR TODAY.

DOCTOR PRONOUNCED HER DEAD

3 HOURS BEFORE SHE DIED.

Mother of May Williams Had Her

Committed to Reform School.

Girl Took Poison Rath-

er Than Go.

On the night before her wedding, and on the eve of being sent to the girl's reform school, pretty little May Williams committed suicide by drinking carbolic acid in the presence of her mother and Mrs. W. W. Smith, an officer of the juvenile court. Miss Williams was heiress to $15,000 and her life within the last three months had been a checkered one.

Two months ago, a few weeks after her mother had married Sol Mead, a railway conductor, Miss Williams was sent to the juvenile court, charged with being incorrigible. Mrs. Smith, the probation officer of the Detention home, thought the girl should be in a better place than the home. Consequently, according to Mrs. Alice Page, the matron of the Y. W. C. A. home at Eighth and Harrison streets, arrangements were made whereby the girl was taken to the Y. W. C. A. home. Mrs. Page found the girl to be anything but incorrigible.

A short while ago it became rumored that Miss Williams was to be married today. Shortly after the rumor became public, and the girl admitted that she intended to marry this morning, she was taken from the Y. W. C. A. home and hauled back to the Detention home. At her mother's request the reform school authorities decided to take the girl and to keep her for an indefinite length of time.

SOMEONE WAS NEGLIGENT.

The threat of the reform school had been made to the girl time and again by her mother, Mrs. Mead, and each time Miss Williams had replied that she would die before she went to the institution. Mrs. W. W. Smith accompanied her to her home, 816 Euclid avenue, in order that the girl might pack her trunk. On the way home the girl told Mrs. Smith that she was going to commit suicide. After the two had reached the Mead home, Miss Williams sat in the parlor and talked to her mother of the reformatory. Rising, she said:

"I will die first, and it will be before your eyes."

Whether any attention was paid to the girl's remarks has not been learned. At any rate, she was allowed to leave the presence of the court probationary officer and her mother, with the threat of suicide fresh upon her lips, and over fifteen minutes passed before she was missed. The court officer was present all of that time, and it is said she had heard the threat which the girl made.

In the meantime Miss Williams had gone to the Woodland pharmacy, three blocks away, convinced the druggist that her mother wanted three ounces of carbolic acid, and walked back home again. When she reached her home she walked up the back steps and raised the bottle of carbolic acid to her lips. She had heard footsteps approaching and desired to be successful in her attempt to end her life. At that moment Mrs. Smith caught sight of the girl and called to Mrs. Mead, the mother. With both women looking at her, standing as if rooted to the floor, the girl drank the contents of the bottle and then murmured:"Now, I suppose you are satisfied."

Instantly the probation officer ran to he 'phone and called a doctor and neighbors. Someone called the police ambulance and Dr. J. Park Neal.

DOCTOR THOUGHT HER DEAD.

Dr. A. H. Walls, who lived in the immediate neighborhood, was called. He replied that he could not get to the Mead home for twenty-five minutes. Ten of those twenty-five had elapsed when someone called the police ambulance. The ambulance made a rapid run and arrived at the home of the Williams girl shortly after Dr. Walls had arrived. As Dr. J. Park Neal, probably the most successful combater of carbolic acid suicides in Kansas City, jumped from his ambulance he was met by Mrs. Smith and Dr. Walls. They told him that the girl was dead an d that nothing could be done for her. Taking Dr. Walls's word for it, and knowing Mrs. Smith as a court officer, he did not attend the girl, but went back to the emergency hospital.

As the ambulance turned the corner of Eighth street an undertaker's wagon appeared around the corner of Ninth street. No one knows who called it. By that time Dr. E. R. Curry arrived and pronounced the girl alive. She had been alive all of the time and lived for three hours after she had taken the poison.

"Could she have been saved had you attended her when you were at the house?" was asked Dr. Neal.

"I believe she could," he said. "In fact, I know she could have been saved. But I took Mrs. Smith's and Dr. Wall's word for final. I had no reason to believe the girl was still alive."

Dr. Neal could not understand why he was turned away while there was hope that the girl might not be dead.

Long before the girl was really dead, another undertaker's ambulance had driven up to the front door, and the neighbors looked on and wondered. No one could be found who would admit calling the second undertaker's ambulance.

Mrs. Mead, the girl's mother, says she is heart broken and will see no one. A doctor was called to see her.

May Williams was a beautiful young girl of uncertain age. Her mother swore in court that May was but 15 years old, while May swore that she was 17. Had the girl been 15 years old three years would have expired before she attained her majority; 17 years of age meant only one year until she came into the $15,000 which her father had left her.

