The Ross Heirship controversy

Tom McDermott
Posted 12/19/24

The Ross Heirship controversy has largely been forgotten. If you lived in Lane or Rochelle between 1888 and 1945 it was an ongoing nightmare. At the peak of the legal challenges over 60 residents of Rochelle were threatened with ejectment suits, the ownership of 40 acres of Rochelle were under debate. But as Charles Dickens said, “The way to tell a story is to begin at the beginning.” 

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The Ross Heirship controversy

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The Ross Heirship controversy has largely been forgotten. If you lived in Lane or Rochelle between 1888 and 1945 it was an ongoing nightmare. At the peak of the legal challenges over 60 residents of Rochelle were threatened with ejectment suits, the ownership of 40 acres of Rochelle were under debate. But as Charles Dickens said, “The way to tell a story is to begin at the beginning.” 

This story begins in 1838, when Sheldon Bartholomew settled in an area referred to as Hickory Grove. Sheldon bought, sold, and traded property, at one time owning as many as 191 acres of land which would become the Village of Lane and later Rochelle. At the time of his death in 1846, Sheldon had a wife, Charlotte, and a daughter, Marie. Charlotte and Maria became the owners of the Bartholomew estate. The next year (1847) Charlotte married Mathew Powell.  Marie married Isaac Ross a few years later and the couple had six children. Maria passed away in 1871, Charlotte in 1872, and Isaac Ross died in 1885. Mathew Powell had deserted his bride, Charlotte, and moved away. Charlotte, Isaac, and Marie began selling off parcels of their land, much of which came from the Bartholomew properties.  The land had been left to Charlotte, upon Charlotte’s death the total property would go to Maria. To avoid complications all three, Charlotte, Isaac and Marie frequently signed property transfer paperwork. Charlotte was forced to sell some property to complete her divorce from Mathew Powell. In 1853 Isaac and Marie sold approximately two sections of land, one of almost eight acres and another, almost 32 acres, to a Rockford developer named Robert Lane. Robert in turn surveyed the land and plotted out a new community, the Village of Lane. 

In 1888 the Ross heirs sued, they disputed the legality of the land sales. The first lawsuit involved just under eight acres south of the railroad track. The land transfer deed was signed by Marie and Isaac, owners at the time, but there was a flaw in the paperwork. The law at the time required that if a married woman was selling property she must meet with a Notary Public without her husband and sign an affidavit stating that she was selling the property without duress. Simply that her husband was not making her sell. In all of the paperwork such an affidavit could not be found. The second lawsuit was against the 32 acres sold to Robert Lane. The complaint challenged that Marie was under the age of 18 at the time she signed the agreements and thus the contracts were void. In effect the six Ross children claimed the village was theirs. This included 28 city blocks, more than 60 homes and businesses including the Presbyterian church, City Hall, and a portion of the city’s cemetery. To make matters worse the Ross children offered a settlement to the properties outside of the initial 40 acres. For a fee, a property owner could settle with the Ross heirs in case there were future lawsuits. Remember the initial land ownings of Charlotte and Marie was almost 191 acres. 

The city was in an uproar, a committee of concerned citizens was formed to fight the claims. As the lawsuits affected almost every citizen, the committee became quite large and almost every attorney in Rochelle was hired to protect the property owners. It is safe to say that the Ross heirs had few friends in the community. 

There were many questions. Why had the heirs waited until all of the primary claimants had passed away before they claimed the deeds were illegal? Why would they threaten upcoming lawsuits against no-involved parties? Were they after legitimate claims or merely opportunists seeking quick profits? Some answers will never be completely known. 

This, in simplified terms, is how the case played out. In 1846 when Sheldon Bartholomew died his wife became the owner of his property with a small percentage set aside for his daughter, Marie. Charlotte had right to all of the property throughout her lifetime. Charlotte signed paperwork in 1853 giving Marie entitlement beginning at Charlotte’s death. Marie died in 1871 so the property rights reverted back to Charlotte. Charlotte passed in 1872 at which time Isaac would have no claim to Charlotte’s property. 

Isaac passed in 1885 and this started the clock on another problem for the heirs. By the rule of statute of limitation the heirs had three years from the time they reached the age of 18 to file any claims against properties. Five of the heirs had waited too long, the three-year period had passed. One of the heirs, George Ross, was still in the game until he met with M.L. Ettinger of Rochelle and signed away any claim he had on the property. 

It would be foolish to assume that both sides of the lawsuit did not stretch the law to achieve their goals. George Ross later signed an affidavit claiming that he had been plied with alcohol and threatened before he signed away his rights to the property. For many years the claims resurfaced. How long did the case impact the community? From the first lawsuit in 1888 the claims stayed just below the surface causing concern for every purchaser of the challenged properties. It was in 1945 that the Ogle County Bar Association passed a resolution declaring that title objections, based on the Ross heirship controversy, may be waived. After more than 57 years the property owners could finally breathe easy, their homes were theirs.

Tom McDermott is a Flagg Township Museum historian and Rochelle city councilman.