Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1884 — One Widow’s “Thirds.” [ARTICLE]

One Widow’s “Thirds.”

Thirty years ago there came to this State an industrious and thrifty Irish family. There were the father, mother, and three children, two daughters and one son. Two other chrildren were dead. They worked and saved, and in due time bought a lot, built a house, and paid for both. A few years later the husband fell ill, and after months of suffering, during which he was watched over and cared for by his wife, he died. Then the son, lingering for months and nursed by his mother, died of consumption. I heard the pitifnl wail of the mother, “O my two men! my two men!” as the body of the son was carried out of the house to be buried'. The hope of her life went out whgn the two men died. The house and lot were appraised at $1,600. The husband left no will, so the widow was entitled only to the use of one-third. But the mother, with her two daughters, lived on in the house. After a time one daughter married. The mother had been accustomed to go out to wash or scrub, in addition to the work and care of her own family. She was welcome in many houses for her thorough work and her quiet ways. After the marriage of the daughter the mother let part of her house, in order to add to her income, and still went out for “day s work.” Then the unmarried daughter fell ill, and for a long time received such nursing and care as only a mother can give. She, too, died. Left alone in her house, the widowed mother worked on, but increasing years made her less able than formerly, and a stroke of paralysis made her helpless. Her son-in-law supplied her with groceries. Not long ago he notified the selectmen that this widow had used up her thirds, and he asked the town to support her. The selectmen, with thoughtful kindness,provided for her* in the house where she had lived so many years, and there she remains, a paralytic. Here is a woman, the careful mother of five children, a faithful' wife, an industrious, hard-working woman, who after fifty years finds herself penniless, supported by the town. The property which she has earned, which is ample for comfort in the simple way in which she lives, goes to those who never earned a cent of it. This is done by the law in Massachusetts, and it is the same in most of the States. If the husband of this woman had been the survivor, no son-in-law or any heir

would have been permitted to take possession of two-thirds of the property, or any part of it. The difference in this case is due to the fact that the man had a vote and the woman had not. When the laws touch woman so closely, why should not women have a voice in making the laws? —Lucy Stone, in Woman’s Journa L