Estate of Hunsicker

In the year 1884 Ervin L„ Hunsicker and Emma J. Hunsicker, his wife, and their only child, Stella May Hunsicker, then of the age of about three years, were residents of Monroe County, Pennsylvania, as was also Andrew S. Hinton. In that year, by a proceeding in the court of common pleas in that county, and with the consent of the parents of the child, Hinton duly adopted said Stella May Hunsicker as his child and heir, the decree of the court providing “that the said child shall assume the name of Stella May Hinton, and have all the rights of a child and heir of the said Andrew S. Hinton, and be subject to the duties of a child.” It appears from the record, at least inferentially, that Hinton was married and living with his wife at the time of the adoption proceedings. It does not appear whether she consented to the adoption by her husband of the child. The child lived with the Hintons as their adopted child until her marriage in the year 1902 to Ralph A. Halterman. Mary E. Halterman and Ralph A. Halterman, hereinafter mentioned, are the only issue of such marriage. The Hintons had no child of their own blood and, from certain evidence admitted in the instant case, it is to be…