The morning call., 1893-11-04
HOW SHE LOST A FORTUNE.
Her Husband Deserted Her Sew
eral Years Ago.
AFTER HER MONEY WAS GONE,
The Niece of the Late Leland STAN
ford Seeks Now to Save
Her Legacy.


Cunning, niece of the late Senator Le-
land Stanford of California. and corrob-
orative affidavits, together with the state
ment of her counsel made in the Supreme
Court chambers to-day, developed one of
the most remarkable cases of cruelty on
record.
Judgment on one of the notes for S5000
obtained from her by her husband, led to
to-day's proceedings. Lawyer Joseph B.
Barcus appeared for Mrs. Cunning and
moved that the Judgment secured in Con-
necticut by the Lincoln National Bank Of
this city oD January 2. 1889, and also at
Saratoga on February 6. 1891, be set aside.
Barcus argued that the judgment could
not be collected, as all Mrs. Cummings S
money was gone.
Supplemental proceedings in the suit
were subsequently brought to recover on
the note, and Walter F. Butler was ap-
pointed receiver of Mrs. Cummings prop
erty.
1t is to prevent the receiver getting at
the legacy of S1OO, 900 left by Leland STAN
ford, her uncle. that Lawyer Barcus moved
that the judgments be set aside in order
TO allow his client 10 come In and defend
the suit.
Her defense Is the note was obtained
while she was under duress, and that the
bank had been notified before the note in
question was given that notes were being
obtained from her by force.
Mrs. Cunning recites numerous acts OF
cruelty on the part of her husband now
dead that makes him appear in most un-
enviable light. Cunning ran away from
| his wife and creditors in November. 1888.
with $4,000 of her money. after squander-
ing her fortune of S25O.0O0.
He was lost in a snowstorm in the'Andes
Mountains in May, 1889. Mrs. Cunning s
| affidavit stated that four weeks after her
marriage with Cunning he began threaten
| ing her and despoilng her of her property.
He made her an inmate of au insane
! asylum for six weeks, in Hartford. Conn,
| and Mrs. Cunning relates that on one oc-
casioD. when he wanted her to sign note,
| her husband presented revolver at her
head.
| At another time he checked her until she
| tainted. and then he knocked her down
and injured her spine. To save her life
| she signed notes in those instances. On
still another occasion when she protested
against signing any more notes,
Cunning Knocked her down and grab.
bing her hands bent the fingers back until
the flesh was torn.
In October. 1887 Mrs. Cunning says her
| husband leased the farm of his broth er
near Norwalk, Conn.,, and stocked it with
| thoroughbred horses and called it "The
| Scientific Stock Farm."
| He added 500 acres to it and sunk $780,
600 of her money in it. On October %,
1885, he told her he wanted her to sign
more notes, and when she refused be
threatened 10 put her in an insane asylum.
BE took her to the Chemical National
Bank, and she there signed several notes,
including the one that figured in the suit
| against her.
| Mrs. Cunning says she notified William
| T. Cornell, cashier of the Lincoln Ma
| tional Bank. of the duress she was under,
and that she would not be responsible for
| notes thus extorted from her.
Mrs. Cunning secured separation from
her hus ba nd in Connecticut in February,
| 1885,
Ex-Judge Noah Davis and Lawyer Ger
Der, in opposing the motion, submitted
affidavit of William T. Cornell, in which
he denied that Mrs. Cunning notified him
that she had signed note or any notes
| while under duress.
1t was shown that the bank had dis
counted many notes of the couple previous
| to the one involved in the suit and the
| officers of the Lincoln National Bank de-
| MED hat they had any knowledge of the
| Quarrels of the Cummings.