Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1904 — Dower Rights of the Wives. [ARTICLE]

Dower Rights of the Wives.

I The dower rights of the wives of the partners in the McCoy bank is now a matter of much interest not only to the depositors but to all the creditors of the bank, and inasmuch as some statements in regard to them have already been published in this paper, which we find on fuller information to have been not strictly correct in all respects, we refer to the matter again. We were right in stating that in estates of $20,000 or more the dower right was only one fifth, but we were not fuOy informed on a very important provision of the law which is of great importance in this case. It is that in property of partners that are in liquidation, the wives have no dower rights at all in the partnership property. This is clearly the law, as we have abundant qualified legal authority for stating. And this facts cuts a very large figure in thio bank matter, as the great bulk of the real-estate turn d over was the joint property of the two partners, and no part of it can be held by the wives. All of the Jordan township land, comprising by far the most valuable asset conveyed by the trust deed, was thus owned by the partners, jointly. So also was some of the smaller portions of the land. The Gillam township and had a third partner in the ownership. The principal individual holdings of the partners, and in which their wives have a dower right are, for A. McCoy, the bank building, in Rensselaer, and his half interest in the land in Union township. The principal individual reelestate holdings of T. J. McCoy, are a lot near Weston cemetery, and two lots in Robinson’s addi-' tion, in Rensselaer, and Jerry’s Island, in the Kankakee river. The A. McCoy residence propeity is owned by Mrs Jane McCoy, end the T. J McCoy residence is owned by himself and his wife jointly, and thus neither of the residence properties are liable for the debts of the banking firm.