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Show FORTY-ONE HEIRS AFTER ESTATE I Wife of New England Pioneer Leaves $7,000,000 on Which Relatives Lay Claim. Los Angeles, Cal., Jan. 16. Forty-one Forty-one New England heirs of Abel Stearns, a pioneer, who died in the early seventies, were defeated here today in their contest for the $7,000, 000 estate of Mrs. Arcadia de Baker, formerly the widow of Stearns, and who at her death was the richest woman in southern California. The Stearns' heirs, who were represented rep-resented by William Stearns Sim mous of Boston, based their claims upon the fact that before his death, Abel Stearns settled upon his wife property which formed the nucleus oi her fortune. Mrs Stearns, after the death of her husband, married Col. R. S. Baker. She died In 1912 intestate. in-testate. Judge Rives of the probate department depart-ment of the superior court, ruled today to-day that upon her second marriage Mrs. Baker ceased to be the widow of Stearns", and therefore sustained the demurrer interposed by the Baker Ba-ker heirs to the claims of the Steams' heirs. rn |