Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 178, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1912 — THE KARSTEN CHILDREN WILL INHERIT $25,000. [ARTICLE]

THE KARSTEN CHILDREN WILL INHERIT $25,000.

Court Holds Will Meaningless, and The Minor Grandchildren Profit Thereby. Thre three minor children of Mrs. William Karsten, of Rensselaer, will share in the estate of their grandfather, John Karsten, deceased, of Ford county. 111., according to a recent der. cisin of the Illinois supreme court. John Karsten, at the time of his death, left three—children and the grandchildren above mentioned, being the children of his deceased son, Karsten. In his will he provided a special bequest of SI,OOO to each of his grandchildren, to be paid to them frqm the proceeds of a sale of a certain eighty -acres of land. By the second item of his will be provided as follows: “It is my will that my children (naming them) shall be equally divided between all three.” The living children sought to take the balance of_ their father’s estate, giving to the William Karsten children only'the $3,000 provided for them in the special bequest. Mrs. William Karsten, who is the mother of the minor children above mentioned, employed James H. Chapman and George A. Williams, of Rensselaer, to look after the interests of her children. A spit was instituted in the Ford county circuit court for a construction of the will of John Karsten, and from the decision of the Ford circuit court there was. an appeal to the supreme court of Illinois. The supreme court held that the second item of the will was meaningless and that as to all of his property except the eighty acres mentioned, he died Intestate, that is, without a will. This gives the three grandchildren, in addition to the special bequest of $3,000, their father’s share of their grandfather’s estate. The estate consisted of 400 acres of land besides other property and their share will approximate $25,000.