Allport Will Case

ALLPORT WILL CASE.

HOW THE WILL WITHDRAWN AS A FORGERY.

And Thus a Dexter Woman Becomes an Heir to the Large Property of a Bachelor Brother.

The Boulder (Montana) Age, just received here, contains an account of the trial in the John D. Allport will case which will make Mrs. C. W. Miller, of Dexter, a wealthy woman. As has been told in the Argus, Allport who lived in this county when a boy, had become immensely rich, his property running into the millions. He had not kept in close touch with his family. Mrs. Miller was a younger sister. The Montana case is thus stated by the Boulder Age:

The property left by John D. Allport, the well known old timer who died in 1895, has been the subject of much litigation. Soon after his death Mr. and Mrs. Geo. H. Kelley came to Boulder from Denver, Colo., she claiming to be the sole heir of deceased. She obtained letters of administration under such statement and was settling up the estate when there was an effort on the part of Butte parties with eastern connection to obtain title to the Minnie Healy mine in Butte by means of forged deeds. In this plot in connection with the Butte parties appeared one Fegen-Bush, known among crooks throughout the U. S. and by the detectives as "Monkey Charley," one of the most notorious and clever swindlers in the country. Mrs. Kelley having the Allport estate in charge at that time, had to fight that scheme through her attorneys and the affair finally shown up and the deeds conveying the property from Allport to one Brand and from him to Fegen-Bush were shown to be forgeries and declared invalid. But through the publicity thus gained in the newspapers other heirs of Allport learned of his death and the property he left and at once made inquiries. They began proceedings to oust Mrs. Kelley, and in fact she was tried for false representations in the matter but was acquitted on the statement that she thought the eastern relatives dead. Then came the will in a very round-about way, the document leaving the property to her and appointing her as executor without bonds. Under this she was granted letters, but the other heirs attacked the will as a forgery. It was tried first about a year ago, each side making a case sufficiently good so that the jury was in doubt and were unable to agree. It was set for another trial and with eminent legal talent on both sides great preparations were made.

The will in question was received from California and was said to have been in the possession of a man who was to have delivered it to Mrs. Kelley.

At the trial, as detailed in the Age, it was clearly shown that Allport was not in the place where the will was purported to be made at the time it was said to have been made, but had hired livery horses on that day at Basin to ride into the hills to look after mining claims. Experts showed that the signature was a forgery and written by the same hand as had written the will. At the conclusion of the expert's testimony a novel scene was enacted and the Age says:

At the conclusion of Polman's testimony it was plainly seen that the proponants were weakened, and at the beginning of the afternoon session instead of trying to cross-question him and break down his testimony Mr. Wines rose and with some emotion stated that he had acted as attorney with the best of motives and in good faith for the proponants and had believed the will to be genuine, but he was now convinced that the will offered might be a forgery, and he asked leave to introduce a motion to withdraw the will and the application of Mrs. Kelley as executor under it. This was a sudden and dramatic ending of a case that had been fought point by point up to that time and came as a surprise to the court, to opposing counsel and to the large audience in attendance. Mr. Cowan made a talk of like nature and the famous Allport will case was at an end.