Will of Willis Brewer, Montgomery, Alabama =============================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed and copyrighted by: David Franklin ================================================================================= July 2003 WILLIS BREWER ) STATE OF ALABAMA LAST WILL AND TESTMENT OF. ) COUNTY OF MONTGOMERY I, Willis Brewer, a citizen of said State and County, do hereby make, write, publish, and declare this instrument to be my Last Will and Testament; hereby revoking and annulling any and all other writings of like kind. I wish to be buried in the tomb I have had built at the "Cedars" place in this State and County and I respectfully ask that any person who may own said place will protect my tomb desecration. Item 1. I bequeath to every one of my tenants actually dwelling on my lands five years or more prior to my decease thirty (30) per cent off the debt they may then be due me except for rent for the current year. And his bequest includes the Smith place in Lowndes County of which I am trustee. Item 2. I bequeath to Willis Brewer McQueen, Willis Brewer Mitchell, Willis Brewer Goldsmith, Willis Brewer Till, Willis Brewer Stough of Crenshaw County, Willis Brewer Avant one hundred dollars ($100.00) each; to Cleveland Brewer Dean fifty dollars ($50); to Willis Brewer Harrell and to Willis Brewer Manning (often called Powers) five hundred dollars ($500.00) each. The father or mother of either of these legatees may receive the amount of this bequest without bond, if such legatee is not of legal age. Item 3. I bequeath to Mrs. Mary B. Brewer the sum of ten Thousand dollars ($l0, 000) In lieu of her dower in my personal estate, such sum being paid to her as the same Is collected, by the Executors of this Will. I devise to her no real estate because I have already given to her by deed my river place and my Turner place, consisting of about three thousand and sixty (3060) acres of land in Lowndes County, besides a house and lot at Mountain Creek Ala. Item 4. I bequeath to Willis Brewer Jr. my inhuman son, five dollars ($5). The laws of Moses and of Christ are more severe then disinheritance (Proverbs 21: 17; Prov. 20: 20; Lev. 20: 2; Matt. 15; 4; Mark 7; 10). Item 5. I devise and bequeath to my daughter Estelle H. Manning-Brewer my place called "The Cedars" in this State and County, lying on Catoma Creek, which place I bought in the Fall of 1902 from Warren Reese and Minnie Reese Richardson bounded North by lands of Mr. Cobb, east by Catoma Creek save forty acres on the east side of it; south by lands of Gerson Bibb, Zc, west by lands of Hobbie and Gay; together with all the debts the tenants on said place may owe me at the time this instrument takes effect, and all the personal property that may then be on said place. The dwelling I gave this daughter at Washington was purely in compensation for her faithful help to me in business and in my turns of ill health, and for the slanders she suffered for her attendance on me. I also bequeath to said Estelle Manning-Brewer the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.), and this sum to be paid to her as early as the same can be conveniently collected by my Executors. Item. 6. I devise and bequeath to me other three daughters, Mrs. Mary B. Irwin of Washington, Ga. Mrs. Mildred Russell and Mrs. Miriam Brown of Hayneville, Ala. all the rest and residue of my estate, real and personal, except as herein excepted. Item 7. I bequeath all my books as well as the copy-rights of my own writings to my daughters Estelle and Mary Irwin, to be divided between them as they may choose. I also give and bequeath to my daughter Estelle all my wearing apparel, in order that she may give the same to those who have served me. Item 8. Any person who shall attempt to invalidate or break this my Last Will and Testament or who may be shown to have incited other to do so, or who shall become a conspirator with others to do so, shall take no part or Inheritance whatever In my estate. My Executors are especially instructed to use every lawful means and to expend any part of my estate in resistance to any attempt to break or invalidate this solemn Instrument. Item 9. I hereby appoint A. D. Sayre of Montgomery, Archibald Douglass and E. Harrell of Lowndes, and Estelle H. Manning-Brewer of Montgomery as Executors of this my last will and testament; but they are hereby relieved of bond in the execution of this trust. Witness my hand and seal this 18 Aug. A. D. 1911. Signed In our presence on the ) day aforesaid by Willis Brewer ) who states to us that this was ) his last Will and Testament, and we as witnesses signed the same In his presence and in the presence of each other. Attest: E. F. Higgins R. Semms Jr. STATE OF ALABAMA ) ) CODICIL MONTGOMERY COUNTY. ) I, Willis Brewer, of said State and County, being of sound and disposing mind, do hereby make ordain, publish and declare this as a codicil to my last will and codicil heretofore made, which I now in all things except as herein declared, do hereby confirm and republish. 