Sarah J. Ballard Estate (1899)

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 9/6/2013 at 15:32:15

Atlantic Daily Telegraph, Saturday, March 18, 1899, pg. 3, col. 4

Would Dispossess W. C. A.

In the district court at Council Bluffs yesterday Lulu Randall, Eugene Robinson, Maud Howell and Benjamin Howell, heirs of the late Mrs. Sarah J. Ballard, filed a suit to dispossess the Woman's Christian association of the real estate conveyed to the association from her estate by a trust deed from W. H. M. Pusey at the time of her death. In their petition the heirs set forth that Mrs. Ballard executed a trust deed for the property on December 27, 1897. They allege that she was at that time aged and infirm and weak in mind and body and of unsound mind and was incapable of making and executing a valid deed for the conveyance of the property. They allege that she had been frequently solicited and importuned by the officers of the W. C. A. and their friends to make the deed; that by promises, flattery and appeals to her sympathy she was induced to do so. It is further alleged that Mr. Pusey knew her feeble condition mentally and unduly influenced her. The value of the property is stated at $20,000.