WON A BEAUTY PRIZE.

Last spring May Williams won the prize in St. Louis as being the most beautiful unmarried woman in Missouri. The prize was given by a local newspaper. Everywhere she went her beauty was remarked upon. In St. Louis, say those who knew her there, she was not considered incorrigible, nor even wayward.

Mrs. Mead was divorced from her first husband and May lived with him until his death. In his will he left May $15,000, and, it is said, cut off his divorced wife without one cent. At the time of the Williams divorce, which occurred in St. Louis, the whole family history was aired.

Mr. Mead, who is a conductor on the Chicago & Alton railroad, has not been notified of his step-daughter's death. He is expected in from his run this morning at 10 o'clock.

Labels: detention home, doctors, druggists, Eighth street, Euclid avenue, juvenile court, Ninth street, probate, St Louis, Suicide, undertakers, women, YWCA

July 28, 1908

LEFT MONEY TO STRANGERS.

Former Police Chief is Legatee of

Woman He Did Not Know.

Thomas Mastin and John Hayes, formerly chief of police, are given bequests of $50 each in the will of Mrs. Amanda Jennie Elder, who died a short time ago at 503 Walnut street. In the original will Grace Darling, a niece, and John Darling a nephew, both of Leavenworth, are given $50 each, but both of these bequests are revoked in a codicil. All the balance of the property is given to Dr. J. T. Craig, who is now in the City of Mexico. The will was filed for probate yesterday.

John Hayes could not remember Mrs. Elder nor give nay reason why she should have mentioned him in her will. At 503 Walnut it is said that Mrs. Elder, who died at the age of 47, had lived there some four years. The estate is valued at about $600. Dr. Craig is named the executor.

Labels: doctors, Police Chief Hayes, probate, Walnut Street

July 14, 1908

PUSHKAREFF'S WILL IS FILED.

Russian Houseboat Dweller Left Per-

sonal Property Worth $2,500.

Application for letters of administration of the estate of Nicholas Pushkareff, the Russian caviar dealer who recently died in a houseboat on the Missouri river, were filed yesterday in the probate court. Dr. M. W. Pickard is named as the administrator, and Mrs. Titiana Pushkareff, the wife of the deceased Russian, is named as the sole heir to the estate. Bond was furnished by Dr. Pickard in the sum of $3,000. The estate left by Pushkareff consists of personal property valued at $2,500.

At the time of his death it was thought that Pushkareff was a rich man, but subsequent events have proved otherwise. He came to Kansas City about one year ago, and always seemed plentifully supplied with money, although he lived in the houseboat for the greater part of the time, and his wants were few. Dr. Pickard was Pushkareff's closest friend in America. In Russia Pushkareff was prominent. He had traveled extensively, was well read and intended making America his permanent home.

Labels: boats, doctors, immigrants, Missouri river, probate

June 25, 1908

ARMY GETS $5,000 BEQUEST.

Mrs. Mary Greenand, the Donor, Was

a Colorado Colonist.

Colonel Thomas Holland, national colonization secretary for the Salvation Army, was in Kansas City yesterday. He is on his way home from St. Joseph, where he went to arrange a bequest of $5,000, left by Mrs. Mary Greenand of Amity, Col., to the Salvation Army. Mrs. Greenand was a settler at the Salvation Army colony at Amity.

"Besides the colony at Amity," said Col. Holland, "we have also a colony at Fort Romie, Cal. At Amity we have 300 persons and at Fort Romie 200. We have been established ten years and are meeting with success. Our plan is to take penniless people, mostly from the cities, and furnish them land, rent free, and allow them to pay for it as they wish. They are allowed twenty years to pay for their land. Each family receives from twenty to forty acres. It is irrigated land and the settlers have been uniformly successful. Mrs. Greenand, who was a widow, became interested in the movement and bought a farm in the settlement. When she died several days ago she left us this handsome bequest."

Labels: probate, Salvation Army, St.Joseph, visitors

June 21, 1908

DRANK WINE WHILE

HIS BODY BURNED.

WILLIAM F. NORTON ORDERED

IT FOR HIS FRIENDS.

Had Been Buried Alive in Louisville

and Wanted to Be Cremated in

a Wideawake Town -- Copy

of Will Here.

