Melville Fuller

“ The court below distributed the entire estate to the lawful wife and her four children, holding that the children of the plural wife were not entitled to inherit. A statute enacted by the legislative assembly of Utah in 1852 provided: 'Sec. 25. Illlegitimate children and their mothers inherit in like manner from the father, whether acknowledged by him or not, provided it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that he was the father of such illegitimate child or children,' (Comp. Laws Utah 1876, § 677;) ”

“ The four first named are the children of said deceased and said Elizabeth, his lawful wife, and the last four were children of said deceased and your petitioner, Sarah A. Chapman, his plural wife according to the tenets and rites of the Mormon Church; that all said children are now living except Mary Handley, who died, without issue or having been married, on the 28th day of September, 1879; that all said children are of age except said Harvey Handley, who is sixteen years of age. ”