1. I have sufficiently provided for my adopted daughter Estelle H. Manning-Brewer and therefore revoke the legacy of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000) given to her in my will, but the devise to her of my plantation known as The Cedars, I confirm. 2. I give to my grand-child, Mildred Brown, the daughter of my daughter Miriam Brewer Brown the plantation at Hayneville, consisting of about four hundred and forty acres, known as my home place while I reside in Lowndes County, with all personal property thereon including debts due by tenants, but excepting my library which has been disposed of already. 3. I bequeath to my friend, E. Harrell the sum of One Thousand Dollars ($1000) who is one of my executors. 4. I revoke the appointment of executors and executrix made in my will and hereby nominate and appoint as my executors my friends A. D. Sayre and E. Harrell and Chas. B. Teasley and I desire that they be not required to give bond as such executors; and I give them or the one of them that may qualify, power to sell any real or personal property that may be deemed necessary to sell to carry out my will. And as I do not owe any debts, I request that they turn over the property devised or bequeathed as soon as they can to the parties entitled taking refunding bonds from them If deemed necessary for their protection. 5. I may desire that my estate be quietly settled up without any litigation and therefore I have provided In my will that any one of my heirs who shall directly or indirectly contest my will shall have no share in my estate, which I now confirm, and I now provide that the share of such heir making such contest or assisting therein or conspiring to have a contest made shall, if the contest fail vest In and belong to the other of my residuary legatees and devisees. 6. And I farther declare my will to be that if my will or any devise therein be contested; and shall be successful then and in that event and as a substitutionary and alternative disposal of my entire estate except the legacy herein given to my grand-child, and that given to the Working Womans Association in a former codicil, I give, devise and bequeath my entire estate of all and every kind of property, real personal and mixed, of which I may be possessed at my death with the exception aforesaid, to the City of Montgomery in this State, in trust to be used as a perpetual trust in aid of the public schools of said City. The word "there" erased before signing. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this the 11th day of April A. D. 1912. W. Brewer_____(L.S) Signed, sealed, published, and declared by Willis Brewer as a testamentary paper and Codicil to his will the day and year aforesaid In the presence of the undersigned, who at his request and in his presence and in the presence of each other, have subscribed as witnesses the day and year above written. Ludlow Elmore John S. Tilley THE STATE OF ALABAMA ) PROBATE OF WILL MONTGOMERY COUNTY ) PROBATE COURT In the Matter of the Last Will and Testament of Willis Brewer Deceased. BEFORE ME, J. B. Gaston Judge of Probate Court, in and for the County and State aforesaid, personally appeared In open Court, Ludlow Elmore who having been by me first duly sworn and examined, did and does depose and say that he subscribing witness to the foregoing instrument in writing, now shown to the said affiant and which purports to be a Codicil to the last Will and Testament of Willis Brewer deceased, late an inhabitant of this County; that the said Willis Brewer since deceased, signed and executed said instrument on the day the same bears date, In the presence of said subscribing witnesses, and declared the same to be his last will and testament, and that affiant and John S. Tilley set his signature thereto, on the day the same bears date, as subscribing witnesses to the same, in the presence of said testator and at his request, and In the presence of each other, and that said testator was of sound mind and disposing memory and understanding, and, in the opinion of affiant , fully capable of making his said will at the time the same was so made as aforesaid. And deponent further states that said testator was, on the day of the date of said will, of the full age of twenty-one years and upward, and a resident of this County. Ludlow Elmore Subscribed and sworn to before me this 2nd day of December A. D. 1913. J. B. Gaston Judge of Propate Court, Montgomery County. STATE OF ALABAMA ) MONTGOMERY COUNTY ) I, J. B. Gaston, Judge of the Probate Court In and for the County and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that the within Instrument in writing has this day in said court, and before me as the Judge thereof, been duly proved by the testimony of Ludlow Elmore a subscribing witness to be the genuine codicil to the last will and testament of Willis Brewer deceased, and that said will, together with the proof thereof, has been recorded In my office In Book No. 8 of Wills, at page 294. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Seal of said Probate Court, on this the 2nd day of December A. D. One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twelve. (SEAL) ____J. B. Gaston ___________ Judge of Probate Court, Montgomery County.