One of the most extraordinary documents ever sent to Kansas City for recording was received in the probate court yesterday from Louisville, Ky., to be made part of the abstract of the site and property at the southwest corner of Eighth and Woodland, the site and property at the southwest corner of Eighth and Woodland, the old Woodland hotel. The document is a copy of the will of the late William F. Norton, Jr., executed August 6, 1902, while the maker was residing in Louisville. He has since died. The Eighth and Woodland property is being sold and in order to complete the record of the title the buyer has called for a copy of the Norton will. The document sent here for filing is a typewritten copy. It begins with verse from Prior, Byron and Shakespeare, and after identifying itself, it reads:

In case I die in Louisville, in which dead town I have been buried for so many years, I wish a special Pullman car to be engaged to carry my body to Cincinnati for incineration in that city, taking the receptacle that will be found in my rooms, Nos. 19, 20, 21 and 22 Norton block, in which my ashes are to be placed.

I wish the buffet of the Pullman car to be well stocked with nice things to eat and to drink, so that my friends who will do me the honor to see me started on that long journey may not want for anything to ease their hunger or slack their thirst.

"As it takes about two hours to cremate a body, I wish my executors to engage the Bellstedt band, the best band in Cincinnati, of forty musicians, at $200, to render a fine concert composed of my favorite musical selections, a copy of the programme to be found in the same envelope containing my will.

"It will be noticed that there are two intermissions of fifteen minutes each indicated on the programme. During those intermissions I wish my friends who will be witnesses to my incineration to invite the musicians to drink with them to my 'bon voyage; in Montebello brut champagne, several cases of which will be sent from the Pullman car to the crematory."

From this point the will becomes normal, providing that the ashes of the remains go in a bronze urn, which should be placed on top of a monument in the grave yard at Russellville, Ky., and peremptorily directing that there be no religious service or other service whatever. No bond was to be required of the executors, no sale made, no proceedings excepting statutory ones in the probate court and no inventory taken. The document then shows that Norton willed to "my faithful old servant, Eugene Hines, the sum of $3,000 which will be enough to last him, with care;" to Miss Augusta Savage $10,000 provided she be unmarried at the time of the testator's death and to Dr. M. Sweeney, for services, $13,000. The residue was left to Mrs. Ann E. Norton, mother, "unless I should marry and be survived by a wife," in which event the widow would get one-fourth the net income of the estate, the remaining three-fourths to go to the children, if any.

There is nothing accompanying the official copy of the will to signify whether or not the extraordinary provisions were complied with, but G. W. Norton, a cousin, and M. W. Brower, a life-long friend, are named as executors and enjoined to carry out its provisions in every particular.

The estate is worth about $4,000,000.

Labels: Eighth street, hotels, music, probate, Woodland avenue

June 21, 1908

CAVIARE MAN

LEFT FORTUNE.

N. N. PUSHKAREFF LIVED IN A

HOUSEBOAT ON RIVER.

NO ONE SUSPECTED WEALTH.

FAMILY COMING TO AMERICA,

IGNORANT OF HIS WEALTH.

Sudden Demise Reveals Fact That
He Had Saved $15,000 -- His

Boat's Cabin Finished

in Mahogany.

Although N. N. Pushkareff, a Russian, up until his death a few weeks ago is in the vicinity of his little houseboat near Harlem, was always considered among his associates a man of little means, it has developed that the man had a balance of $15,000 to his credit in a local bank and possessed considerable property in various sections of the city.

After his death his body was encased in a casket priced by the undertaker at $700 and placed in a vault pending the arrival of his family at present en route from their home to this country, none of the members of which is aware of the husband and father's death.

Pushkareff, when a comparatively young man, left his home in Russia to seek his fortune in this country, declaring at the time that he would not return nor send for his family until he had accumulated $25,000.

Arriving in America, accompanied by his eldest son, whom he had brought with him, the two launched in the caviare business in the East. Later they came to this section and several years ago located permanently in this city. Since then Pushkareff prospered and saved the money beyond the knowledge of his son.

Several weeks ago, although he had not realized his ambition in accumulating $25,000, he determined to send to the old country where his wife and children patiently waited him and ask them to come. The family immediately began preparations for the journey. Since then the husband and father died from heart failure, his body being found in his characteristic garb, rags, with a short distance of the little houseboat on the north side of the river.

Upon the coroner's investigation into the man's death considerable money was found on his clothing and in the little houseboat, the interior of which was furnished wholly in mahogany and ebony furniture, and at the bidding of friends the body was placed in one of the most expensive caskets in the city, and later stored in a vault to await the arrival of the wife with instructions as to its disposition. It is probable the body will be shipped to Russia.

Pushkareff, although few knew it, was a member of several of the more important fraternities in the city. He is said to have been an ardent Elk and spent much of his time at the Elks' Club, although there were none who knew him there as Pushkareff the Caviare man. At times he is said to have spent much money.

