The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-01-09
SOME SINGULAR WILLS.
Extraordinary Requests Made in Testa-
mentary Documents.

mentary Documents.
Often quoted is the remarkable will
of Solomon Sanborn of Medford, Mass,
who died about fifteen years ago. Sam
born was great patriot, and especially
gloried in the part Massachusetts took
in the Revolutionary struggle. In his
will he left his body to DR.. Oliver Wen
dell Holmes and Professor Agassiz, not,
however, without imposing some of the
most unheard-of provisions and condi-
tons. His skeleton he desired prepared
in the most artistic manner known to
the profession, and placed with the
many others in the anatomical depart
ment of Harvard College. While pre-
liminary preparations were being made
in CARRYING out this extraordinary re-
quest, he desired the surgeon to be very
careful with the skin, so that 1t could
be tanned in pieces of sufficient size to
make a pair of drumheads. Upon one
of these drumheads the "Declaration of
Independence" was to be written, and
upon the other Pope's Universal
Prayer" Fitted in its proper wooden
frame, this CHASTITY relic was to be pre-
sented to local drummer whom the
testator designates a distinguished
friend" upon condition that he would
promise to carry it to the foot of Bunker
Hill monument on each succeeding an
niversary of the battle, at sunrise, and
h&vSt upon it the invigorating strains Of
Yankee Doodle"
The skeleton of Jeremy Bentham in
the Hospital Museum, London, is there
at the request of it's owner, who made a
special provision in his will to have it
presented to the hospital which, upon
accepting the gift, was to have the
skeleton mounted and put in the presi-
Dental chair at each meeting of the
hospital directors.
DR.. Wagner, an American, is up to, or
even ahead of the English precedent in
the Acknowledgement idea. During his
life his relatives had given him only lit
tie thought. When it came time for
him to die-he had little money, about
S1,000-his brothers became very kind.
After his death, when the will was read,
the following remarkable clause was
disclosed:
To my brother, Napoleon Bonaparte,
| bequeath my left arm and hand; to
George Washington, my second brother,
my right arm and hand; to my other
relatives my legs, nose and ears. My
money, $1,000 cash, now in the bank,
bequeath to the physicians and surgeons
who carry out my request by dismem-
bering my body, and giving to each of
my relatives the portion allotted to him
or her"
Horatio G.. Onderdonk, brother OF
the Bishop of New York, made pro-
visions in his will which would have
turned old Draco green with envy.
Draco was strict, and we'll understood the
meaning of the expression ruling with
a rod of iron," but had Mr.. Onderdonk
lived at the time the old man was pre-
pairing his famous code, he could have
helped to make it more binding. The
last paragraph in the Onderdonk will
read as follows: mo heir must be an
idler, sluggard, profligate, drunkard,
GAMBLER; use liquors or tobacco; GO
s \ldhting or fishing on Sundays; attend
races; enter bar room or porter house,
neglect to rise, breakfast and be ready
for business by nine o'clock, or get mar.
ried before he or she arrives at the age
of twenty-five years. IN. Y. Star.