Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-07-14
WOMAN WRECKS
CLAIM S OF ;
CLARK HEIRS"
LBy Dispatch A. 2. Wirel

BUTTE, Mont. July 13.-Efforts of
defendants to refute the claims where
by three Missouri women seek daugh-
ters' shares in the $47OOO,O0O estate of
the late Senator william Andrews
Clark, We're climaxed today when Mrs.
Anna A. Clark, widow of William An
derson Clark, who died in Butte last
April %, testified that her late hus-
band was the father of the three claim
ants and that she married him at
Helena, Mont, about a year after he
had deserted his wife and three daugh-
ters at Stewartsville, Mo-, in August,
1879 The little gray haired woman
giving her age as 68 years, related that
she had lived in Stewartsville from the
time she was eight years DID, and in
1879, worked for three months as maid
in the Clark home taking care of the
three little girls, who she declared,
now are Alma Clark Hines and Effie
Clark McWilliams of Missouri, and
Addie Clark Miller of Denver, who seek
to share the estate of Senator Clark
on the ground that be was the father
who deserted them and their mother
nearly SO years ago.
Te widow declared that the Stew
artsviIle Clark did not inform her of
his intentions to leave his drug store
and desert his family, but said that he
wrote to her two or three months later
and, in subsequent correspondence,
their marriage was planned. She told
the jury that she left her family in
Stewartsville in September of 1880 and
ON October 16 married the father of the
three women now claiming heirship to
Senator Clark.
Thereafter the couple resided in
Montana, the witness said, and eight
children were born of the marriage.
Following the wedding ceremony, ac-
cording to Mrs. ClArlk's testimony, they
lived for a few months at Helena,
where her husband was employed as a
carpenter. They then moved to Canyon
Ferry. Mont, she said, and her hus-
band worked for short time at
dairy. Later they lived on a farm at
Conton, Mont, the witness declared,
and also lived at Townsend, Mont,
where Clark built the first house.
The widow told the jury that for 81
years they had lived in Butte, within
a mile of the residence of Senator
Clark, whom the Missouri sisters claim
was their father. According to the Wo-
mans testimony, the former Missouri
druggist became partner in hard-
ware business and also in grocery
business during his residence in Butte,
and, for 18 years, prior to his death'
was representative of tea company.
The witness said that prior to her
marriage, she was Anna Almeda Pierce
and that, since her coming to Montana
to marry the father Of the claimants,
she had been Stunned by members OF
her family, with the exception of a sis
ter in Colorado the only one of her
relatives to correspond with her after
her departure from Stewatsville.
Mrs Clark identified number OF
pictures as early photographs OF her
husband, but declared that the tlntype,
which the claimants had Identified as
a likeness of their father, bore no re-
semblance to any one she had ever
known.
The woman stated that she had seen
Senator Clark frequently during her
long residence in Montana, but de-
clared that she never could see re-
semblance to her husband. Counsel Tor
the Clark estate attempted to intro
duce a statement which the Witnesses
husband is alleged to have made prior
TO his death, but later withdrew 1t
when the court raised point OF law
which made it's admittance improbable
Under cross examination, the witness
spoke fiuently of buildings and streets
at Stewartsville and maintained that
her marriage to Clark was not planned
before he deserted his family. Counsel
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