Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, again featuring the Hopkins family line with more court drama over a contested will. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I continue my series on “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who,” again featuring a group of California pioneer families.

The photo collage below features direct descendants of Mayflower passengers William Bradford, Thomas Rogers, John Alden, and Priscilla Mullins. Hiram Crittenden and his offspring also have Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins.

In this collage of Mayflower scions we see: (top row left to right) Hiram Crittenden; Lydia (Sherwood) Crittenden; Mark Hopkins; (second row left to right) Marjorie Severance McPherson; Ann (Crittenden) Severance; Mary Frances (Sherwood) Hopkins-Searles; (bottom row left to right) William Sherwood; Mary “May” Kellogg (Crittenden) Hopkins and daughter Lydia Kellogg Hopkins; Moses Hopkins.

My last story, Part 4, introduced the legal battle over the millions left by railroad tycoon Mark Hopkins to his widow Mary Hopkins, who married 2nd Edward F. Searles. In her will, Mary cut out her entire family and left her fortune to her current husband Edward. To catch up on the drama see the links to past posts at the end of this article.

The first trial over Mark Hopkins’ millions was held on 22 September 1891 in Essex County Court in Salem, Massachusetts. There were 21 other claimants who joined forces with Timothy Hopkins, Mary’s adopted son who married her niece Mary “May” Kellogg (Crittenden) Hopkins.

Most of the claimants were first and second cousins to the late dowager. This was one of many court battles that would continue after appeals.

The press covered the scandal relentlessly and the public could not get enough. Headlines captured the bizarre combination of eccentricity and wealth. The courtroom was jam-packed with spectators.

Here is an illustration of a courtroom scene in Searles’s probate hearing. The upper left two sketches are Edward Searles and his widow Mary (Hopkins) Searles. In the bottom right corner is a sketch of Timothy Hopkins.

Moses Hopkins, successful California rancher, son of Mark Hopkins Sr. and Anastasia (Lukens) Hopkins, and brother of the late Mark Hopkins, testified that Mary’s state of mind was one of confusion and undue influence caused by Edward Searles and their involvement with the occult.

Moses testified that many in the family had numerous letters confirming Mary’s intention to take care of them. Mary was always kind and generous, Moses said, but “he [Searles] wrecked her mind and drove her insane and used undue influence.” (The family letters are housed in the Stanford University Archives; Timothy Hopkins Papers.)

Another witness for Timothy’s side was Mrs. Annie Severance, niece of Mary (Hopkins) Searles, and sister to Mary Kellogg (Crittenden) Hopkins, Timothy’s wife.

Ann “Annie” (Crittenden) Severance is the daughter of Hiram and Lydia (Sherwood) Crittenden and wife of Mark S. Severance. Their daughter Marjorie (Severance) McPherson is featured in the above photo collage.

Annie’s husband Mark worked for Timothy Hopkins in the Pacific Railroad office, and his brother James Severance was Timothy’s private secretary.

While Annie stood loyal to her kin in the September court hearings, by late October (when there was an appeal filed) she changed her allegiance to Searles.

A second cousin to the Hopkins clan, Maria Elma (Hebbard) Bresee, the wife of Phineas F. Bresee, put her name in the ring for Timothy.

Maria’s brother Rodney Lewis Hebbard, a farmer living in Davenport, New York, was among the first 21 claimants who initially filed with Timothy.

The most compelling testimony came from John T. Crook Jr., the son of Mary’s former physician Dr. John Taylor Crook and his wife Clara (Reilly) Crook, who had lived at Mary’s Nob Hill mansion and attended the spooks fests held there, sometimes playing the role of medium.

John’s testimony, along with others, put Edward on the rack as all his sorcery secrets were spilled.

This article reports:

Sensational facts in connection with the death of Mrs. Hopkins-Searles and the distribution of her millions were made public today.

It is openly stated that the near friends of the late Mrs. Searles were not surprised at her marriage, for the reason that they had regarded her mental condition for quite a while before it as unsound, and no one knew what direction it might take.