After his death the little houseboat, which was anchored to the river bottoms, narrowly escaped becoming swamped when the flood came, and had it not been for Dr. Elliott Smith of this city, it undoubtedly would have gone to the bottom. Dr. Smith rescued the craft and took it to the Blue river, where it is now moored.

The boat, although small, is said to be a marvel of beauty within and represents a lavish expenditure of money. Finished in mahogany and ebony, the interior is otherwise decorated in a costly yet peculiar manner. During the owner's life no one was known to have entered the boat save himself. The doors were always locked, and the man would not permit anybody approaching, much less examining it. Nothing within the little craft has been molested and neither will it be until after the arrival of the family of the deceased.

Pushkareff's son did not live on the houseboat with him, but boarded in the city, where he attended school.

Labels: boats, death, Harlem, immigrants, lodges, probate

June 4, 1908

PRIEST ENTITLED TO LEGACY.

Will of Katie McGinty is Held Valid

by a Jury.

At the second trial of the suit of the brothers of Katie McGinty to break her will, by which she gave all of her property to Father Andrew G. Clohessy of St. Joseph's church, the jury last evening found that the will was valid and that the priest is entitled to the money. The verdict in the first trial, three months ago, was in favor of the brothers. The second trial was in Judge E. E. Porterfield's division of the circuit court.

Katie McGinty was employed for fourteen years prior to her death in St. Margaret's hospital in January, 1907, as a domestic in the parish house at 1007 East Nineteenth street. She began service at $2 a week, was advanced to $6, and out of her wages saved $1,161. The day before her death she summoned to her bedside Father Clohessy, for whom she had worked the many years, and asked him to accept her earnings. He refused. Later, while he was absent, she drew up a will, giving it all to him.

The priest had spent all but $200 of the $1,161 before the suit was brought by Jim McGinty and Patrick McGinty and the children of George and Bernard McGinty, Katie's brothers. He devoted $400 to a funeral, $75 for a lot in St. Mary's cemetery, $260 for the gravestone and $200 gave to other priests for the saying of mass for the repose of her soul.

Labels: cemetery, churches, hospitals, Judge Porterfield, ministers, Nineteenth street, probate, women

April 25, 1908

HE'LL LEAVE HER HIS MONEY.

Rich August Muller Wants to Adopt

a Neighbor's Child.

August Muller, Seventh street and Northrup avenue, Kansas City, Kas., created some little stir in the Wyandotte probate court room yesterday forenoon, when he appeared there leading Helen Ries, 17-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Ries of the same vicinity, by the hand, declaring that he would adopt her for the sole purpose of leaving his money and property to her. Muller is considered wealthy. He is now, he said, advanced in years and himself and wife are lonely for younger company. Ries, he has known since childhood and Helen played on his knee when but a baby. Both Reis and Muller are well known in Kansas City, Kas. The court will investigate further.

Labels: custody, Kansas City Kas, probate

April 21, 1908

SAYS PAT M'GUIRE

WAS TWICE KILLED.

DROWNED AND THEN BURNED,

BUT LEFT AN ESTATE.

His Widow, Who Married Another

Between Pat's First and

Second Death, Wants the

Property Settled.

Two tragedies are recalled by the petition filed in the probate court yesterday by C. W Prince, attorney for Mrs. Mary F. McGuire, calling upon William Moore, administrator of the estate of Patrick McGuire, to make a partial division of the estate.

On March 29, 1903, McGuire, then living under the name of Oscar W. Ramsey, was married to Mrs. Mary Cochran, a widow, the present petitioner. When the flood of May, 1903, came, McGuire, then known as Ramsey, went out to engage in rescue work. He never returned. The wife advertised for him in the daily papers, when such advertisements were printed free after the flood subsided, but could get no reply or trace of him. On June 30, 1904, she married John W. Ballard, a point tucker.

The Ballards lived happily for over two years, when, in October, 1906, the Chamber of Commerce building in Kansas City, Kas., burned. Mrs. Ramsey-Ballard read that Patrick McGuire was among the missing tenants of the building, and that Mrs. Donald Logan, a friend of his, had escaped. Mrs. Logan's description of McGuire, printed in the papers, tallied to the dot with the missing Ramsey's appearance. Mrs. Ballard also recalled that the husband, known to her as Ramsey, had roomed at Mrs. Logan's house before she met him, and that friends who came to visit, after her marriage, called for Pat McGuire. Putting two and two together, Mrs. Ballard decided that the McGuire who was burned in the fire was none other than her husband. She talked to Mrs. Logan, and saw among the effects of McGuire, saved from the fire, a handkerchief which she had given Ramsey, and into which she had embroidered the initials, "O. W. R."

