The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-17
CONTESTED WILLS = TIE JUMEL
ESTATE.

From the ~ Y. Herald.
''There are names not born TO die." 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 immor-
tality of name is predicted or even dreamed
of. No one in the lifetime of the ancient
lady of Washington ights-Madame Jumel
or during her long years of isolation from
the active world around her, would have ever
supposed 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 mot born to die" is, in fact, becoming
more and more apparent-at all events as far
as suits and actions, and proceedingsin courts
before judges, lawyers, and juries, testimony
of witnesses, oral and 6ene 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
exemplified every day. 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 itigations instigated by dis
appointments, by envy and heartburnings
among the living, who clamor aud wrangle
over the moneys and properties left by de-
ceased persons Like carrion birds, relations
never perhaps heard Of, or whose consan-
guinity with the deceased 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 been left behind.
Then commences the unnatural conflict
over the dead mans bones From
that moment nothing in the life or antece-
dents of the deceased is sacred. Truly, in
deed, 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 man
hood 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
a rancor and hate which envy in the good for
tune 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 tribunal
1t were needless here to enumerate even
few of the many contested will cases that
have been lately tried, while others are CON-
ing up every Gay Detore the courts, present
ing the spectacle not only of distant relatives,
but of mother and daughter, brother and Sis
ter, 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 dis
tinct and separately contested claims against
the Jumel estate. One cause, opened on Fri
day last in the United States Circuit Court,
before Judge Woodruff, is prosecuted by one
Champlain Bowen, a nonresident 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 prose.
cuted by one George Washington Bowen, no
relative whatever of the other claimants of
the same name, who claims to be the illegiti-
mate 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 vast
amount of testimony to be submitted, but
which has been principally taken by commits
sion in different parts of the country, as we'll
as q great amount of random swearing to
make the genealogical tree complete. The
Madame Jumel will case must certainly rank
among the causes ceLebres of our civil courts