52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 8 theme - Courting

SHE SUED HER MOTHER AND LOST...

Court Case - Anna Rosalie Powell McCool vs. Martha Bowley et al

In 1875, Gerry's great grandmother, Rose, a 22 year old wife and mother of 4 (and expecting a fifth),  evidently tried to take claim of what she felt was her rightful inheritance.  We find the following articles in the Davenport Iowa Gazette of Dec. 4, 1875. 

“The trial of the case entitled Anna R. McCool vs. Martha Bowley and Simeon Bowley commenced this afternoon. The case has some interesting features as well as  singular ones.  According to the position of the plaintiff, it appears that she is the daughter of one Joseph Powell, a resident of Cleveland Ohio, who died in 1854, leaving a widow, two daughters and two sons as sole heirs at law. At the time of his death, Powell was in possession of $1,500 in gold and some other property, the value of which is not stated, as no administration was ever laid upon the estate. The widow immediately took possession of the gold and in 1855 married Simeon Bowley;  and in the same year, Mr. and Mrs. Bowley purchased 80 acres of land in Princeton Township, in this county, with part of the $1500 in gold, expended the balance in improving the property and have been in possession of it ever since.  The petition states that she has been reared from childhood without expense to the defendants that she has been married and that her brothers and sister have attained their majority and claim that the Bowleys have simply held the property purchased with the $1,500 in trust for herself and fellow heirs , that she is justly entitled to one fourth part of it, together with a fourth of rents and profits thereof during each year of occupation by the defendants, that the real estate is reasonably worth $4,000, that the rents and profits amount to a large sum, the amount of which she is unable to state; but at any rate, she asks the court that the defendants may be decreed to account to her for  the one fourth she claims, and for such other relief as the court may deem just, and the costs of suit.  The defendants deny that they ever got $1,500 that belonged to Joseph Powell, that they never expended any sum that belonged to said Powell for the property they now own, and declare they have nothing to which the plaintiff can legally lay claim.   D.B. Nash is the attorney for plaintiff and Davison and Lane for the defendants.  The testimony is all by deposition. The case will be submitted this fore noon, probably.” 

 

Davenport Gazette (Davenport, Iowa) December 6, 1875

“District Court - The case of Anna R. McCool vs. Martha Bowley, et al, the chief points of which were stated in Saturday's Gazette was submitted to the court Saturday forenoon.  The court found that the plaintiff is not entitled to the relief prayed and judgment was rendered against the plaintiff for costs.”

 

My notes:   As Rose was expecting her  fifth child in one month from the above case date, I’m sure she couldn’t travel to Iowa from their homestead in Nebraska to plead the case, and we will never know if the charges were true.  The Bowleys had two children together,  who would be half siblings to Rose Anna.   We don’t know if she ever kept in contact with them, or with her own siblings. The name of Simeon Bowley appears on 1886 Princeton Directory as Trustee of the town of Princeton. His son, Joseph (half brother of Rose),  later held offices in farming organizations in Scott County, Iowa.   Anna Rosalie had become mother of eleven children and died at age 39 in 1892.