Arizona republican., 1909-06-22

| value or SlUV. vouchers Tiled by the i eXecutriX show that she had paid on ac-
 count of his illness and death and on ac- ! count of a note of $1,000 held by Rob | ert Kickbusch, of Wisconsin, the sum I of $1,43925; that is, she had paid $1,- 33f25 more than the value of the in ventoried estate. The hearing of this will contest will take place some time in September. Messrs. Bullard and
 Lyman are attorneys for the plaintiffs and petitioners. Thomas Armstrong, Jr., has represented Mrs Mary Emma
 McCord in the probate proceedings. It has been said that the facts
 brought out by this suit constitute
 a hidden chapter in the life of Gov
 ernor McCord. It is not meant that
 there was any effort on his part to
 hide that chapter, but that as it was
 not conspicously published in Ari-
 zona it was not generally known
 There are living here a great many
 people who knew him intimately in
 Wisconsin and knew of the divorce
 whose validity, for more than a gen
 eration, had never been questioned.
 His son, Charles J. McCord, and his
 adopted son, 1uy McCord. contributed
 perhaps unintentionally to the gen.
 eral misunderstanding here regarding
 the family relations of the colonel in
 Wisconsin. Guy McCOrd came here
 soon after the colonel became settled
 and took up his residence at the
 McCord ranch. Charles J. came later
 and remained in Phoenix for a year
 or two, acting q part of the time as the private secretary of the gov ernOr, residing at the McCord home.
 It was understood that the then Mrs McCord, described in the com plaint as Sarah Etta McCOrd, was his mother. Few if any of the more intimate friends whose acquaintance with the colonel had been formed in Arizona, ever heard of his earlier marriage.
 Colonel McCord, as is alleged in the complaint was married the first time in 1861. Sometime within the next ten years he formed the acquaintance of his second wife Sarah Etta Me Cord. She was then a school girl at Shawano. He took a deep inter est in her and sent her away to school. On the completion of her education he began proceedings against his wife for a divorce and it is said that she was unaware that there was an action pending until af- ter the decree had been granted Her first knowledge of it was when the colonel exhibited the document to her.
 Colonel McCord then married his second wife and moved to Merrill, Wis. where he engaged in the lumber busi- ness and amassed considerable wealth. At one time it was estimated he was worth a quarter of a million dollars. All this time he was buying and sell ing property, his second wife joining him in all conveyances, until now there are hundreds of people in Wisconsin i'olding property under deeds executed ny Myron H. McC,ord and Sarah Etta McCord. During all this time no word of protest came from the first wife and not a word was heard until last | June when action was begun in the | courts of Wisconsin to establish her | status.
 This case promises to be one of the | greatest interest. What the defense l will be has not been indicated. The | decision of the Wisconsin court in l favor of the first wife has never been | further contested and it may be that | in the present case there will be a | more vigorous defense of the validity | of that forty year old divorce
 Or. it may be admitted that the di- l vorce was invalid but that the first | wife was guilty of laches and it may | be -contended that she indulged in a l fatal sleep on her rights until a mil | titude of other rights had intervened | tion.
 After Colonel McCord became | wealthy he went to congress serving | two terms and becoming a bosom | friend of President Mckinley. then a from ohio. He won the | lasting gratitude of Mir. Mckinley by | his candidacy for the | speakership against Thomas B. Reed. 1 Among the earliest appointments of | President Mckinley was that of Myron IF. McCOrd to be governor of Arizona, and he stayed with that appointment | against opposition in the senate, until | he practically forced a confirmation | of it. Colonel McCord resigned from | the governorship a year later to be- come colonel of the first volunteer territorial infantry in the war with Spain. Later he was appointed United States marshal for Arizona and still later collector of customs at Nogales In that post he died.
 Sarah Etta McCord died about five years ago and a year later. the colonel married Emma Winslow, who had long been friend of the family.
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