Out of the past
July 29, 1896
The Anna oil well has been the source of considerable trouble to the operator drilling it for some time. It was finally decided yesterday to shoot the well and clean it out before drilling further. Since then all the casing has been removed except 15 feet which seems to have disappeared entirely. Work of cleaning out has not yet been completed, so as to know what the result of the shot has been -
The candle that has been burning in Ed Pfaadt’s grocery window burned out at 14 minutes of three this afternoon. It had been burning just 91 hours and 46 minutes. Of the hundreds of guesses made, Thomas Stewart, of Maple Street, claims the honor of coming nearest the exact time, his guess being 90 hours. He will accordingly have the privilege of selecting a prize, a bicycle, a suit of clothes or a dress.
Sex, sterilization and a socialite s downfall: New book examines the 1936 trial of New York City heiress who sued her mother for tricking her into getting her fallopian tubes removed so she could get her hands on her daughter s inheritance
In January 1936, heiress Ann Cooper Hewitt sued her mother, Maryon, for $500,000
Ann was born in 1914 to parents Peter and Maryon Cooper Hewitt
Maryon was Peter s second wife, and it s unclear when they met but they had an illicit affair while he was still married to his first wife
Hewitt and Maryon married in 1918, and when Hewitt died in 1921 he divided his fortune - about $4 million, which is over $59.1 million today – between Ann, who got the majority, and Maryon
Ann Cooper Hewitt was daughter of engineer and inventor Peter Cooper Hewitt
Aged three, caught with hand down pants and was viewed as feebleminded
In 1934, Ann s mother Maryon had her sterilized without her knowledge
Did so to deprive Ann of millions of dollars from her father s estate, which contained a child-bearing stipulation
Long and tiring court case ensued and Ann sued her mother for $500 million
Trial is detailed in The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt, by Audrey Clare Farley
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Inside the Shocking 1930s Trial of Socialite Ann Cooper Hewitt
An exclusive excerpt from the new book,
The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt.
By Audrey Clare Farley Hearst Owned
Bulbs flashed as the socialite, sporting rouge and fur, took her seat alongside her attorney, who had called a press conference in his San Francisco office. The image of the solemn-faced, perfectly coiffed twenty-one-year-old would appear in newspapers across the country. Some, like the