The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1905-07-14

flowed, and a civil suit by Miss Dem
lin Barbour county, for breach O
marriage promise, with the aggrava'
Etion Of seduction, ensued. Two
| great and heated trials were had IN
fhat county before Hon. Joseph y
lHoke, Judge. One in 1889, with !
| verdict and Judgment on the 22nd
| day Of July, against Pickens, fol
| s1O,O00.oO damages and $64G.77
costs.
This Judgment, for a technical er:
Tor against Pickens during the trial,
| in that, against his objection the
plaintiff was permitted to prove that
since the institution of the suit, he
HAD become married, was reversed by
| the Supreme Court, in an opinion
delivered by Judge Daniel B. Lu-
| cas- !. and at the second trial, in 1892,
another verdict and Judgment on the
97th day Of February, 1892, for
| $9,00O.0O damages, and $971.34
costs, was entered. To this judg-
ment the Supreme Court, upon tho
application of Pickens, refused a
writ of error and supersedeas.
AT the first Of these trials, Pick
ems did not appear. at the second
one, he did, admitted access, but de-
|nied the marriage promise. Execu-
| ton upon this last Judgment was re
turned unsatisfed. Meantime, Pick
ems, probably anticipating the re-
suit Of the suit for breach Of prone
|isc of marriage against him, had con-
|yeSed, by deed to John j. Davis and
Aston G. Dayton, trustees, dated
january 18th, 1889, all of his land
TO secure about $4,500.o0 of valid
debts. and then about $7,5o0.00 OF
recited debts to his sister. Mrs. Bor-
ling, his mother, Ann NJ. PiclSens.
and to his fathers estate. All Of
these latter debts, except 50, 10000
to his mother, which itself the court
declared to slook suspicious the
Supreme Court afterwards. in the
Chancery cause of Miss Dent against
Pickens and others, brought for the
purpose declared fraudulent, as to
the Plaintiffs debt,
Mr.. Davis, the well known attor-
ney of Clarksburg, and Mr.. Dayton!
Of Philippi, now Judge Dayton, of
| the District Court Of the United
States for the Northern District 81
West Virginia, the trustees in said
trust, had been, with Mr.. John Bus
sci. the distinguished trial lawyer Of
Clarksburg, the attorneys for Pick
ems in the breach of promise suit,
and were also his attorneys in the
Chancery suit.
" These circumstances particularly
Tthe two fifst-named attorneys being
both counsel and trustee for Pick
ems. were doubtless imputed to the
benefciaries under the trust as no.
tice Of Pickens' alleged fraudulent
purpose. in the execution Of tie
trust, to cheat the plaintiff.
Plaintiffs first or original bill wqs
fled before Judgment to set this
trust aside. On May 10th, 1889,
Pickens and one Miss Minnie Co
burn, who had been. neighbor Of
the Pickens, and was a daughter Of
Hon. M. W. Coburn, a former State
Senator from Barbour county, and
afterwards, a citizen and member Of
the Legislature Of Kansas, and one
| of its Commissioners to the Worlds
Fair in Chicago in 1898, mutually
entered into an ante nuptial contract
lin the State of Kansas, which was
recorded in Barbour. county at IL
O'Clock meridian, on the 18th day
of May, 1889. This contract IL
consideration Of the marriage prom.
lise of Miss Coburn, transferred Il
lher the residuum Of Pickens who'll
estate, real and personal, setting oui
the latter fully as to persons anc
amounts, aggregating about SO ,60l
Iof debts due from his brothers and
sisters, his nephew, said Albert S