86 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Mar., 



forming the attestation clause, were claimed to be a 

 forgery and written probably, by Mrs. Hulett. 



There was something of a romance involved in the case. 

 It seems that Miss Adams in her early days was a school 

 teacher and while teaching, met and became engaged to 

 Mr. Hulett, but for some reason the engagement was 

 broken off and Miss Adams subsequently married a Mr. 

 Pomeroy. After some years his health failed, and Mr. 

 Hulett learning of it, brought both him and his wife to 

 his own house and there kept them until Mr. Pomeroy 

 died. After the latter's death, Mrs. Pomeroy was for a 

 time Mr. Hulett's housekeeper. Both of the parties were 

 believers in spiritualism, and neither of them seems to 

 have cared to mingle very much in society or to be con- 

 nected with any church. Apparently the old affection 

 had never died out, for a few months after Mr. Pomeroy's 

 death, Mr. Hulett renewed his offer of marriage and it 

 was accepted. According to the testimony given at the 

 trial, partly because he was then advanced in years, and 

 Mrs. Hulett was some 25 years his junior in age, partly 

 because her husband had only been dead a few months 

 and partly because they did not believe in the orthodox 

 forms of religion, they made what is called a common 

 law contract of marriage and evidenced it by the above 

 paper. 



It was kept a secret (except that Mr. Hulett admitted 

 it to two or three friends), until his death about six 

 months later. In the fall of 1893 a will which had been 

 made when Mr. Hulett was still a young man and pos- 

 sessed of very little property, was found and admitted 

 to probate. Shortly after, Mrs. Hulett filed a petition to 

 have the homestead assigned to her as the widow of the 

 deceased and also to set aside the probate of the will. 

 In support of her claim she introduced in evidence the 

 above contract, claiming she had been married to Mr. 

 Hulett for some months before his death. Her petition 



