Strawn v. Strawn
| Decision Date | 31 January 1870 |
| Citation | 1870 WL 6190,53 Ill. 263 |
| Parties | WILLIAM STRAWN et al.v.PHEBE G. STRAWN. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Morgan county; the Hon. CHARLES D. HODGES, Judge, presiding.
This was an appeal from the county court of Morgan county, to the circuit court, involving a question in regard to the character and amount of the special dower for the widow of Jacob Strawn, deceased. Upon the hearing in the circuit court, the original appraisement bill was given in evidence on behalf of the widow, as follows:
The special dower reported and estimated by the appraisers, was as follows:
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¦Necessary beds and bedding for the widow and family¦$ 400.00¦
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¦Necessary household and kitchen furniture ¦1600.00 ¦
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¦One spinning wheel ¦5.00 ¦
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¦One loom and appendage ¦25.00 ¦
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¦One pair of cards ¦1.00 ¦
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¦One stove and the necessary pipe therefor ¦25.00 ¦
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¦One milch cow and calf ¦50.00 ¦
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¦One horse ¦40.00 ¦
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¦One woman's saddle and bridle ¦15.00 ¦
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¦Provisions for one year ¦1500.00 ¦
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¦Four sheep and fleeces ¦32.00 ¦
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¦Food for three months ¦50.00 ¦
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¦Other property ¦60.00 ¦
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The household and kitchen furniture, as per appraisement bill, was as follows, to-wit:
HOUSEHOLD AND KITCHEN FURNITURE.
Plaintiff offered to prove the extent and value of Jacob Strawn's estate, real and personal. The admission of this was objected to as immaterial and irrelevant, which objection was overruled, and exception then and there taken.
Plaintiff then proved that Jacob Strawn died the owner of a farm containing about four thousand acres; of five other valuable farms; of Strawn's hall, in Jacksonville; of a large and valuable dwelling house on the homestead, and the furniture hereinbefore set forth, and that Phebe G. Strawn took possession of all the real estate, and managed the same, and accounted for rents.
Plaintiff also offered to prove that a daughter over eighteen years of age, and divers other persons, as servants and employees, lived with Phebe G. Strawn after the death of her husband, and constituted part of her family. The admission of this evidence was objected to, on the ground that, the word family, as used in the statute giving special dower, included only the widow and minor children of the deceased husband, which objection was overruled by the court, to the overruling of which objection the appellant then and there excepted.
Plaintiff then proved that Martha Strawn, a daughter of Jacob and Phebe Strawn, aged twenty years, lived with said widow; also, a girl fifteen years of age, who had been several years with the family, as one of the family, but not related; a female servant, employed as a cook; a hired man; and a man employed as a superintendent and clerk, all resided with said widow after the death of her husband, and at the time of his death.
That Jacob Strawn died intestate on the twenty-third day of August, 1865, leaving a widow (Phebe G. Strawn) three children (the appellants) by a former wife, all of whom were married and had families; also, five children of said Jacob and P. G. Strawn, to-wit: Jacob, who was married; Julius E., aged twenty-six years, single; Gates, aged twenty-four years, single; Daniel G., aged twenty-two years, single; and Martha, aged twenty years, single; all of whom, except Martha, made the said widow's house their home; but during the year after their father's death, were traveling most of the time in Europe. Martha, the youngest child, was, most of the year following the death of her father, at school in Massachusetts.
The plaintiff also offered in evidence a written statement, filed by P. G. Strawn, in the Morgan county court.
This paper contains a statement that she has ascertained that the estate is solvent, and that the personal estate, apart from the household goods appraised, is more than sufficient to pay all claims against Jacob Strawn's estate, and that she elects to take the household goods mentioned in the appraisement bill, and hereinbefore set forth, at their valuation, on account of, and in part satisfaction of her special dower.
The appraisers' second report was also offered in evidence by plaintiff.
In this report of re-estimate, the appraisers adhere to their first report as to special dower, except Lurton, one of the appraisers, who filed a written dissent.
In this second report, the appraisers set out that Jacob Strawn's estate, real and personal, was estimated as worth $500,000, and as the appraisers understood, the family of the widow consisted of herself, one young woman raised by the family, a house-keeper, a cook, a man-servant, and a man who acted as superintendent and clerk. The appraisers, in their report, say that as the basis in part of their estimate of the widow's special dower, “that there must be, of necessity, a large number of calls upon the widow, requiring outlays for family supplies, and in the employment of hired hands.” The appraisers also refer to some twenty cases, as precedents, set in the Morgan county court, where, in proportion to the value of the estate, a much larger sum had been allowed widows, than had been allowed in this case.
The plaintiff, the appellee, here closed her case.
The appellants, William Strawn et al. then introduced the following testimony:
J. Kelsey, a witness, being duly sworn, testified that he kept a hotel in Jacksonville in the years 1865 and 1866, and knew the price of provisions in Jacksonville and its neighborhood in those years; that he had been a hotel keeper and boarding house keeper for the last forty years; that provisions for one person for one year, on the basis of the best style of living, in the years 1865 and 1866, in and near Jacksonville, would not have cost more than one dollar per day, and, in his judgment, would not have cost that much. Provisions for a family of three would not have cost more than $500, and provisions for a family of eight would not have cost more than $800 for one year.
Necessary beds, and bedding and bedsteads for one person, would not have cost...
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