NEW CLAIMANT FOR
HUNTEMANN ESTATE.
ANNA GESINE HEUER SAYS SHE
IS FIRST COUSIN.
Follows Over Two Hundred Claim-
ants for Eccentric Recluse's For-
tune -- Will Come From
Germany to Fight.
Another heir to the Adolph Huntemann estate, claiming to be the first cousin of the eccentric old bachelor who died nearly three years ago, leaving an estate valued at $250,000, appeared yesterday when Anna Gesine Heuer of Bremen, Germany, filed suit in the circuit court to have herself declared the sole heir.
If the German woman can establish her relationship with the late Adolph Huntemann, she will inherit the entire estate. Over two hundred claimants have applied for shares. Of these all have been cut out except eight distant cousins.
The suit is brought against R. S. Crohn, former public administrator, and the only one who now has charge of the estate. The petition says that all the debts against the estate have been paid and that it is now ready for distribution. The personal property is estimated to be worth $76,000, and the real estate, $175,000.
Anna Heuer is 44 years of age and married. She has never been to America. If the court refuses to accept her deposition at the trial of this case, she will come here to fight for the estate.
For years Anna Heuer has been writing to German friends who have settled in Kansas City. In the exchange of letters one of her former friends mentioned the Huntemann matter and told of the fight now being made among the heirs to secure possession of the estate. Anna Heuer investigated her family tree and decided that she was a first cousin.
Among the recent claimants to the Huntemann estate was Mrs. Minnie A. Shepard of Burlington, Ia., who secured affidavits from confederates in Chicago, St. Louis and other cities showing her to be an illegitimate child of the deceased.
Fraud was suspected, and Grant I. Rosenzweig, attorney for the estate, went to Burlington to investigate. Few discrepancies were found. The "tip" came from a woman who had been jilted by one of Mrs. Shepard's confederates. Affidavits were received from relatives to prove that Mrs. Shepard's mother was married, and that the Iowa woman's claims were fraud. When confronted by this evidence October 19, Mrs. Shepard admitted that her affidavits and claims were false.
Huntemann, who was a bachelor, died March 8, 1907, at his home, 4025 McGee street. He had been a recluse, and the amount of his wealth was not known until after he died. He came to this country from Germany in 1860, and settled in Kansas City two years later, without a dollar, and amassed a fortune by investments in Kansas City real estate.
