Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 308, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1916 — WILL LOCKED IN TRUNK SINCE CIVIL WAR DAYS [ARTICLE]

WILL LOCKED IN TRUNK SINCE CIVIL WAR DAYS

Maker Disappeared Sixty Years Ago, Leaving Strange Injunction to Nephew \ Joplin, Mo. —There is in the possession of Lee W. Peters, who lives in Chitwood, a trunk and a will of Calvin E. Butler, an uncle who has been missing for nearly sixty years. Butler left for Australia, and his last injunction to his fiephew, who lived near U. S. Grant’s old home in Galena, 111., was to keep the trunk and the will, which bestows everything in it on Peters, until he felt sure that he, Butler was dead. When he felt thus sure he was to have the will probated. Peters does nflt know what is in the trunk, but as Butler had been a successful “49er” in California, he thinks there is gold inside. He recently told neighbors that he will not present the will for probate until 1925, at which time if Calvin Butler is still alive he will have attained the age of 100 years. Another uncle of Peters, a brother to Butler lived to be that age. The trunk will have to be broken open, for Butler took the keys with him. There are three locks, and Peters acknowledges that he has often tried to unlock them with various keys, but has invariable failed. He resolved not to force it open until the time limit he had set expires.