The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-12-21
KANSAS
TOWNSHIP.
Is Sued For BY Kansas City
and Hutchinson Parties.
Land Is the Heart of Ell Dorado
and Worth 100000.
Al HOMESTEAD CLAIll.
Taken Up In 1867, Disposed OF
While Owner Was Insane.
Laws Of Kansas Hold Property
SO Decided S Void.
4 HOMESTEAD CLAIM.

Kansas CITY. Dec. ga law suit to
get possession of $50 acres of land i'm the
business center Of the city Of E-l Dorado
Kan. viii be brought this week in the
United States circuit court at Wichita
The suit VIII be begun by D. IL Lower
q salesman in the clothing house 81
Morgan & CO., on Main street in this
his mother and sister. who live in
Hutchinson, Kan, viii join him in the
suit. The land to be sued for is worth
q quarter of q million dollars Inc sun
viii be prosecuted by the law firm OF
Brown Eadley & Swift of this city N
i. Eeitman of this city and Hamilton
& Leydig Of FL Dorado.
FL Dorado has a population OF 5,UUu-
Tt is on the Santa Fe railroad. % miles
northeast from Wichita. In 1866 there
was nothing but the tangled grass of
the open prairie, where the town stands.
i'm THAT year IF. IL. Lower took up
homestead claim Of 100 acres, where the
town is built dUgout and moved his
wife out from PENNSYLVANIA to his home
and in 1868 there was quite settlement
ia that place and that winter religious
revival was held and Love- became
crazed with religious enUhz--asTu. He
imagined that he was inspired by the
Deity to preach the gospel and he used
to go to churches where other ministers
We're preac ming. and eject them f0rcibly
from their pulpit and endeaVor to grow
eloquent in their places Lower became
So violent that i'm the spring of 1865 he
was tried by jury in the probate court
of Butler county and was declared in
sane
He was committed to the state in
sane asylum AT OsaWatomie, but es-
capped within two years and returned to
his home He displayed no violent
symptoms of insanity after his return
but was considered queer until he
died
soon after Lowers return from the
asylum TWO real estate boomers bought
his farm and plated it into Lowers
first ana second additions to the town of
lei Dorado. The Kansas boom was at
its height and the town lots sold rap
idly and the farm became the business
center of El Dorado. The city. hall. the
two leading banks and many business
houses and some of the best houses 0f
the town We're built on it, After 1873
Lower was bankrupt and for years lived
on the charity Of his friends Later his
son. d. Al. Lower, secured a position in
this city and his father came here and
lived with him until he died last Febru-
AIRY
The suit to recover the original farm
land of the elder Lower VIII be based
on the laws of Kansas. and for that
natter every other state. which hold
that after a person has been declared
insane by a court of competent juris-
dicuon, he cannot dispose of his proper
ty tin court has declared him restored
u sanity 1T is a wei settled rule of
law in every state in the Union that q
person is void
Herbert Hadley of the firm of Brown.
Hadley 4 SWIFT, was at FL Dorado last
week collecting evidence to be used at
tAe tflal Of this suit He found that the
records OF the probate court IN Fl+lar
county show that IA pril Is 1865 Henry
Martin. justice of the peace. made
complaint that =. Il. Lower was mad
and insane and unsafe to be at large
and jury SO decided
Several of these jurors are living and
IeInefa Der the trial well and viii testify
that they never thought Lower was
sane afterward- As Lower was never
aQ1udged sane after this verdict was
rendered. his heirs say the law clearly
gives lnem right to recover the proper
ty ne conveyed away