Just what Timothy Hopkins thought no one ever knew, as it was too delicate a matter to carry before the public. That he knew the active direction in which her hallucination pointed there can be no doubt; but it is not probable that he ever thought it would terminate in a marriage with one of her employees, a servant.

Her belief in spiritualism had been known to her family for more than a year previous to her marriage [to Searles], and it was also known that she kept her private medium in her house in order to have constantly at hand a kind of a private operator through whom she could communicate with the invisible world.

On the advent of Edward, he encouraged Mary to employ two mediums: Henry Slade and Nathan A. Bolles, both proven to be notorious charlatans.

They were instrumental to Edward and his scheme to master the art of table-tipping and slate-writing, two methods by which spirits “communicate” with spiritualists during séances. Edward soon slipped into the role of spiritual consultant to Mary on matters of money and matrimony.

At the trial, John Crook told the court he witnessed a spooks matchmaking session when Edward was acting as the medium and slate scribbler.

This article reports:

An old friend of the Hopkins family says it has been generally known for several years that Mrs. Hopkins-Searles was a firm believer in spiritualism and in Mr. Searles’s power to communicate with the dead. “I have frequently heard,” said this gentleman, “that it was through spiritualistic communication that Mrs. Hopkins married Mr. Searles, and that the same influence is what caused the adopted son [Timothy Hopkins] to be disinherited.

“As the story goes, there was spirit writing going on in Mrs. Hopkins’s drawing room one night. Mr. Searles was the medium [the one doing the writing]. When the slate was opened he was the first to read the message. It was an injunction from spiritland that Mr. Searles should marry Mrs. Hopkins. Of course Mr. Searles was greatly “embarrassed” and he started to rub out the writing, but Mrs. Hopkins snatched the slate and quickly scanned the message.

“It was not long after that Mr. Searles, in the presence of several friends, put his arm affectionately around Mrs. Hopkins and kissed her, while she in return announced him as her affianced husband.”

Also in this article, John Crook recalled another session when Mary asked if she should give the deed for her Menlo Park property to her adopted son Timothy. John said it was obvious Edward wanted a negative reply, and the answer to her question came by way of table tipping. John was trying to tip the table to Timothy to indicate that the spirits wanted Timothy to inherit the estate, while Edward was trying to hold the table down to prevent the inheritance.

It then became a question of muscle and Edward fought hard, but John had more vim and tipped it toward Timothy in the end.

As soon as the spirits’ answer was given in Timothy’s favor, Edward shut the séance down for the night.

John stated:

“From this time on while I remained with Mrs. Hopkins, I watched the moves of Searles acquiring mental ascendency over her, and when he carried his point, he found an excuse for sending me away.”

Edward used this modus operandi to isolate all of Mary’s relatives.

To be continued…

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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Related Articles:

• Fake Wills & Forged Bibles Lay Claim to Mark Hopkins’ Huge Estate
• The Gilded Age Palace: What Mark Hopkins Bankrolled
• Mad Scramble to Claim Mark Hopkins’ Riches: A ‘New Gold Rush’
• Pedigree, Pearls, and Pooches: The Hopkins Saga Continues
• The Mysterious Death of Heiress Lydia Kellogg Hopkins, Part I
• The Mysterious Death of Heiress Lydia Kellogg Hopkins, Part II
• America’s Richest Widow Restores Church and Cemetery of Great Barrington, MA
• Moss’ Hoax: A Scam for the Hopkins Fortune
• More Legal Battles over the Mark Hopkins Railroad Fortune
• Scams to Get the Hopkins Fortune: Seances, Table Tipping, and Slate Writing
• More Hopkins Saga: Minister’s Wife Battles Edward Searles
• Kin of America’s Richest Widow Battle Edward Searles in Probate Court
• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 48 (part 1)
• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 48 (part 2)
• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 48 (part 3)
• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 48 (part 4)