Eckert and Powell

[Linda Anderson]

Eckert may have suffered from dementia in his final years.

Eckert’s younger son, James Clendenin Eckert, contested Eckert’s will. “By the terms of the will, Thomas T. Eckert, Jr., received about $1,500,000 while his brother [Clendenin] was left $50,000 outright and a life interest in $100,000. Clendenin contested the will on the grounds that his father, who died in 1910 at the age of 92, was not fit mentally to make a will when this instrument was executed... and that he was unduly influenced.” Philadelphia Inquirer, Mar. 8, 1914.

"James Miles, a general utility man at the Eckert estate in Elberon, N.J., was a star witness at the hearing in Surrogate's Court. He testified to witnessing Gen. Eckert's will. Gen. Eckert, he said, was ill from August, 1908, until the time of his death. The aged man, he said, saw visions of pictures in space, saw faces at the window when no one was there, and spoke as if his bedroom were a cabin on a ship sailing to Washington, and asked what deck he was on." New York Times, Feb. 7, 1911.

It was disclosed that Minnie Egan, Gen. Eckert's housekeeper, was given the late Mrs. Eckert's jewels, worth $100,000, as a "wedding present." Minnie and Thomas, Jr. had announced their engagement in August 1910 and married Nov. 23, 1910, one month after Gen. Eckert’s death on October 20. The private secretary to Gen. Eckert testified that, "Following the General's directions...I gave the jewels to Minnie Egan, his housekeeper, as a wedding present two days before he died." New York Times, Feb. 11, 1911.

Thomas Reilly, a "trained nurse" was "with Gen. Eckert from August 15, 1908 until his death." Reilly testified that Gen. Eckert told him that "his wife's jewels were to go to Joanna, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the contestant [Clendenin]...

"General Eckert gave various versions of the capture and burial of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin who killed Lincoln, Reilly said. He insisted that he identified Booth by his thumb and broken leg. One time he said that Booth had been dumped into Delaware Bay, and another time, Reilly said, he described a land burial and gave the location of the grave." New York Times, Feb. 15, 1911.

The Surrogate's Court upheld the will. New York Times, Dec. 16, 1911. Clendenin appealed and Joanna, who had been deprived of the jewels, joined in the suit. New York Times, Feb. 19, 1913.

The case was heard in the NY Supreme Court. Witnesses testified as to Eckert's state of mind when he signed the will on August 30, 1910. "Joseph Finn, a carpenter, gave a description of the catnip bed, which, he asserted, the General had caused to be built in his Elberon home for 'Honeybubbles,' his cat. According to the carpenter, it was a miniature greenhouse. When the family was in New York, he said, it was customary to have catnip shipped there daily.

"Bessie Tracy, a servant, was asked about the cat.

"'The cat came to the table for every meal,' she said. 'He had a chair like the rest of the family, and the same food that the family ate was served to him. During meals he would walk all over the table and eat the flowers.'

"'Would he eat food from other plates than his own?' Justice Greenbaum inquired.

"'No. Only from his own plate.'" New York Times. Feb. 25, 1913.

On March 5, 1913, after only forty minutes of deliberation, the jurors "returned to Justice Greenbaum a verdict breaking the will of General Thomas Thompson Eckert..." "By the verdict, James Clendenin Eckert, the contestant who was cut off with $50,000 and a trust fund of $100,000, gets an equal share of the $1,650.000 estate with his brother, T. T. Eckert, Jr." Joanna was "the most joyful person in the courtroom when the verdict was announced." New York Times, Mar. 6, 1913.

Thomas, Jr. appealed but he lost again. "The decision of the jury... was affirmed today by the appellate division of the Supreme Court." Philadelphia Inquirer, Mar. 14, 1914.