Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1878-11-21
A ROMANTIC STORY.
Avery Interesting Law. Spit.

4 $500 AAC0sAA-0 t~--sISy
4 case that is quite familiafto the
lawyers Of Fsyette and Allegheny coun-
ties will be on trial NEXT week in the
United States Court. Thestory involv-
ed in it Is in itself quite romantic and
interesting, showing how wealthy and
numerous family have sttheir money;
and have been scattered 20 the four
winds. s.J a-4s.g
Fifty years ago QS2s) there lived in
Brownsville, Pa, thrifty old fellow
named Joseph Thornton. He was the
richest man in all that country. He
could have said with that imprisoned
lord in the nursery rhyme, Owe got
houses, and I've got lands, and half
Northumberland belongs to me" He
was descendant and part of the same
stock of English Thornton's as Sir Ed
ward Thornton, the British Minister at
Washington. One of his sons The had
several),|J. n. H. Thornton, or Nelse
Thornton, as he WAS always familiarity
known, was wild and Maynard. Hand
some and bright, he loved company, and
spent his money freely. The father was
indulgent t0him in the extreme, gave
gave him all the money he wanted to
spend, and Nelse lived the life of gay
lothario, unchecked by any OF the con-
ventionalities of that neighborhood.
As was to be expected, his life, so fast,
came sooner to an end than the less
rapid.
Dying he left a motherless child,
which the kind old man, his father, took
to the homestead and nurtured. She
was the daughter of a noted beauty and
grew up with all the personal charms
and gay spirits of Nelse and the mother.
She twined herself around the old mans
heart and when he died he provided for
her in his will. He gave her one OF the
best farms he owned, tract OF three
hundred acres OF land adjoining Browns
vile, and provided that If she died be-
fore she was twenty-one, and left no
children, that the farm was to 60 to the
other heirs.
Ii she died ''under twenty-one with
out issue then living" was the language
OF the will. The old gentleman died in
1889. The girl, Eliza Ann, married
man of some note in that neighborhoOd
John $. krepps, and died in January,
1857, without leaving issue. After her
death, suit was brought by the execu-
tors of the Thornton estate, to recover
the farm, and it was held by the court
that krepps, the husband of the girl,
was entitled to a life estate in the farm.
In 1868 krepps, the husband, sold his
life estate to William BrittOn, and in
1874 Krepps died.
After the death of krepps, suit was
brought by Russell Thornton, of Pitts
burgh, who is now the sole survivor of
that large family (being the grandson of
the original Joseph Thornton,) against
William BrittOn for the land, Russell
Thornton recovered the land in 1873.
The question on trial WAS whether the
girl, Eliza Ann, had reached the age OF
twenty-one at the time OF her death.
The plaintiff Thornton, claimed that she
was born in February, 1886, and the de-
PENDANTS, that she was born in 1885. The
jury in Fayette county found Tor the
plaintiff, Thornton, and the court en-
tered judgment on thar verdict. This
judgment was confirmed by the Supreme
Court. The case had been fought
through all the State courts by q. w. h.
Minor and Chas. f.. Boyle ior the Thorn
tons,
The Brtton title was then transferred
to Geo. \. Wilson, of Ohio, and the
whole proceeding is now thrown before
the United States Court, because citi-
zen OF another State is interested. Judge
Stowe held Court in Fayette county
during the taial of the cause there.
The whole case has turned on the two
points, viz: Did she die before she was
twenty-one and did she have living
issue at the time of her death. The diff
ferent dates contended for by the par
ties as the day OF her birth would settle
it either way and change the whole
course OF the estate. She had a child |
but it died shortly after it was born.
MIR. Minor and Chas. +. Boyle appear
for the Thorntons, and Daniel Kane,
Judge Sterrett and George Shiras for !
the Ohio parties. |