The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1901-04-11
Mrs. Evans Cut or Husband In
Her Will, Which Is Contested
RELATIVES GIVEN BUT LITTLE.
Bulk Of Estate Valued al Between $4,000
and $4,000 Bsqlsathsd TO Cslorsa Man
whs Was 0ncs Porter.

New York, April n.--George W. Thurs.
ton. colored. Pullman parlor car porter.
Is ths chief beneficiary under tho will oe
Mrs. Eliza Jane Evans. white. confess
over which was brought on before Surro-
sate Fitzgerald yesterday.
After the payment OF the various be-
quests named in the will his share as res-
iduary legatee will amount TO between
$4,000 and $4,000. Mrs. Evans not only
disinherits her husband. Thomas IL
Evans. but to each OF several relatives
she leaves a bequest of only one dollar.
Mrs. Evans. who was forty-seven years
old, executed her will on October %, fs97-
She was a daughter Of William Augustus
Alphonse and Eliza Jane Alphonse ana
died on March is, 1900, leaving an estate
estimated at between $4,000 and 100000
she had been separated from her hus-
band Tor several years. She was short.
never weighed more than ninety pounds
and otter az little as seventy
She leaves $1,000 to Cypress Hills ceme-
terry the Income to be used In the care OF
the family plot. but adds:--"It is my Will
that the remains of Thomas IL Evans
shall not be buried in said plot"
REQUESTS TO CHARITY.
In the name OF her father aT1HN mother
she bequests $1,000 each 10 the Howard
Mission and Home for Little Wanderers
and the Five Points House OF Industry,
$1,000 10 the Home for the Relief OF the
Destitute Blind, and $1,000 each TO the
Methodist Episcopal Chsrch Home and
the New York Society for the Relief OF
the Ruptured and cripples.
To her uncles. Edward Alphonse and
William Ferguson, and to her cousins.
Charles Alphonse, John Alphonse, Henry.
Mary and Katie Hoyt, she leaves one
dollar each.
'In token of my appreciation for his
services to me" she makes a bequest OF
s2oo to Garrit Smith, who had been her
legal adviser. Her entire residuary es-
tate Is bequeathed TO George w. Thurs
ton, who is also appointed executor.
Her husband and several relatives are
contestng the will. through Charles f.
Hughes and Il. j. Esselstyn, Sfleging that
Mrs. Evans was OF unsound mind when
she made the will. and that it's execution
was procured by fraud and undue in
fiuence practiced by Thurston or soma
persons unknown. Blatchford & Sher-
man are Thurstons counsel. Thurston
was I'm court yesterday, and during the
examination OF one of the witnesses tn
the Will by Mr.. Hughes was referred tn
by counsel as "the gentleman OF African
descent"
WAS IN SEVERAL AsYLUMs.
Several witnesses will be called 10 tes-
tify that Mrs. Evans was confined in Diff
ferent asylums on account OF mental
troubles. IL Is said that she made the ac-
quaintance OF Tburston while travelling
on "a car OF which he was in charge and
subsequently showed her affection for
him in various ways.
Some months before she executed her
will she decided almost her entire prom
erty 10 Thurston upon the condition that
he pay the income to her for life, the
principal TO go TO the executor of her
will on her death. He was named as ex-
ecutor.
DR.. f. c. Dent. who is in charse of the
institution on Wards Island testified
that Mrs. Evans was a victim of chronic
delusional insanity and became infat-
uated with one Of the physicians there
George W. Thurston. when seen at his
home, No. lGo East Forty-second street.
said:
Mrs. Evans had no near relatives. and
was cstranged from her distant kin. Her
father was also not on good terms with
the relatives outside OF his immediate
family. and when he died he left all his
money 10 his daughter II il true that
Mrs Evans was once placed I'm the aSy-
lum az Middletown. but Il is twelve years
since she was released and she was af-
terward considered perfectly sane
"I was once I'm Mrs. Evans employ.
Further than mat 7 am not at liberty to
speak ont OF court"
Thurston Is a light colored man. about
forty-two years old. He was emxoyed
as a Pullman car porter from 1893 -
1897. He Is now carpenter