Complex sentence: Recognizing that she was dying, Dorsey rewrote her will in 1878, from which she cut out all her family, bequeathing all her capital and, more importantly, Beauvoir to Jefferson Davis.
Split into simpler sentences: Recognizing that she was dying, Dorsey rewrote her will in 1878. She bequeathed all her capital and, more importantly, Beauvoir to Jefferson Davis.