San Francisco Examiner, September 9, 1894

While Mrs. John Martin, of “Martin Will Case” fame, was quietly sitting in Justice Wood’s courtroom this afternoon, listening to her attorney prosecute a little old maid for an unpaid rent bill, Peter D. Horton, inventor, teacher and export of penmanship, sat in his barricaded residence at 668 Thirty-fourth street, grimly determined to resist at all hazards another visit of widow John Martin, should she attempt to enter his house.

Whether or not Mr. Horton had a pistol to defend himself is uncertain, but after his recent experience with Mrs. John Martin, he consulted an attorney and was advised to arm himself if it was necessary to enforce his rights in his own home. Attorney Fred L. Button stated today that he so advised Mr. Horton last Saturday, after the latter had related how Mrs. John Martin had twice caused his precipitate flight from beneath his own roof.

The expert in penmanship told the story today of his experiences with the fiery widow, while Mrs. Horton kept the front door of their house guarded, assisted by their daughter. The Horton household is a modest, two-story cottage, half a block west from Grove street, on Thirty-fourth. It stands back in the lot about fifteen feet from the street; and in the rear is a yard divided from the adjoining premises by a high board fence.

These features were pointed out by the expert of penmanship as he considered them germane to the incidents he was about to relate—incidents wherein his soul had been filled with terror of the widow of John Martin.

“I became acquainted with Mrs. John Martin by a mistake of my own,” Mr. Horton explained. “One of San Francisco’s prominent men introduced me to Mrs. Henry Martin, and unfortunately I took Mrs. John Martin for that lady. My services as an expert of penmanship were desired, and I was engaged by Mrs. John Martin in that capacity. She did not show me all the documents her attorneys have introduced in the will contest. I was permitted to see the second will and some of the exemplars which have been admitted by both parties in the will contest.

“After an examination of the second will, what faith I had of its genuineness was based on the fact as represented to me by Mrs. John Martin, that Henry Martin was a very sick man when it was written. Subsequent developments destroyed my faith in this respect. I thought it curious then that the gentleman who had recommended me as an expert should have done so. I was under engagement to Mrs. John Martin, and by agreement with her, I was to receive $150 in cash as a retaining fee and $5 a day after the first month’s service. It was in June that this agreement was made.

“As the will case progressed, I told the widow she ought not to call me as a witness. She was curious to know why, but I hesitated to tell her my reasons. I offered to furnish to her attorney, Grove L. Johnson, all that I could discover which might benefit her case, as I considered that course a proper one. Mrs. Martin, however, insisted that I should be called as a witness. I was like General Barnes—detained rather than retained at this stage of the case—and I tried to convince her that my testimony as a witness would not help her win her suit without giving her my reasons.

“But she was persistent. I then told her that if I was placed on the witness stand I would be cross-examined and have my entire views of the whole case drawn out. This, I told Mrs. Martin, would injure her case. Finally I told her I believed my evidence would kill her chances of winning the suit. Of course she was angry and demanded my reasons.

“During the months of July and August, I had been studying the case as it progressed, and when I had come to the conclusion which 1 have just stated I went to San Francisco and offered Mrs. Martin the $100 she had sent to me as a retaining fee. She said she didn’t want the money and considered that I had earned it.

“Immediately following my declaration to her that as a witness my evidence would be detrimental to her interests, she came to my residence. Her visit was on August 25th. She came into this parlor and sat down in that rockingchair. She is a heavy woman, the chair slipped off its rockers and Mrs. Martin slid off on the floor.

“When Mrs. Martin had smoothed down her skirts,” resumed the expert, “she again said that she was anxious to know my honest reasons for not wishing to be a witness in the will contest. I called her attention to certain ‘accidents’ which I had discovered had been made in a written document acknowledged to be in the handwriting of Henry Martin, and pointed out that a similar ‘accident’ appeared in the same word in the second will. I told her that people repeated habits, but did not repeat accidents. Then I said: ‘Mrs. Martin, you know how that ‘accident’ came in the second will?’ ”

“You are a liar!’ she exclaimed, and she began screaming for her seventeen-year-old son, who is pretty well grown, and who was in a carriage in the street. He came rushing into the house, crying: ‘Mother, mother, what’s the matter?’

