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(01-20-2015 04:56 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  

(01-20-2015 05:36 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Thanks for clarifying, Linda. I agree, these excerpts do sound more than fatherly . . .Did she inherit less than the sons? Wiki reads: "She and Seward's three surviving sons were named joint heirs of the Seward estate", but that still doesn't tell if the portions were equal ones.

The 11/18/1872 New York Herald published a copy of Seward's will dated 11/5/1870. Seward's three sons Gus, Fred and Will inherited in equal shares "the house and real estate in Auburn in which I dwell."

Seward gave "all my remaining estate, real and personal, in equal shares to my said three sons, and my adopted daughter, Olive F. Risley, daughter of my old friend, Harrison A. Risley."

Seward appointed Will and Olive as executor and executrix.

The 10/18/1872 San Francisco Chronicle states that besides the house in Auburn, "his other property, consisting in part of securities, but mainly of real estate in Auburn and vicinity, he divides in four equal shares among his sons and his adopted daughter, Olive Risley Seward...The property has not yet been appraised, and it is impossible to say precisely what it will amount to, but it will probably not be far from $200,00."

Does anyone know what $50,000 was worth in 1872?

Is the bold amount supposed to read "$200,000? If so, that guesstimate would make the estate worth nearly $5 million. If I were Seward's three sons, I would have nothing nice to say about Olive! Also consider that she had traveled the world with Seward, and who knows what she had already been given monetarily while he was alive. Someone needs to write a bio on Olive Risley... Making her an executrix had to hurt the boys also.