36 , FEDERAL REPORTER.
him in his life-time by Michael B. Keegan, now deceased, and the
cross·bill is filed by Peter Geraghty, who claims said property as the
sole heir at law of Mary Gertrude Keegan, the only child of said
Michael B. Keegan, and seeks to have the alleged trusts declared
void and set aside, andthe property in question awarded to the com-
, plainant in the cross-bill. The material facts in the case, as they
` appear from the record, are briefly these: Michael R. Keegan, who
had been a resident of the city of Chicago for 10 or 12 years, died in
said city on November 1.5, 1879, leaving no widow, and but one child,
Mary Gertrude Keegan, and she died on the twenty-sixth of December,
1879, aged a little over four years, leaving as her next of kin and sole
. heir at law the complainant in the cross-bill, who is her maternal grand-
father. A In the month of August, 1874, Keegan married Bidelia M. `
Geraghty, the mother of the child Mary Gertrude, and the wife died
in the latter days of July, 1879. For some time prior to his death
Keegan had expressed the intention of leaving his property in the
hands of the Bt. Bev. John Ireland, then and now coadjutor Catholic
bishop of the diocese of Minnesota, in some form of trust for the
benefit of this child, Mary Gertrude, and, in the event of her death,
for some charity; and on or about the first day of January, 1879,
he forwarded to Bishop Ireland a tin box containing all or nearly all
the notes, bonds, and other securities for the payment of money
' which he, Keegan, then held; and on the fourth day of February,
1879, Keegan executed an unconditional deed in fee-simple to Bishop
Ireland, conveying to him all the real estate he, Keegan, then owned-
No consideration was paid by Bishop Ireland for this conveyance, and
there is no doubt from the proof that this conveyance was made upon
such trusts as Keegan should direct or create; that is, it was not a
· I gift to the bishop individually, but a conveyance to him in trust for
such purposes as the grantor in the deed should appoint. ·
At about the same time, perhaps simultaneously with the execution
of this deed, but probably some months later, and on or about the
eighteenth of April, 1879, Keegan executed and delivered to Bishop
Ireland a written paper in the following words:
*¢To the Right Reverend John Ireland, Ooadiutor Bishop of St. Paul, Minne-
sota: .
·*Rrorrr REVEREND Sm-The real and personal property which I have
heretofore a11d may hereafter convey to you are for the benelit of my infant
child, Mary Gertrude Keegan, born November 15, A. D. 1875, to be delivered
to her, with its accrued profits, rents, and interest, when she shall become of
age. Should she die before coming of age, and leave no issue, then to your-