“I had no idea that he or anybody else was waiting out there. Mrs. Martin was in a fury, and it flashed upon me that she might attempt violence. I feared the consequences of an encounter which seemed certain if I remained in the room, so I grabbed my hat and ran out of the rear door of the house.

“I scrambled over the high board fence, and Mrs. Martin didn’t seem able to follow me; for when I got into a vacant lot on the other side she did not appear in pursuit. I escaped from the neighborhood, and called for police protection. The patrol wagon, with two police officers, came out here after a while, but Mrs. Martin had then gone away.

“I was called upon here in this room last Saturday by L. E. Phillips, one of Mrs. Martin’s attorneys, who said he had come for information about my opinion regarding the will contest. He seemed to be a very pleasant gentleman, and I was proceeding to give him my views, when who should walk into the house but Mrs. John Martin!

“I respectfully saluted her, but she made no response — she simply sat down and glared at me. She declined to sit in the rocking-chair, but sat over there in a chair that doesn’t rock. I didn’t propose to be placed in a position where there would be two witnesses against me, and I told Mr. Phillips that I would not converse with him about the ease in the presence of Mrs. Martin. However, before I said so Mrs. Martin called me a liar several times.

“I looked out of the window and saw a wagon in the street, and on the grass by the front gate were her big son, a nurse and the little boy, John Jr. It looked to me as if she had come to blackmail me into silence, possibly anticipating I might be called as a witness against her.

“However, I invited Mr. Phillips to go upstairs and talk in private. He went into the dining room and jerked off his overcoat as if he was preparing for an encounter and upstairs we went.

“We had just got into my bedchamber when the door was kicked open by Mrs. Martin, who stood in the doorway, her eyes blazing. I thought it time to skip out. She is big and fat and I am long and slim, and somehow or other I managed to slip past her. I ran downstairs, and she after me. I dodged into the dining room and she into the parlor. My wife held the parlor door while I found my hat, and then I ran out into the baek yard and again scrambled over the garden wall.

“I could hear Mrs. Martin crying out to her son to pursue me. I ran around through vacant lots and came out on Thirty-fourth street again, and saw Mr. Phillips and Mrs. Martin run out into the street. I wanted to talk to them and waited for Mr. Phillips to approach. He came to where I stood and exclaimed:

“‘Why, in heaven’s name, don’t you pay her $100 and get rid of her?’”

“I then saw the son coming, and his mother was crying out to him not to let me escape.

“I ran along Thirty-fourth street and the boy after me. Perhaps he thought I was running because he was in pursuit, but it was not so. I wanted to escape from Mrs. Martin. She got into the wagon and I heard them whipping up the horse and calling the boy to get into the wagon. He did so and the entire party in the wagon started to run me down.

“I dodged into a neighbor’s back yard and hid until the wagon drove away. Then I came out and saw the police again, but Mrs. Martin had left town.

‘‘On Thursday of this week I went to San Francisco and told Grove L. Johnson that I was ready to be called as a witness if he desired. Mr. Johnson is my friend, and he said I was not needed as a witness. I did this to stop Mrs. Martin from asserting that she was after me to recover the $100. She was present when I saw Mr. Johnson and she was as demure as a kitten. I haven’t seen her since.”

The family in the residence of G. A. J. Davis, at 532 Thirty-fourth street, where expert Horton took refuge when pursued by Mrs. Martin and her son last Saturday, were astounded when they saw the expert scampering along the street. The other neighbors on Thirty-fourth street hurried out of doors to observe the str

Mr. Horton’s hiding place in a box in the Davis back yard was kept a profound secret, until the wagon had disappeared. Then, when he cautiously peered out and saw that the coast was clear, the neighbors rejoiced with him at his fortunate escape.

Mr. Horton met Attorney F. L. Button at the Grove Street crossing on his return homeward and was advised to arm himself.

Now the Horton residence is barricaded and the widow John Martin is guarded against day and night. Strangers calling at the house must hold converse with the expert only in the presence of a third person, while Mrs. Horton and daughter see to it that the drawbridge is up and the portcullis bars the passage.