She was then positive that her husband had not been drowned in the flood, but was burned to death. She went into mourning again. Her marriage to Ballard was, by effect of her discovery, annulled.

McGuire left an estate in Wyandotte worth something over $20,000. The probate court of Jackson county, at Mrs. Ramsey-Ballard-McGuire's request, took charge of it, and William Moore was appointed administrator in December, 1906.

A few weeks ago a Mrs. Patrick O'Neal of Chicago sent a representative to Kansas City to secure a share in the estate, claiming that she was a sister of McGuire. This claim she has proven to the satisfaction of the probate court.

McGuire's wife's petition of yesterday is to have the administrator divide the estate between herself and Mrs. O'Neal. Mrs. McGuire's attorney hopes to secure practically all of the property for her under a Missouri statute which provides that estates lying outside the state shall be administered according to the law of the state which they be, and a Kansas statute, which gives all of an estate to the widow, if there are no children.

Mrs. McGuire lives at 2812 Spruce avenue.

Labels: Chicago, death, Fire, flood, Kansas City Kas, probate, Spruce avenue

March 10, 1908

WOULD BREAK UNCLE'S WILL.

Disinherited Nephew Wants Part of

Rich Relative's Estate.

Hamp and George A. Steven's suit to break the will of their uncle, John C. Larwill, a millionaire, who died in Mansfield, O., two years ago, came to trial yesterday in Judge J. E. Goodrich's division of the circuit court. The trial will occupy all of this week.

Larwilll owned real estate in many Western states and his holdings in Kansas City are estimated to be worth $150,000. In the list are the lot and buildings at the southeast corner of Eighth and Main streets and ten lots on Troost avenue near Thirty-first street.

By the will Hampy Stevens was given $1,000 and George, his brother, wa disinherited. Among those who were generously remembered in the will, and are defending it, are Mrs. Susan M. Larwill, widow of John Larwill; Joseph H. Larwill, a brother, and Paul Larwill, a nephew. These people live in Ohio.

Labels: circuit court, Eighth street, Judge Goodrich, Main street, probate, Thirty-first street, Troost avenue

March 7, 1908

PRIEST LOSES THE BEQUEST.

Katie McGinty Was Very Ill When

She Made Her Will.

It was decided by a jury in Judge H. Slover's division of the circuit court yesterday that Katie McGinty was too ill to know what she was doing when she made her will bequeathing all of her property to the Rev. A. G. Clohessy, pastor of St. Joseph's church, Nineteenth and Harrison streets, and that the will should be set aside and the property given to her blood relations.

Miss McGinty served as housekeeper for Father Clohessy for fourteen consecutive years prior to the illness, which, on January 26, 1907, caused her death. She was paid $2.50 a week, and out of this she saved, in the fourteen years,, $1,128. The money was kept in the Fidelity Trust Company. A few days before her death in St. Margaret's hospital, she called Father Cloheesy in and asked him to accept the money. He refused to accept it. Then she made a will, in his presence, leaving everything to him, after he should expend $25 for her funeral and gravestone and $200 for masses to be said for her soul. The funeral was held, the headstone erected and the masses were said. Then when Father Clohessy probated the will, James McGinty, a brother of the dead woman, brought the action in the circuit court.

Miss McGinty left no property other than the $1,128, excepting her clothing and personal effects. The residue of the estate will be divided among James, Patrick and Dennis McGinty, three brothers in Kansas City, and seven nephews and nieces in St. Louis.

Labels: circuit court, Harrison street, hospitals, ministers, Nineteenth street, probate

January 28, 1908

WIFE WANTS PUGH'S MONEY.

But Finds That Suicide's Mother and

Brother Have It.

The suicide of W. A. Pugh at 721 East Eighth street, Saturday evening, threatens complications regarding the disposition made of his money and jewelry by the emergency hospital authorities. The brother, W. G. Pugh, went with the mother to the hospital and was given the $234 in money and diamonds amounting to several hundred more.

Yesterday the wife returned from Waterloo, Ia. She was told that W. G. Pugh had made affidavit that the suicide had never been married and had no wife, thereby obtaining the property. Dr. J. P. Neal, however, who was in charge of the hospital and after searching the body took charge of the valuables, said that W. G. Pugh gave no affidavit but only a receipt for the articles. Coroner Thompson, who, by virtue of his office, ordinarily takes charge of a victim's property, says that the custom is, where the emergency hospital people have searched a body before death, that he does not receive the property from them.

The wife insists that she and Pugh were married six years ago. She came direct from her train to Stine's morgue to view the body, and found the mother and brother present. The three conversed, the wife telling the others that she had written him she was coming back. It was later, at the emergency hospital, that she learned that his valuables had been turned over to his family.

