The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1904-06-09
Final Account of the Estate OF Late
Eli G. RunaIs is Filed for Record
in the County Court
The ESTATE HEAVILY INVOLVED
administrators States That Claims to the
Amount of over $93. 900 Have Been
Filed-No Assets to Meet Them.

Frank A. Runa1s, of the town of
Somers, this morning filed with the
County Court his final account as ad-
ministrator of the estate of Eli G..
Runa1s, deceased, late of the town of
Somers. The final account shows
that the total claims filed against the
estate was more than 500, 651 and the
assets, according to the statement of
the administrator, were not sufficient
to meet the funeral expenses and the
expenses of administering the estate.
The final settlement has been de-
layed for more than thirteen years
while the administrator has been
making an effort to realize on the
assets. Much of the property left by
Mr.. Runa1s was worthless mortgages
and mining stocks, and the admins
traitor in his final statement to the
court, shows that every effort has
been made to realize on these proper
ties and the efforts to realize on them
had been the cause of the expanding
of what little property had been left
as a portion of the estate.
According to the documents in the
case the estate is inso1vent. The
heaviest losers are the estate of r. M.
Whipp1e, of Chicago, whose loss will
be close to $4,000, and Frank g..
Head, whose claim in the estate is
placed at $16,950
The settlement of the estate has
brought out the fact that many of the
bills filed against the estate were
claims for people who had been inter-
ested with Mr.. Runa1s in trades of
years ago, and some of the claims and
the largest ones, came from the fact
that he had endorsed notes to aid
friends in different parts of the coun-
try.
The late Eli G. Runa1s was one of
the most unique characters in south
ern Wisconsin. He was one of the
pioneer residents of the town of Som
ers and was famous throughout the
West as trader. He was for years
the Beau Brumme1 of Southport and
many stories are told of his connec-
ton with the city in the earlier days.
Mr.. Runa1s nearly always wore a silk
hat, long blue swa1lowtai1 coat deco
rated with brass buttons and it made
no difference whether he was going
out for a social call or riding to the
city on load of hay, the silk hat, the
long blue coat and the immaculate
white ruffled shirt were always the
distinguishing part of his attire. He
was the leader of society in South
port for years and had the reputation
of being the best dancer in the county.
Yet with all these social duties Mr..
Runa1s led busy life and he was
famous as a trader. He traded in
lands and stocks and almost any one
could get trade of some kind. He
was at one time rated as one of the
wea1thiest men in the county, but he
lost large sums of money during the
oil specu1ations at Pit Hole, Penn,
and he never fully recovered from
this deal.
He was a man of most distinguished
bearing and of the many interesting
stories told of him during his life was
the one in regard to his visit to Ham
iba1 Missouri. The Bliss Brothers
who afterward were in charge of what
is now the Eichelman Hotel were
then running a hotel at Hannibal
Missouri. 1t was just after the war
and when Mr.. Runa1s stopped at the
hotel at Hannibal, the two Kenosha
boys put up little job on him. They
announced to the men in the lobby Of
the hotel that the distinguished look
ing gentleman was Jeff Davis, the
former President of the Southern
Confederacy and for two days Mr..
Runa1s was ido1ized by the people Of
Hannibal. He never discovered the
joke that had been played on him I'm.
til he returned to Kenosha and re.
ceived paper from Hannibal telling
of the visit of Jefferson Davis to the
city.
The final account in the estate will
be allowed without bubble as SC
much time has passed since the death
Of Mr.. Runa1s that the creditors are
Z not DESTROYS of opening the mattel
again.