The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1925-10-15
BROOTEN WOMAN
SHARES IN BIG ESTATE
WAR BRIDE CLAIMS WILL OF
CHICAGO MILLIONAIRE
LEAVEV HER $25O,OOO
SAVED THE MANS LIFE
NOTE WRITTEN WHILE MAN
WAS ILL WITNESSED BY -
RED CROSS NURSE
Minneapolis Tribune, Thursday
Oct. 18TH

Minneapolis Tribune, Thursday
Oct. 15th.)
. Mrs. Leo Rengel, English war bride
of Minnesota We eran, Wednesday
entered the lists of claimants in the
litigation involving the SS.00O,00O
estate of Edwin B. Jennings, wealthy
Chicago recluse.
In a letter to the "judge of the cir
cult, court" Chicago, Mrs. Rengel.
wife of Brooten, Mimi, rural mail
carrier, related her rescue o. an Ell
DERBY man "from positive death by
pushing him from in front of an on
coming laundry truck" in Chicago,
threo days after she landed in the
United States TO join her husband.
Following the re, cue, Ms. Rcngel
wrote, the man gave her soiled bit
of paper on viii II he had Written:
81, Edwin B. Jenr ngs, leave
to Marie Renga(, of Broo.en,
Mimi, $25O,O0C fer h-r kind
thought. The rest Of nv prop.
erty goes to Free Hill.
(Signed) E. jennings
Over the long distance telephone
Wednesday night, Mrs. Relgei con-
f;rmed the sending of the letter and
repeated her story Of the rescue.
81 didn't know what to make of it
at the time" Mrs. Rengel said. at
was all so strange. Then after talk
ing with the Red Cross lady at the
Chicago station and another English
girl who was my travelling companion,
/ took their advice and kept the note
"When I reached Brooten, told
my husband about it. He suggested
that I keep it and see what happen
ed.
"About two weeks ago, / saw a
paragraph in The Minneapolis Tri-
bune about lawsuit involving the
estate of Mr.. Jennings. The name
of Fred w. Hill was mentioned in the
aett unit. His name also was men
toned in the note which the old gen.
tleman gave me so was confident
that the man I saved was Mr.. Jen-
nings.
81 sent the note to the. Chicago
Title & Trust Co., and later wrote to
the Chicago judge. That's all there is
to it.
"Will I go to Chicago to press my
claim? Well, not unless have to. You
see, I have three young children and
I couldn't very we'll leave them. ]
suppose if they send for me, I shall
have to. 60"
Mr.. Jennings, bachelor recluse, died
in Chicago, October 81, 1923, leaving
an estate of approximately 100000
Three. months later, multilated doc
ument, purporting to be his will and
naming Mr.. Hill as a beneficiary,
was sent anonymously to Chicago
trust company, which turned it over
to probate court. When Mr.. Hill
sought to probate the will, eight dis
tant cousins of the eccentric old man,
the only persons of nearly 100 claim
ants able to prove heirship to Jen-
nings, contested his claim and were
awarded the estate. From this de-
cision, Mr.. Hill and other cousins APP
pealed the case which is now in court
The document purporting to be Mr.
Jennings will provided that ,wo .thids
CT the estate was to be placed in trust
to educate children and perpetuate
the name of Jennings. 1t bote t! e
name of only one witness, the other
signature being parsi ally ohiiterated
A country wide search for the other
witness was started in which the aii
of Walter A. Ryberg, clerk of the
Hennipin county district court, was
enlisted
Mrs. Rengel met her isband while
a nurse in Portsmouth,, Eng, hes
p:tal. The romance which De, an
wnen she was assigned to care for the
wounded Minnesotan resulted in
their marriage. Mr.. Rengel returned
after being discharged from the hos
pital, Mrs. Rengel was not able to
accompany him because IF her war
duties. Some time after the arm
istice, the war bride was released
from service and followed her hus-
band to this country.
81 had been in the United States
only three days when this happened
in Chicago. / was travelling with an
other English girl who had married
an American and when we reached
Chicago, we had nearly four hours to
wait for our train. The Red Cross
lady who had us in charge suggested
that we take walk. Well, the two
of us got lost.
"Then / saw this old gentleman
directly in the path of a truck
laundry truck. He was very much
upset at the close call and when he