Mrs. Pugh, before marriage, was employed in a restaurant and studied two years to be a trained nurse. W. G. Pugh, the brother, has remained single and lives with the mother at 3622 Independence avenue.

Labels: Coroner Thompson, Eighth street, emergency hospital, Independence avenue, probate, Suicide, undertakers

January 15, 1908

SERVANT WINS HER SUIT.

Anna Kasson Receives $10,000 for

Thirty-Two Years' Work.

Anna Kasson, a poor woman who claimed she had worked thirty-two years in the family of Mrs. Kate Ernest without receiving any compensation, will be rewarded for her life's work, as the jury, after deliberating nearly ten minutes, returned a verdict that the will, which the heirs sought to break, holds good. Miss Kasson will receive real estate at Eighth and Woodland avenue valued at about $9,000 and $1,000 in cash, which was left her in Mrs. Ernest's will.

A smile crept over the face of the little woman in the court room as the jury returned the verdict in her favor. All day she sat in an arm chair in one side of the room and presented a most pitiful appearance. She was dressed in a calico dress, and her appearance showed that she had worked hard for nearly a whole life time. She had been rewarded for her work by the will of her foster parents, as she claimed the Ernests to be, and a son of Mrs. Ernest had brought the suit in order to cut Miss Kasson out of receiving her share of Mrs. Ernest's property.

Labels: courtroom, Eighth street, probate, Woodland avenue

October 15, 1907

SHE WANTS HIS INSURANCE.

Woman Paid Her Lover's Policy and

He Left No Heirs.

Miss L. F. Laundry of Sixteenth and Main streets, thinks that because she was engaged for eleven years to marry W. H. Nall and loaned him $75 to pay on his $1,000 insurance policy in the Woodmen of the World, she is entitled to the insurance, now that Nall is dead. Nall's only relative, to whom the insurance would normally be paid, was his mother, Mrs. Navina Nall, who died February, 1907, a few days after he passed away. Mrs. Nall was 78 years old and it was on account of her helpless condition, it is said, that Nall kept postponing his marriage to Miss Laundry. "Miss Laundry says that Nall agreed to assign this insurance to her, but never did so. Nall was a mail carrier. The case is being tried in Judge J. H. Slover's division of the circuit court.

Labels: circuit court, Judge Slover, Main street, probate, Sixteenth street

October 4, 1907

CLAIMS SHE WAS ABUSED.

Emma Spencer Says Relatives Want

to Get Her Property.

On a cot in one of the wards of the general hospital is a pretty young woman with large blue eyes, and a great mass of wavy, yellow hair. She is Miss Emma Spencer, 20 years old. Her condition is critical. The story she tells of why she is now in the hospital will be investigated by the Humane Society today.

Miss Spencer claims that her father, who is dead, left $30,000 worth of property to her. Her mother has remarried. The mother, Mrs. Rebekah Jennings, who lives at 1612 Norton avenue, says that her daughter is willful and incorrigible. When Miss Spencer was 14 years old, her mother caused her to be placed in the girls' reformatory at Chillicothe, Mo. The young woman claims that her mother did this to get rid of her, because her presence was inconvenient.

From the reformatory, when the girl was about to attain her majority, she was transferred to the state insane asylum at St. Joseph. She was released from there last June. Dr. F. J. Hatch, 1502 Troost avenue, who performed an operation on Miss Spencer Monday night, said last night that she is not of sound mind. She talked rationally last night.

A few weeks ago Miss Spencer filed suit against her mother to obtain possession of property which she claimed her mother had secured through undue influence.

Labels: doctors, general hospital, Humane Society, mental health, Norton avenue, probate, Troost avenue

September 4, 1907

MARGARET DELOUGHERTY HEIR.

Mother Leaves Estate to Daughter

Whose Marriage Hastened Funeral.

Margaret Delougherty, who was married Monday to John A. Dugan, is the heir to all but $10 of her mother, Catherine Delougherty's estate, according to the will of her mother, which was filed yesterday in the probate court. The $10 is given to Mary Walsh, of Syracuse, N. Y., a sister of Catherine Delougherty. The remainder of the estate is left to Margaret for her use during her life time, and upon her death will go to John Conners, of Syracuse, N. Y., a brother of the deceased.

John A. Dugan, who married Margaret on Monday and was later arrested upon the complaint of E. R. Weeks, president of the Humane Society, was released yesterday morning. The police decline to interfere, and any investigation of the case which is made must come from the probate court.

Labels: Humane Society, probate

July 4, 1907

TO SEEK HUNTEMANN HEIRS.

Trip to Germany by S. Rosenzweig,

Special Commissioner.

