Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-12-18 | Page 5 | 33 Indians Declared Barnett Estate Heirs

33 Indians Declared Barnett Estate Heirs if) NOT UVCLl'DED "-n I.-- Hra-lt . MUSKOGEE, OkhL, Dec. 18 (UP) Another chapter was written today to-day In the fabulous story of Jackson Jack-son Barnett, Indian recluse from whose land oil spouted, to make him th richest member of his race. Hll - leases -earned more than $25,000,000 but he died In Los Angeles, An-geles, Csl, in 1934 without leaving a will. Eight hundred Indians and whites from throughout North America claimed a share of the inheritance. A federal ' district court today awarded the approximately 13.000,000 remaining to 33 restricted re-stricted Creek Indians, members of three families descended from Barnett's parents, and a white widow of a tribesman. Not Included was Mrs. Anna Laura Lowe Barnett, whose, marriage mar-riage to him was declared invalid. She married him in Coffeyvllle, Kan., on February 23, 1920, and again at Neosho, Mo., on Febru-. ary 27, but the department of the interior charged that she "kidnaped" "kid-naped" him from his Okmulgee county shack to share his estate. The government sued for the re-Turn re-Turn "to the trust fund of a 1550,000' gift Barnett made to Mrs. Barnett. It charged ha. we inoompolonl and after six years litigation, in 1934, a California federal court ruled the marriage invalid. Mrs. Barnett had taken the eccentric Indian to Los Angeles, had supervised construction of a Wllshire boulevard mansion from which she was forcibly evicted in 1938 and had bought large cars for Barnett He drove them until they ran out of gas, then gave them to the first passerby. He could not read or write and legal documents, by which he gave millions of dollars away, were affixed with his thumbprint. thumb-print. Federal court attaches here emphasized em-phasized that the case was not closed by Judge Robert L. Williams' Wil-liams' ruling. It was expected that many of the unsuccessful claimants claim-ants would appeal. They have 49 days In which to notify the court of such action. The 521-page ruling divided the estate among three families the Barnetts, the Connors and the Stepney Gouges. The Barnett group would receive 50 per cent of the estate to be divided equally between 16 members and the estate of the late Nellie Barnett; the Connor group would get 25 per cent for its 13 members, and the Stepney-Gouge group of five would get th other 25 per cent. If the estate is not further tied up by appeal, a district court receiver re-ceiver will be appointed to distribute dis-tribute the Inheritances. The federal court consulted hundreds hun-dreds of tribal documents and territorial ter-ritorial court records and heard many of the 800 claimants during th five years of litigation.