The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-04-15

Contested wilIs-Ths JumeI Estate.
''There are names not born to de-" There
are but few names, however, that have yet
come within the application Of the words
quoted above. Singularly enough, it is not in
the lifetime of any one that such Immortality
Of name is predicted or even dreamed Of No
one in the lifetime of the ancient lady of
Washington Heights-Madame Jumel-or
during her long years of isolation from the
active world around her, would have ever sup
posed that, after she had passed away to the
silent tomb, her name, so long forgotten,
would become as famous as that of Anneke
JAMS, which has long passed into history.
That the name of Madame Jumel Is one Of
those ''not born to die" is, in fact, becoming
more and more apparent-at all events as far as
suits and actions, and proceedings in courts
before judges, lawyers and juries, testimony
Of witnesses, oral and be,se esse, and records of
pedigree can make it,
The accumulation of money during life must
certainly be one of those evils which men do
which live after them; for we see it ex-
empliied every day. The greater the amount
of the accumulation the greater the evil and
temptation the deceased bequeath to those
whom they leave behind. The courts of this
city and of the country at large are full Of suits
and litigations instigated by disappointments,
by envy and heartburnings among the living,
who clamor and wrangle over the moneys and
properties left by deceased pers6fs Like
carrion birds, relations never perhaps heard
of, or whose consanguinity with the de-
ceased had been long tacitly or mutually
forgotten or ignored, and who perhaps
when known to each other lived in enmity,
assemble from all quarters Of the compass
when they ascertain that wealth and lands,
the fruit of successful toll and industry, have
tural conflict over the dead mans bones. From
that moment nothing in the life or antecedents
of the deceased Is sacred. Truly, indeed saith
the poet, "The evil that men do lives after
them" Respect alike for the dead and living
is cast aside like a garment. The latter are
content to take shame and disgrace as part of
the portion they thirst after. No act Of the
deceased, in his youth, in his manhood or
in his old age, has the charity of silence
thrown around it, however calculated such
may be to bring blush of shame to the
cheeks Of the survivors. All is exposed
with rancor and hate which envy in
the good fortune of rival engenders in small
minds, and the Recording Angel himself would
probably find some act upon which he chad
dropped a tear and blotted it out forever"
made as red as scarlet before an earthly tr-
bunal.
few Of the many contested will cases that
have been lately tried, while others are CON-
ing up every day before the courts, presenting
the spectacle not only Of distant relatives, but
of mother and daughter, biAsther and sister,
wife and children, engaged in unnatural
conflict over wills and testaments.
The great Madame Jumel will case, after
years of contest in the various courts,
is again revived AT present there are
two distinct and separately contested
claims against the Jumel estate. One
cause, opened yesterday in the United States
Circuit Court, before Judge Woodruff, is pro-
secuted by one Caamplain Bowen, non-resi-
dent of the State, who claims to be one of
the grand nephews of the late Madame Jumel.
A like case, pending in the Supreme Court,
is prosecuted by one George Washington
Bowen, no relative whatever of the other
claimants of the same name, who claims to
be the illegitimate son of Madame Jumel, and
who is now seventy-seven years of age.
The question involved as to the claimants is
one entirely Of pedigree, requiring a vast
amount of testimony to be submitted, but
which has been principally taken by commits
sion in different parts of the country, as well
as great amount of random swearing to make
the genealogical tree complete. The Madame
Jumel will case must certainly rank among
the causes ceIebres of our civil courts.