Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1895 — Mixed Relationship in lllinois. [ARTICLE]

Mixed Relationship in lllinois.

A lady friend of the St. Louis Republic, residing in Colorado, writes to that paper as follows . A Miss Somebody, whose name the writer has forgotten, was born deaf and dumb. On reaching womanhood, her affliction notwithstanding, she married a man by the name of Harris. who lived near Nebo, 111. Soon after this event her father died, and later on her mother married a widower named Ewing. Mr. Ewing had a son by his first marriage, who,quite naturally, thus became the stepbrother of the deaf and dumb Mrs. Harris. In the course of events Harris died, and his widow married young Ewing, and to them was born a daughter, a beautiful girl, whom they named Alice. Within a few years the deaf and dumb Mrs. Ewing’s mother, the elder Mrs. Ewing, died, and so, too, did young Ewing. In other words, the younger Mrs. Ewing’s mother and husband both died, they being the elder Ewing’s wife and son. To console each other, and, probably, in order to keep the marrying business in the family, old Mr. Ewing and the young Mrs. Ewing were joined in the holy bonds of matrimony, this being the third time that the silent bride had been led to the altar. The fruit of this last marriage was a daughter, Esther by name. Alice Harris was still living at that time, and probably is to-day, and it is between her and Esther Ewing that this complicated relationship exists. By careful thought you will see that Alice and Esther are half-sisters. Esther’s father is Alice’s grandfather, and is also her (Esther’s) half-brother. Quite complicated, isn’t it, to say nothing about the stepfathers, stepbrothers, half-brothers, half-sisters and stepsisters which this odd series of tangled matrimonial alliances brought about?