Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1866-05-03
Misretrat,,l.
The Jumel VIII Case,

An Interesting BIZ Of Doaesttc History Of aaron
Burr's Fmls-Oid lsrdnddls Rsptred- The
Trial Postponed Until Hay. -a
On the heights Of the west bank of
the Harlem river, near New York City,
stands fine old mansion, dating back
long before the days of the Revolution :;
a house in which Washington, Layfay-
ette and their contemporaries wrote
their dispatches, during that dark Pc
riod when the British landed and occu-
pied the city a house from which one
may now overlook the steeples of this
busy town, the pleasant hills of West.
chester, and the distant waters of the
Sound.
In this picturesque spot lived, since
1903 or 1904, Nine. Jumel, whose
evcntful story, could it be written,
might be more interesting than any ro-
nance. An obscure but beautiful Yam
kce girl, she had come to be the wife
of the rich Jumel, a Frenchman driven
away from st. Domingo during its hor-
rors. Full of ambition and talent, she
did and dared many things which set
the tongues of the cnvious and the Gu
rious a wagging, and made her as fa-
nous and as brilliant as any woman
of her time. One of the episodes of
her late career was her marriage with
Aaron Burr, which was soon termina-
ted by separation, but which identi-
fled her with one of the most remarka-
Ll RI I1n L.,
marriage to a. French gentleman and
rich one, she came to know Louis
Philippe, Tallcyrand and all the rest of
those remarkable men who had refuge
in this country from time to time, and
when aiterward she visited France,
with her husband, she had access to
the Court circle, which then few Ameri-
cans ever entered, and where she made
her mark For time she was star
among the beauties Of the Court, and
if to be cnvied, is to be happy, then
Nine. Jumel was, as happy as mortal
woman well could be. But for the
past fifteen years she has been grow
ing very old, and has spent her time in
the retiracy of her own home, with few
inmates, and with little intercourse
with the worId---her companions and
friends being her niece and adopted
daughter and her children. There one
of them was married by the agency
and consent of the madame. The lam
ded estate she received from Jumel she
had held ON to with tenacious grasp, |
until in the progress of time ii had be-
come property of immense value
some estimated il at million of dol |
lars.
But now it has been fought over, |
and out of it is to come the great
Jumcl will case in which will be ar
rayed some of the most distinguished |
lawyers of the New York bar.
1t appears that in her old age, when !
past ninety, Nine. Jumel made a new
will, cutting off her relatives and adop- |
ted child and her children, giving her
entire property to various public chari- /.
ties, with the single exception Of her
pastor, who was to have all equal
share with the other devisees. These |
relatives and heirs who have lived /
with her some forty years, naturally
do not respect this paper, aud they
claim that she had became incompe-
tent to make legal will They are
inclined TO charge undue influences, |
and they demand that this paper be
set aside as null and void, so that they
may enter in aud enjoy the good things
which they think they had good and
reasonable right to expect.
On the other hand, the devisees take
quite the opposite view--they think no
woman was in better frame of mind
than Nine. Jumel, and that very judi
cious beqnests made to them cutitle
her sanity to the greatest respect.
They claim, too, that Nine. Jumel's
relatives are no relatives at all, and
have no right to any part of her prop
erty, and that it is altogether wrong
and improper to set up the claims they
do. Here the issue is joined, and on
Monday morning the respective forces
were marshallcd in presence of the
Judge of the First Division of the Su-
preme Court---Mr. O'Conor and Judge
Pierpont for the relatives, Mr.. Austus
Smith and Mr.. Stoughton for the will
The presence of room filled with the
legal profession, testified to the inter
est the case was exciting but short
contest on the part of the devisees of
the will to have the case postponed, OH
the part of their opponents to have it
60 to immediate trial, resulted in its
postponement to the May term, when
it is entitled to preference over all 9th
er cases We shall then look for curl
Gus and interesting developments.