1914. 
i The Woman At Law: 
J [Under tliiR hoadinpr wo shall discuss the lepril J 
* rights of women, particularly ns regards their ■ 
• property and their children. There will lie direct I 
1 answers" to actual questions and general state- B 
I ments of law.] | 
Wife’s Right in Husband’s Property 
Against His Will, 
If a man dies, leaves a will and a 
widow without children, and she decides 
not to abide by the will, what portion of 
the estate is she entitled to in Pennsyl¬ 
vania? w. II. c. 
In Pennsylvania a husband cannot by 
his will bar his wife from participating 
in his estate at his death. A widow may 
always refuse to accept the provision 
made for her by her husband’s will and 
elect to take dower, which is a life inter¬ 
est in one-third of his real estate. But 
this does not cover all of her right. By 
the Act of April 1st, 1909 (P. L. 50) 
the widow of an intestate, if there be no 
children, is entitled to the real or per¬ 
sonal estate, or both, to the aggregate 
value of $5,000 in addition to the widow’s 
exemption of $300. If the value of the 
estate exceeds $5,000, the widow is en¬ 
titled to such sum of $5,000 absolutely 
and in addition one-half the remaining 
real estate for life, and one-half the re¬ 
maining personal estate absolutely. 
These latter provisions take the place of 
the dower right. The wife, electing to 
take under or against a will of her hus¬ 
band’s shall manifest her election by a 
writing, signed, duly acknowledged and 
delivered to the executor or administra¬ 
tor and recorded. 
Notice of Reading of Will. 
Can you inform me what the law is in 
Ohio in the case of the reading of the 
will of a deceased person. Must all heirs 
be notified of the time of the reading of 
the will or not? In this case some of 
the heirs were notified and others were 
totally ignored. 
There is no law in Ohio in. regard to 
giving notice of the reading of a will, 
and if. as is sometimes done, the relatives 
of the deceased gather to hear the will 
read, it is more a matter of custom than 
of law, and it is in the discretion of the 
person who has the will in possession as 
to who shall be notified of its reading. 
But it is provided by law that no will 
shall be admitted to probate without no¬ 
tice to the widow or husband and next of 
kin (who would be the children, if any, 
and if none, then to the brothers and sis¬ 
ters. etc., of the testator) if any, resident 
in the State, in such manner and for 
such time as the rrobate Court directs or 
approves. 
Husband’s Right Under Wife’s Will. 
If a farmer making deeds gives his wife 
(with children) all of his farm and pos¬ 
sessions, does he get any of this property 
back? If his wife dying makes a will 
giving some to children and a part to 
husband for life only, does the law give 
any to him in the same way as a wife 
gets one-third dower? 
In this case, the property belonging to 
the wife, the husband gets just as much 
as his wife gives him under the will. In 
South Carolina a husband has no right 
similar to the wife’s dower right; that is, 
his right as tenant by the courtesy was 
abolished in 1S83. You would therefore 
be entitled to just as much as you are 
given under the will. 
Gift of Real Estate. 
A man deeds one-third of his property 
to his wife and the remainder to one 
son. There is a family of children. 1. 
Is the son’s deed good, that is, can he 
hold the property, or can the deed he 
broken? 2. Can the wife get any more 
than her deed specifies? 3. Would debts 
incurred for her and her family just be¬ 
fore and after the man’s death have to 
be paid out of her share? s. J. b. 
1. It is not shown whether the deed 
from the father to the son and wife 
is in the form of a gift or whether there 
was consideration from the wife and from 
the son. In any event, a man can give 
his property to whomsoever he wishes, 
provided he does not do it to rid him¬ 
self of his just debts and defeat the 
claims of his creditors. If he is solvent 
he can give his property away and, in 
this case, the deeds to the wife and sou 
would bo good. 
2. The wife should have joined in the 
deed to the son to release her dower 
right; otherwise, her dower right in the 
T II13 RURAL NEW-YORKLR 
son’s property would still be good. In 
other words, a husband cannot defeat 
his wife’s dower by giving property away. 
3. If the gift was consummated before 
the man’s death, property given to the 
wife would not he liable for any part of 
his debts. Neither could the son’s prop¬ 
erty be taken for debts incurred by the 
father, but, of course, if the debts were 
incurred by the wife and family and not 
by the husband, they could look to her 
property for payment. 
Wife’s Dower Rights. 
