The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-11-05
pE rnon IN ESTATE.
How 1t Has Fared in Boston - The
Litie, lion.
Especial Corr spoadence.J


Especial Corr spoadencel
BOSTON, Oct. 20.-Lenjamin Franklin's
will seems likely TO lie brought into the
courts in Philadelphia and Boston after
almost century of freedom from con-
test of any sort. On Sept % a petition
was filed in the orphans court in Phila-
delphia by the heirs Of Benjamin Frank
lin praying that the sum of 5000 now
held by the board of city trusts, and known
as the Franklin fund, ;" be turned over to
them, the ground for the claim being that
the provisions of the will are in violation
of the law, and therefore void. The same
provisions applied to both funds in the
cities of Boston and Philadelphia, giving
the sum of 81 600 to each city. The Bos-
ton fund must have been better managed
than the Philadelphia fund, for it had in
creased up to Feb. l, 1890, to 1868. 741. IL.
1t consists of 1866, 466 "A deposited with the
Massachusetts, Hospital Life Insurance
company; s., $50. 10 deposited in the Suffolk
Savings bank; balance of bonds for leans,
$3.50, and sixty-three cents in cash.
On the Sth instant the heirs, by Ropes,
Gray & Loring, their attorneys, served the
legal notice upon Mayor Hart that they
claim the entire amount (s36S, 741) on the
LIST of February last, and warn him against
disposal of the same. The corporation
counsel is therefore to begin at once his
preparations to defend for the city. As
far as yet appears there are no Franklin
heirs in Boston, though every ward in
Philadelphia contains one or more claim
ants. The Boston fund has been managed
in strict accordance with the terms of the
will, and the amount is now much greater
than that in Philadelphia, which city has
done pretty much as it pleased in the mat
ter.
The Boston fund failed to accumulate as
rapidly as anticipated, and is about $751;
600 short of the amount Franklin esti-
mated, which was about S655,0O0. AS the
time drew nigh when portion of the fund
would be available in some public work
the question Of its utilization became a
subject of consideration, and in 1882 the
board of aldermen passed resolves that
the same should be devoted to the extin-
guishment of the debt incurred for the
purchase of West Roxbury park, the name
Franklin park being afterward adopted
by the park commissioners.
Franklin provided that the fund should
be managed undsr the direction of tie Sc
oldest Episcopalian, Congregational and
Presbyterian churches. At the time the
bequest was received there was no Presby-
terrain church in town, but the selectmen
organized as trustees of the fund, together
with the ministers of ''the Old Brick
church" as the first Congregational one,
and of 'King's chapel" as the first Episco-
palian church. Under the first city char
ter, granted in 1922, the mayor and alder
men became the successors of the select
men and became trustees, though under
the revised city charter the mayor is no
longer a member of the board.
A city document devoted to the origin
and character of the fund states that it is
a singular fact that in the history of the
Franklin fund seven-eighths of the repay
ments of the authorized loans were made
by the sureties and not by the principals,
indicating that good borrowers could do
better elsewhere. In the year 1900 the
treasurer of the fund, Russell Sturgis, re-
ported that there would probably be loss
of yearly $500, owing to the death or failure
of all the parties on three bonds.