The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-01-06
BIG SUMAT STAKE
Contest Over the Fortune of
Edward Blackmore.
Widow Contests Right of Pref
ty Niece to $4,000.
READS LIKE NOVEL.
Miss Emma Blaekmore, Defend
ant, Worked as a Printer.
Taken Up by Uncle and Made
His HOusekeepef.
READS LIKE NOVEL.

Miss Emma Blackmore a pretty
typesetter of Duquoin. Ill. has been
made the defendant in a suit brought
by her aunt. the widow of Edward
BIackmore of Decatur county. Kan,
to recover $4,000 to which Miss
Blackmore fell heir at the death of
her uncle. All of the dispositions
Sharftt clerk of the circuit court Of
the United States at the federal build
ing and as soon as a. master is APP
pointed and his report can be made
out it will be taken up in the circuit
court
The case is of unusual interest and
has attracted the attention of a num-
Der of courts over the country on ac-
count of the facts of the case and the
great ingenuity of the chief witness
Miss Emma Blackmore who is a girl
of appealing beauty and who has
foiled the courts of California in their
attempts to make her give out in
formation that was unnecessary for
the complete trial and especially was
her refusal a significance of briIIiancy
when she dared them to lock her in
prison.
The story of the case runs like
novel; Miss Emma Blackmore was
left an orphan back in Illinois when
she was but eight years old. and she
stopped school immediately and en-
tered a small country newspaper print
ShOD where she commenced to learn
the tedious hard work of setting type
For eight long years she worked at
this trade and at the same case and
in the same shop. She was a beau
tiful child and when she developed
into girlhood and womanhood her
beauty grew with the years. But
although she did not have parents
she still had pride and self control
and her reputation was always of the
highest order. Her father was
= a--I hi of he rsf
type and her mother was never
thought of except as a poor working
woman, but Miss Emma rose and
soon became the most prominent
active interest in the church and was
at the head of several church So
cieties.
At the age of eighteen she became
well acquainted with her uncle. Ed
ward Blackmore a brother of her faith
er who was always interested in the
little girl and who had promised that
he would take care of her the rest OF
her life Edward BIackmore was a
man of means but he had been I'M
fortunate enough to marry a woman
who had been married before and the
result was that his reception at home
was a continual round of unhappiness
and he Ionged for the company of his
niece who was still working away In
the little print shop in Illinois. Mr..
BIackmore soon had his pretty, niece
visit him at their home in Crete. Ne
braska and from the testimony of Mrs.
BIackmore. the wife and widow of the
uncle the girl was a bother and
trouble maker for herself and husband
She said that Emma would carry gos-
sip between the neighbors and would
fiirt with the town boys making a dis.
gushing appearance. But this was
strenuously denied by all who knew the
girl
Then the BlackInores moved to Kan
sas in Decatur county. Here the girl
visited them again and again and still
the gap between the. old couple grew
wider and wider Then Edward Black
more went to Hot Springs, Arkansas,
for his health and while there wrote
letters to Miss Emma BIackmore ask
ing her to go to California and fix up a
little cottage for him on the coast in
order that they might live there until
he could regain his health. She follow
ed out his Instructions at once and on
April II, 1908. she left for California.