Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1883 — An Eccentric Character. [ARTICLE]

An Eccentric Character.

Frederick M. Shaw went to Southern California ten years ago to establish a vegetable diet colony. The enterprise was a failure, and Shaw, retiring to the mountains, made a house in a tree top. He dressed in a flannel shirt and trousers and lived upon fruits and nnts. A series of letters on the creation of the human species and the best methods of securing health gave him the reputation as half philosopher, half crank. His fame even deeply interested a New Jersey schoolmistress named Margaret Garey Wright. Their correspondence ended in a marriage by telegraph on June 4, 1879. A dispatch was sent to Shaw by the clergyman at Newark, N. J., saying:. “Will you take Margaret Garey Wright, of this city, to be your wedded wife?” To this Shaw responded “I will,” and two witnesses being at each end of the line, the marriage was accomplished. The bride was very slow about joining her husband, but, after he had given up all hope of seeing her, she appeared and was taken ont to the mountain retreat by a friend who went in advance to find the bridegroom only in a shirt and cap, gathering honey. He was prevailed upon to don a pair of trousers to meet his bride. The couple set up housekeeping in a shanty built under his favorite tree. To the bridegroom’s walnuts and honey was added a box of raisins from the friend. In this fashion the couple lived for two years, when the woman grew weary and took up her residence in town. Shaw grew more eccentric, and some of his utterances in the presence of a neighbor who had worried him, led to the charge that he was insane. He was examined Mid released.