My deceased husband left no will. He 
owned houses covered with a blanket 
mortgage. The law gave me five thou¬ 
sand dollars in this real estate, which 
has drawn five per cent, interest. Is 
there any way for me to obtain this 
whole amount of five thousand dollars 
from the real estate without a forced 
sale? Or could I place a second mort¬ 
gage on the property and obtain my 
money that way? Husband’s relatives 
say half of net income belongs to them 
and I find myself financially embar¬ 
rassed. M. E. s. 
Massachusetts. 
You do not make it quite plain in your 
letter by just what means the $5,000 in¬ 
terest in the estate was acquired by you. 
or buy their plants, as most of them were 
attending school. Their fathers made 
ready one-tenth of an acre of land; they 
planted their own crop, but had help 
about cultivation. The rest of the work 
was done by the girls. The season was 
very unfavorable, with a heavy frost June 
10, which killed many of the plants to 
the ground. Later the drought hurt them 
badly, but the girls worked with true 
country grit, and despite the dry rot they 
made the following splendid records. Two 
of the girls had previously lived in town; 
Maude Mansell, 127 bushels, $83.69; 
Augusta Staple, 55 bushels, $27.42; 
Laura Parker, 43 bushels, $5.20; Doro¬ 
thy Shattuck, 32 bushels, $5.70; Lois 
Bartlett, 80 bushels, $3.50; Beryl Malt- 
bie, 18 bushels, $4.30. Some found mar¬ 
ket for green fruit and some on account 
of school work in the Fall could not dis¬ 
pose of their fruit, but all did some 
canning, and had good wholesome ex¬ 
perience in connection with their work. 
They gave a play which was a splendid 
success, at which time they sold home¬ 
made candy that reflected honor on the 
helpful makers. In all they earned 
$21.52. which was divided equally among 
them at the end of the contest. One girl J 
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TOMATOES WHICH WERE COVERED AND SAVED FROM FROST. 
If it was not set out to you by the heir 
or the owners of the freehold according to 
law, nor assigned to you by the Probate 
Court, you may recover your dower in¬ 
terest by what is known as a writ of 
dower, which is an action to obtain your 
dower rights and damages for the deten¬ 
tion thereof. By this action you get a 
certain specified part of the real estate, 
and after this is set aside, you may mort¬ 
gage your interest in it. You must re¬ 
member that your dower right is only a 
one-tliird interest in your husband’s laud 
for your life. It would be impracticable 
to put a second mortgage on the prop¬ 
erty. The most feasible plan would he 
for the heirs to pay you the sum of 
$5,000, if that has been declared to be 
the amount of your dower interest, or it 
may be that you may be able to secure 
a loan on this dower interest. 
Minor Girl’s Rights. 
Will you state the privileges that a girl 
has before she is 21, according to law, in 
regard to keeping company and getting 
married without consent of guardian or 
parents? 
The authority which a parent has over 
a child is not limited in any way except 
that it must not he so used as to endan¬ 
ger the child’s safety or morals, and the 
parents have, therefore, the legal right to 
say what company a girl shall keep until 
she becomes of the age of IS years in 
this State, when she obtains the right 
by law to consent to marriage. Until 
this time, however, she must obey her 
parents in all tilings, limited only by the 
statement made above, that the authority 
shall not be so exercised as to endanger 
the morals or safety of the child. A girl 
may not marry in this State before she 
becomes 18 years of age without her par¬ 
ent’s consent. For other purposes than 
marriage the female becomes of age at 
21 years. 
Hambden Girls’ Tomato Club. 
In early Spring the movement was 
started to form a girls’ tomato club. 
Those interested met at our central 
school house and the club was organized. 
The girls held a meeting each month or 
oftener as necessary, presiding at their 
own meetings generally. Under the rules 
of the club the girls were allowed to raise 
said to me: “I should have made twice 
as much had I raised potatoes.” In this 
she was right. Our country girls have a 
chance to make their own money if they 
will only take the opportunities that lie 
at their door. One of my girls before 
the frost placed 250 sap pails over her 
young plants, and saved them from the 
June frost. mbs. .tames lampman. 
We are sending many 
useful and practical 
articles to the 
Women Readers 
of 
The Rural New-Yorker 
in exchange for new 
and renewal subscrip¬ 
tions. A post card 
will bring the Reward 
List. 
Department “M” 
The Rural New-Yorker 
333 West 30th Street 
New York City 
Quickly Cuis 
CUTLERY 
^Aases 
Dirt 
From, 
A sprinkle of Old 
Dutch Cleanser on 
a cloth and a few 
rubs on knife or fork 
works wonders. 
The original bright- 