Who are teh Huntemann heirs, and if so, why? That is the question. The public administrator of Jackson county is holding an estate worth $400,000, and he cannot find anybody to whom it belongs. There are about twenty claims on file, some of them worth the price of wrapping paper. The best claim so far developed is from Germany, where the deceased Adolph Huntemann, was born and lived the early years of his life.

So many claims have come from there through the German consulate at St. Louis and through attorneys that the probate court has sent a special commissioner in the person of S. Rosenzweig to Germany to sift out the claims. With the dog days coming and the courts all closed, there was no trouble to get a lawyer to agree to go to Germany, via London, Paris and so forth to look for Huntemann heirs.

Labels: probate, St Louis

May 15, 1907

RIDGE SUIT IS PREPARING.

Contest by Heirs to Be Started in a
Few Days.

Attorney O. H. Dean of Warner, Dean, McLeod, Holden & Timmonds said last night that the children of the late Dr. Isaac M. Ridge, by his first wife, had employed him to contest the will of their father, by which he left all of his estate, excepting $1,500, to his second wife.

"I will bring suit in the circuit court within a very few days," Mr. Dean said. "We will ask that the appointment of T. R. Morrow and Mrs. Margaret D. C. Ridge, as executor and executrix of the estate, be set aside."

Attorney Dean declined to discuss the terms of a will made by Dr. Ridge shortly before his last will. It is understood that the earlier will gave a larger amount of property to the children.

Labels: circuit court, probate

Aprill 12, 1907

FAILED TO SIGN WILL.

And the Grand Avenue Methodist

Church Gets None of His Money.

Through the death of Christian E. Schoellkopf, a wealthy bachelor of Kansas City, the fund of the state university will be enriched $18,954.92. Yesterday John P. Gilday, who was appointed by Public Administrator R. S. Crohn to appraise the property left by Schoellkopf, to determine a just inheritance tax on his estate, reported to the probate court that Schoellkopf's realty holdings amounted to $308,15.11, while his personal property, exclusive of certain United States bonds and other valuable papers, were estimated to be worth $31,035.65.

Mr. Schoellkoopf, at the time of his death, which occurred in a little town in Kansas, where he had gone to look after property interests owned by him, left only two heirs, a brother, Henry Schoellkopf, and a nephew, Henry Schoellkopf, Jr., both residing in Chicago. He had written a will, but according to evidence introduced, he failed to sign it.

The deceased was a warm friend to the Grand Avenue Methodist church during his lifetime, and was one of its liberal financial supporters. It was understood by many of his close bachelor friends that in his will he had planned to bequeath the church something handsome. But it developed that no signed will could be found and the estate was taken in charge by the public administrator, Mr. Crohn, and is to be divided between the two heirs.

Labels: churches, Grand avenue, probate, Public administrator Crohn, universities

March 18, 1907

MANY WANT HIS MONEY.

Claimants to Huntemann's Estate

Coming With a Rush.

Another cavalcade of alleged heirs of Adolph Huntemann swooped down on Public Administrator Crohn, by letter yesterday. They hail from Texas, Wisconsin, Cincinnati and St. Louis. One woman wrote that she was sure she was related to Huntemann and added: "Won't you please furnish the evidence for me." Administrator Crohn said she failed to state where the "evidence" could be found. Mr. Huntemann died March 12, at his handsome residence, 4025 McGee street, and left an estate worth $400,000. So far as known he had no heirs.

Labels: McGee street, probate, Public administrator Crohn, St Louis

March 17, 1907

CLAIMANTS APPEAR.

THREE AFTER THE ESTATE OF

ADOLPH HUNTEMANN.

ONE LIVES IN WISCONSIN.

WRITES TO CHIEF HAYES AND
ALLEGES RELATIONSHIP.
The second is Detective Huntsman, of
Kansas City, Who Says His Family
Name Was Modified --

The Third in Cincinnati.

An heir to the estate of Adolph Huntemann, who died at the General hospital here March 12, leaving an estate valued at $400,000, has turned up. Chief Hayes yesterday received a letter in which was an Associated Press clipping telling of the death of the aged German and stating he had no heirs so far as known here. The letter follows:

Allenville, Wis., March 14, 1907
Gentlemen find inclose a Duplick to refer to. My Father Conrad Eckstein Had a Sister Married to Huntemann in Germany & She was Born in 1819 in April, so if you Find the reckords of his mother berth corspond with this rite me the full dat
yourd Truly,
L. W. ECKSTEIN, Allenville, Wis.

