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THE GREEN BAG

tively, the legal value of their testimony can be more accurately weighed. The effect of the final decision of the Supreme Court was to place them in the category of those "who saw by the ear." It was also further shown on the part of the state that as early as 1848, the decedent had stated to her roommate, her intimate friend then and for many years afterwards, that she was born and raised in London, England; that she was of good family; that her father and mother died when she was young, and her guardian put her in a bar room to serve; that she became acquainted with Captain Allen, and that the first thing she knew, in the spring or summer of 1846, she was on board of a ship coming over to New York. It was shown, further, that she stated to two other persons, about that time, that she was born in England, and that they were impressed with the belief that she was an English girl. It also appeared that a woman calling herself Fannie Minerva Seymour went from New York City to New Orleans in the summer of 1846, with a man of the name of Smith; that in January, 1847, she appeared at some public dance hall as Fannie M. Smith; that she said she had been married to Smith. He died in December ensuing. She was presently sued by an undertaker for Smith's burial expenses. From that time until the spring of 1849, sne lived there as a notorious prostitute. There was conclusive proof that that woman went from New Orleans to Cali fornia in 1849. Thus far, it may be noted, nothing has been adverted to having any direct tendency to associate Rachel Fanny Brown with Fannie Minerva Seymour, save the allusion to the Seymour family of Cin cinnati. In this connection, it may be said that all the proof of English nativity of the deceased rested upon her alleged declara tions, orally made, and such as were mani fested in the several instruments of writing in evidence. Apparently, there was no direct testimony from any of the relatives

of Rachel Fanny Brown as to her where abouts or doings after her visit to her native country, which the claimant brother states was in 1849, until the year 1857, when a correspondence commenced between him self and his son with Fanny. There was conclusive proof also that the Fanny Rachel Brown who went from Quaker Bottom to Cincinnati was in San Francisco early in the year 1850. From there, in that year, she went to Sacramento, met her sister Sarah, then living under an assumed name. These women stated in conversations with others that they were sisters, and they were so regarded in the community. In San Francisco she was associated with a gambler named Reub Raines, and in Sacramento she was the proprietress of a brothel known as the " Palace," and continued her relations with Raines. At her place, in December, 1852, which she conducted as Fanny Smith, she shot Albert Putnam, a stage driver, and was threatened with hanging by a mob, but was taken by the marshal to a prison brig in the river; was thereafter admitted to bail in the sum of $3,000, after which she dis appeared, forfeiting her bond. Leaving California, she was next seen at Acapulco, Mexico, and then, in May, 1853, at Aspinwall, Panama, at which latter place she was living, as his wife, with Abraham Miller Hinckley, the agent of an express company. She was not then married to Hinckley, but was married to him in October, 1853, in New York City. Early the next year, she returned to New Orleans as Mrs. A. M. Hinckley. During this marriage, she spent much of her time in New Orleans. She was also at New York City with her husband at inter vals. She obtained a divorce from Hinckley at New York, in December, 1856, on the ground of adultery. The certified copy of the divorce suit put in evidence shows where and when the parties were married, where they lived, and her charges of his adulteries. The defen dant, in his answer, alleges her bad char