THE GREEN BAG
THE LIGHTER SIDE A Unique Answer to a Bill in Equity. Two learned attorneys and counselors of law in our town whom we shall designate as Isaac Ketchum and Uriah Cheatum and who were, and are doing business under the firm name and style of I. Ketchum and U. Cheatum, had occasion on behalf of the executors of the last will and testament of one Zebulon Heep to file a petition asking permission to sell certain real estate left by the deceased in order to carry out certain bequests and aid certain so-called charities mentioned in the will. As the bulk of the property devised con sisted of real estate and by the terms of the • will was to be used in carrying out the chari table purposes above referred to, the Attor neys I. Ketchum & U. Cheatum conceived the idea that the Attorney General of the State was a necessary party. So the At torney General was made a party. The other defendants being Mary Ann Heep, the wife of the deceased, who had been adjudged a lunatic, Neriah Todd, her conservator and The African Methodist Church, one of the beneficiaries under the will. The Last Will and Testament was set out in full, also the deed by which the said Zebulon Heep conveyed the real estate in question to the trustees named in the will, for the purposes therein mentioned. The other allegations in the petition will sufficiently appear from the answer of the Attorney General which we set out in full, as follows to wit: Answer of Thomas S. Hickson, as Attorney After Title General, to the Peti tion filed herein. Now comes Thomas S. Hickson, as the Attorney General of the State of , one of the defendants herein, and answering the petition of plaintiffs filed herein on behalf of the State of alleges: I. He admits that the instrument set out in said petition is the last will and testament
of the deceased, Zebulon Heep, mentioned therein. He admits the execution of the deed set out in said petition of the said Zebulon Heep in his life time conveying the real estate men tioned to the trustees therein named. He admits that Mary Ann Heep, widow of the said Zebulon Heep, has been, since the death of the said Zebulon, adjudged by the County Court of Greene County, to be an insane person. II. As to the other matters and things set out in said complaint this defendant says that he has not and can not obtain sufficient knowledge and information upon which to base a belief. Further answering said petition this de fendant says that by the provisions of the last will and testament of the said Zebulon Heep, as set out in the petition filed herein, the estate left by him should be by the trustees named therein devoted to certain so-called charities as appears from the fol lowing extract from said last will and testa ment, to wit. "The net proceeds of my estate, after paying taxes, insurance and necessary ex penses, and for repairs and improvements, shall be used and applied by my said trustees and their successors, as in their judgment may be best, to most fully carry out my wishes in their behalf, and may be used or applied at such time or times as they may deem best as follows: 1. To contribute to the deserving poor, those most worthy of the City of . 2. To help those who have stumbled or fallen to rise again. 3. To help those to hig'her or more useful lives who are unable to help themselves. 4. To educate natives of foreign countries for teachers and missionaries in their own lands. 5. To raise the standard of life by giving yearly (or as often as may be deemed wise and best by my trustees) a gold medal on which shall be engraved the words: " Blessed
