To the Honorable,
the Probate Court of Hancock County, Ohio:
Your Petitioners,
Matthew R. McMichael
and Mary Ellen
McMichael his wife of said
Matthew R. McMichael
now comes and shows to the court
here that
John Elder, who died on or about the
twenty third day
of March AD 1858 at his residence
in Deleware
township Hancock county, Ohio,
was in his lifetime
a man of fair property. That when
he died as
aforesaid he was seized of the following
personal property,
to wit: One brown mare worth $100,
one bay mare worth
$100, one bay mare worth $80, six
cows worth $100,
eleven steers and heifers $80, seventeen
sheep worth $34,
sixty three dollars hogs worth $136, Turkeys
geese and chickens
worth $15, one hive of bees $3, one hundred
and fifty bushels
of wheat $190, eighteen acres of wheat
in the ground $72,
two hundred and fifty bushels of corn
$62, one hundred
bushels of oats $20, twenty five bushels
of potatoes $3,
one set of double harness $12, one saddle
$5, one side saddle
$14, one wagon $4000, two sleds $5, four
plows $8, one harrow,
double trees & single trees $5, axes and hoes
$4, one grind stone
$1, one iron kettle $3, one brass kettle $15,
one corn sheller
$8, one wind mill $2, one grain cradle
$3, two mowing
scythes $2, one scoop shovel and half bushel
measure $1, rakes,
forks etc $1, seven sickles $200, five barrels
of flour $20, six
hundred pounds of pork $36, one hundred
pounds of beef
$6, twelve flour barrels $3, three packing casks
$3, one cooking
stove (& utensils) $8, one parlor stove $6, two falling leaf tables
$9, six beds and
bedding including a large lot of quilts blankets
etc etc, $120,
one brass clock $5, one bureau $12, one stand $2, fifteen
chairs $6, two
spinning wheels and ### $5, one washing machine
$3, one stand $1,
crockery ware of various kinds $15, cooking
utensils knives
+ forks etc. $3, forty yards of carpeting $15,
one beef hide $5,
one bak bank bill $10, gold $1, one note
on R.
J. Hagerty with a balance thereon of about $25
making in all,
of personal property the sum of thirteen
hundred and fifty
five dollars. This property is
exclusive of the
real estate of said decedant.
Your petitioners
further show that Jane Elder is
the widow of the
said John Elder, dec’d., and that
said Jane
has been appointed administratrix
of the estate of
said decedant. Yours petitioners
pray that the said
Jane Elder, widow, and administratrix
may be made a party
defendant to
this action.
Your petitioners further show that
Mary Ellen McMichael
wife of said Matthew R Mc
Michael, and one
your petitioners, is a daughter and
heir at law of
the said John Elder, dec’d.; that Andrew
of
the state of Missouri
J. Elder
( , Rosanna Ballard, wle wife of Francis Ballard,
of
the state of Indiana
of the state of California
of the state of Indiana
John W. Elder (
, Abner Elder ( , Abraham Elder ( ,
Jeremiah
Elder, James M.
Elder, Aaron F Elder, Sylvester Elder
Robert Elder, Theresa
Elder and Jane Elder are also the children and
heirs at law of
the said John Elder, dec’d.; petitioners also
ask that said children
and heirs, together with said Francis
Ballard be made
parties defendant to this action
Your petitioners
further represent that on the
second day of April
AD1858, the above named Jane
Elder was
appointed administratrix as aforesaid
That on the said
2nd day of April AD 1858 John
Siddall,
John Darrah and Robert Elder were
appointed
appraisers to take an inventory and
make an appraisement
of the estate and property of said
decedant.
That on the 14th day of April AD 1858
the said
John Siddall, John Darrah +Robert
Elder, appraisers,
etc., proceeded to take such inventory
and appraisement
, but instead of doing so honestly
impartially
and according to law, they , or a portion
between themselves and with said Jane Elder
of them, fraudulently
connived ( to cheat and defraud
the your petitioners
as well as the other heirs at law
of said
John Elder, dec’d., and made a
partial
appraisement of
said property and what they did appraise
was put at a much
lower price than its actual cash
value, some of
it much less than half its true value.
Their appraisement
and inventory of said property
not embracing
much more than one half of the
articles belonging
to the said decedant at the time of
his death.
Your petitioners further over that this
was occasioned
either by the failure of the said Jane
Elder, Admin’x.,
to exhibit the property to the
appraisers, or
the neglect and refusal of the said
appraisers
to make an inventory and appraisement
of the
same or the connivance of the said
Jane and
the said appraisers to for the purpose
of giving
the said Jane an undue and illegal portion
of the property
of said decedant as his widow.
Petitioners further
say that they never had any
notice of the time
and place of the meeting of the said
appraisers to take
said inventory and appraisement
as is required
by law. That said appraisement only
amounted to
$330.36/100 when it should have been
about
thirteen hundred and fifty five dollars.
Petitioners further
say that the said appraisers
through and
by said connivance with said Jane
Elder set
off and allowed to the said Jane Elder as
The widow of said
John Elder, dec’d., the sum of
One thousand dollars
in money, all the wheat calling it 100 bushles of
wheat, two hundred
bushels of corn when in fact there
was one hundred
and fifty bushels; all the corn
calling it 200
bushels when in fact there was 250
bushels, all the
oats calling it 75 bushels, when in fact
there was 100 bushels,
all the hay calling it _ of a ton
when in fact there
was a stack of hay at George Earleywine’s
containing
between a ton and a half and two tons
of hay and
also a quantity of hay in the barn, how
much is
unknown to your petitioners, five lambs
two sows and pigs
(and in order to cover up this matter
the number of
the pigs is not stated) ten shoats and
one black
mare. According to the inventory and
appraisement of
said Siddall, Darrah and Elder
the said items
of property amount to only $175 50/100
when in
truth and in fact it amounts to
$337 75/100
$379 75/100.
Thus making according to their statement an
allowance of $1175
50/100 when it is in fact $1379 75/100
for the support
of the widow and three children for one
year.
The widow, as will be seen by reference
to the said
inventory and appraisement which
is on
file in the said probate court, has taken all
the property
at the appraisement amounting
nominally to $330
26/100 when in fact all the property
she got of
which your petitioners have knowledge,
(and there may
be more of which they have no knowledge)
amounts at a low
estimate to $1355 without counting
the allowance made
to her in cash.
Petitioners
further over that the three children in above
mentioned as being
al connected with the year’s allowance
are aged respectively
as follows, to wit: Aaron, aged 13;
Sylvester aged
about 11, and Theresa aged about seven years.
Your petitioners
further over that the personal property
above alluded to
as being appraised by said Siddall
Darrah and Elder
at such an extraordinarily low
rate was so appraised
in order that said Jane Elder
widow and administratrix
might thereby take the
same at the appraisement
in part pay of the $1000
dollars allowed
etc. which allowance + appraisement
were so made
by connivance and fraud by and
between the said
Jane Elder and the said appraisers
or part
of them in order to enable her to defraud your
petitioners as
well as the other heirs at law of said
John Elder dec’d.,
out of their just rights.
Your petitioners
therefore pray that the said inventory +
appraisement
and allowance made by said John Siddall
John Darrah
and Robert Elder be set aside and held
for nought
on account of the fraud and other improper
proceedings in
the premises, that there be other appraisers
appointed and and
a new inventory and appraisement
of the said property
ordered and allowance of a reasonable
and suitable
amount be made and set off to said widow,
and for
such other and further relief as may be
necessary and proper.
Gribben & Mungen,
Pltffs Attys
William Gribben
William Mungen