"Mr. Eckstein is not quite clear," said Chief Hayes, "but I take his letter to mean this: Go back to Germany, and if you find that this man's father's sister, Miss Eckstein, and anybody named Huntemann were born about the same time, send the $400,000 to the man in Allenville, Wis."

Adolph Huntemann was born in Hanover, Germany. He came to America in 1843 with his parents and later emigrated to Lawrence, Kas. He and his family lived in Lawrence during the Quantrell raid. Huntemann later moved to Kansas City and bought real estate. He was a frugal man and watched his interests well. The property which he got for practically a song then has increased in value so that at the time of his death the old German was worth nearly half a million dollars. He had about $75,000 in cash in the bank.

It is possible that Huntemann has an heir in Kansas City. John Huntsman, a city detective, is now investigating the records back in Germany before he makes any formal claim. His granfather's name was Peter Huntemann and he was born in Hanover, the same town as was Adolph Huntemann.

Mr. Huntsman says that when his father came to this country he changed the name to Huntsmann and later on, within the last few years, kin fact, Mr. Huntsman himself dropped teh final letter "n" from his name. He did it, he said, because he thought the final letter superfluous and teh spelling of the name was unchanged materially by it. An attorney has the matter in charge for Mr. Huntsman.

CINCINATTI, O., March 16 -- (Special.) Herman Hunteman and his daughter are to lay claim to the estate left by Adolph Huntemann, who died in Kanas City leaving an estate valued at half a million dollars. According to the announcement of death received here Adolph Huntemann left no heirs, but it is claimed that Herman Hunteman is his cousin and that the two men came to this country together fifty years ago from Germany, Herman stopped in this city and Adolph went on west and accumulated a fortune. Herman Hunteman makes his home in Osgood, Ind., but he has a daughter who lives in Avondale, a fashionable suburb of this city. It is said to be their intention to bring action to gain a share of their relative's estate.

Labels: detectives, German hospital, Lawrence, Police Chief Hayes, probate, Quantrell, real estate

March 17, 1907

ANDERSON'S MIND IMPAIRED.

Dr. W. F. Kuhn's Answer to Hypo-
thetical Question 25 Minutes Long

Dr. William F. Kuhn, superintendent of the state asylum for the insane at Farmington, testified yesterday in the Anderson will contest at Independence that Mr. Anderson's mind was impaired, if the facts set forth in the hypothetical question that required twenty-five minutes in the reading, were true. The question was a pocket edition of Mr. Jerome's methods in the Thaw trial. It set out the details of Mr. Anderson's life, expecially his alleged affliction with epilepsy for ten years. Dr. Kuhn declared that senile epilepsy destroyed the reasoning faculties and was incurable. Mr. Anderson is alleged to have been 60 years old when first attacked by the disease. Dr. S. C. Woodson, superintendent of the St. Joseph asylum, will also testify for the defense.

Labels: Independence, probate

March 10, 1907

DOES NOT MENTION THE WIDOW.

Will of Samuel G. Booth, Who

Committed Suicide, Filed.

In the will of Samuel G. Booth, who committed suicide a week ago last Wednesday evening at his home, 2625 Garfield avenue, no mention is made of the widow, Ida Booth, who had instituted proceedings for divorce when Mr. Booth took his own life. The will, which was filed with the probate court yesterday, sets forth that one-half of the entire estate, which amounts to more than $50,000, is to go to a nephew, Leonard Rosco Booth, and the remaining one half to another nephew, Earl Booth, and a niece, Fay Booth, each to share in like amounts.

The will was dated September 4, 1904, a year before he was married, and was drawn up in Valley Fall, Kas., Mr. Booth's former home.

Mrs. Booth, who was twenty-three years younger than her husband, had left him just three days before he committed suicide. She had filed a petition for divorce, and arrangements had been made for Mr. Booth's attorney to take his affidavit for the filing of a cross bill on the day he swallowed carbolic acid at his home, and died just as the attorney entered the house.

Immediately after the death of her husband, Mrs. Booth took charge of the home on Garfield avenue, where she had been living since. Suit of ouster may be instituted against her by the heirs.

Labels: Divorce, Garfield avenue, probate, Suicide

February 20, 1907

JUDGE TEASDALE'S WILL.

All of the Late Jurist's Property

Goes to His Widow.

The will of the late Judge William B. Teasdale, of the circuit court, was filed for probate yesterday. It is very short, written by himself with pen and ink on one sheet of one of his own letterheads. Its date is November 11, two months before he died. The principal clause is as follows:

"I give, bequeath and devise to my wife, Lydia E. Teasdale, all my property, real and personal, to have and own absolutely, knowing that she will take care of our children, Aimee, Marguerite and Bertha."

Labels: circuit court, Judges, probate