Mexico weekly ledger., 1878-07-18

TWO COMPANIES.
There has never been in this coun-
try, probably, contested claim of
life insurance over which more pub
lie sympathy has been expressed than
in that made by Mrs. Walburga Wack-
erie, who has travelled from one end
of the country to the Other, always
spreading before the people and in
newspapers, the story of her husbands
death and the wrong inflicted upon
her by the non-payment of her insur-
ance claims. In every state the press
has taken it up and defended it
and sharply criticised the Etne Life
Insurance company of this city, whose
course throughout has been fully war
ranted by the facts of the case though
! f,--ss.r'~~ss ~ s's>,- - l.
the papers who have given a willing
ear to her recital. There has never
been at any time an unwillingness to
settle the loss if satisfactory proofs
Of Wackerle's death were furnished.
No technical resistance has been
made, the whole question at issue be-
ing one { f fact, whether the man was
actually dead, as claimed. A history
of the case is to certain point in
cluded in the following statement:
In April 1867, William Wackerle
insured in the Etna company for
$50, 900, and paid two annual prem
iums. This policy lapsed in 1869,
and a new policy was issued instead,
for the same amount. Wackerle,
when first insured, was residing at
Milwaukee, Wis. Soon after the
issue of the latter policy he left his
family and was next heard from in
California. Mrs. Wackerle went to
him and they returned to Quincy,
Ill. Having resided there a short
time, Wackerle again left his home,
and it was supposed by his wife, went
south. Mrs. w. went to st. Louis
in pursuit Of him, and from there
to Texas, where she believed he had
gone. Al Shreveport, La, she got
information, she said, that the year
previous, a man had been killed on
the Texas and Pacific railroad, by be-
ing run over by train of cars, nine
miles from that city. Assuming that
1t was her husband, she set herself at
work to procure evidence to that ef-
feet. She was furnished blanks in
dicatlng what was necessary to es-
tablish his identity and death. In
February, 1874, she visited Hartford
with the "proots of death" They
were found to be incomplete and un-
satisfactory, and an investigation
seemed necessary. Two affidavits
were furnished identifying the party
killed as Wackerle: but they were
found to have been maGe ant
colored freedmen. In one, the party
is made to say that on the 25th of
December, 1872, man by the name
of Wackerle, we'll known to the depo-
nent, having worked with him ON Sec
tion 2 of the Texas & Pacific railroad,
was killed by being run over by the
freight train" y "And fur
ther, that he saw said Wackerle after
his death, and knows him to have
been the same person whom he knew
by that name" When inquiry was
made of this party, he said under oath
that he was not present at the time of
killing of the man on the railroad near
Shreveport, on the 25ts of December,
that he did not see the man after his
death, and denies the affidavit as fur
nished by Mrs. Wackerle. The other
freedmen made affidavit in proofs fur
nished by Mrs. Wackerle. ''That on
the 25th of December, 1872, one Will
liam Wackerle, a laborer on the Texas
& Pacific railroad, was killed at a
place about nine miles west of the
city of Shreveport, by being run over
by a train of the Texas & Pacific rail-
way company; that he was present
and saw said Wiliiara Wackerle, de-
ceased, when his body was sent to
Shreveport, La, for eoroper's inquest