Connecticut western news., 1875-10-22
A STRANGE WILL CASE.
A Wealthy Citizen of Michigan and ! - Peculiarlties-Contes n Will.

A Wealthy Citizen of Michigan and hi | @ Peculiarities-Contesti Will.
 The will of the late Captain Fiber B 1 Ward, of Michigan, now before tn, probate court in Detroit, presents som, unique features, and is attracting the at tention not only of the legal profession l but of all classes of the community | Capt. Ward left an estate roughly esti mated to be worth $5, GOO, GOO. He hat been, twice married. From his frs
 wife. who had become. a paralytic, ht was divorced, and within sixty dayl thereafter he was married again. The first wife soon after died, leaving @ fam
 lily of five children. of whom all but ont are of age. By his second wife he hao children, who are yet under age.
 The strange feature of the will is that the infant children are left to the guar
 dianship of their mother, and to then and their mother the bulk of the great estate was devised, while to his other family he gave only some heavily incum. bered property, out of which it was al first thought not more than $20O, ,0O( would be realized but there is now 6 better prospect. This property was not given to them outright; but put into the hands of trustees or executors and by a eodicil to the will, executed on the 25th day. of August, he directed tha
 these executorsshould pay to each of the 1 children by his first wife sum not ex- ceeding $2O0 a month for their support out of the income of the estate, except in case of sickness, when the sum may be increased at the discretion of the exc cutors. The executors may make the payments quarterly or monthly, but in no case anticipate any payment. It is this codicil of the will, witch makes the older children perpetual pensioners, that is most obnoxious. aeI "f
 The main reliance of the petitioners to have the will set aside is founded l upon the claim that in the making of it MT. Ward was unduly influenced by the delusions of Spiritualism. It is asserted that until Captain Ward became a believer in Spiritualism he believed 1 not in God, nor Providence, nor inspira- l ton, and that he became a convert to 1 Spiritualism as Q relief from the oppres. sive expectation of annihilation. When he had accepted Spiritualism as 8 re- ality he became fanatical on the subject, and to certain degree insane. He con. sultedg mediums on all important con cerns of business, and submitted to what he imagined were the directions of the spirits He had withdrawn from aR i'm portant lawsuit in obedience to the spir- it's. He taunted one of his sons so in. tolerably on account of something he said the spirits had communicated to him, that the young man committed sui eide with laudanum. He hired mediums to do the naturalization business, and fancied he saw materialized spirit hands and faces. 4 ..g .HA8 rsg& 20. In support of the theory that his sub, jection to spiritualistic influences was a case of insanity, strange record oi family tendency to mental disease ispro. duced. His grandfather, David Ward, died insane at the age of sixty-one. Oi David Wards children, four were insane or left insane descendants. Captain Wards father was not absolutely insane, but perverse, high-tempered, and the victim of fanciful delusions. One of his sisters in fit of insanity killed her in- fant and herself, Of Captain Ward s children, one is unable to take care of herself, one is at times dangerously in- sane, and another, who was weak minded, committed suicide.l' Captain Ward himself had had two attacks of apoplexy before the one which caused death, and it is represented that these affected his mind, if not to the extent to incapacitate him for business, yet so as to make him more easily deluded by im- position. 5--e,' -. ..,,5 9
 The representations made by counsel as to the influences under which the will was made are strange enough. Shortly after Senator Towards death, Captain Ward visited medium who put him ill communication with hesenator's spirit,
 by which he was informed that sudden death would soon come upon him, and
 warned him to set his house in order. Thus admonished he made the will, which was witnessed but afterward consulted Mrs. Kane, who gave him communica- tions that were framed into another will, which does not appear to have been executed. Early in 1874 he went to New York and consulted other spirits, and tho will now in controversy was
 drawn up substantially according to their supposed directions. aE..s.. T
 Counsel intimated that if the jury did
 not reject the will on these facts he should ask it's rejection on another ground-namely, that Captain Ward had been unduly influenced by his young and attractive wife and her rela- tives in the disposition of his property.
 The progress of the case will be watched
 with much interest, not only by those who know, the parties and have per sonal interest in the result, but by 8 much larger number who will be curi- ous to know how these points touching Spiritualists will be decided. At the last reports, medium having been call ed IS witness, his evidence was object ed to as irrelevant, and the lawyers were arguing the point at length.