Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1875 — Who Is Bessie Turner ? [ARTICLE]

Who Is Bessie Turner ?

The Lee correspondent of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, after investigating the story that Bessie Turner’s real name is McDermott, and that her father is now living in the Berkshire town, writes that, while the evidence is not conclusive, everything that has thus far come to light confirms the story that Barney McDermott is the girl’s father.-. Barney is an Irishman, about sixty years' old, of moderate intellectual power, hut apparently truthful in his statements. He says that the death of his first wife, which occurred at Brooklyn, some twen-ty-two years since, left him with three children, James, William and Mary Ann, aged respectively eight, six ana four. Being poor and having no housekeeper, he put them into the Brooklyn HalfOrphan Asylum. Not long after he removed to Lee to work in the Hubner quarry, and in a year or two married again. The second Mrs. McDermott was willing to take the step-children into her family, but on going to Brooklyn for them he found that they had all been put out into different families and he could not ascertain their localities—probably did not prosecute his ideas very intelligently or perseveringly. Some ten years since his son William, who has been well brought up in Orange County, N. Y., incidentally hearing that there were some McDermotts in Berkshire CoUUty, came there in quest of his father, and while' waiting at Bridgeport, Conn.., for a change of cars asked a milkman if there were any McDermotts in that city. The man replied: “I have a James McDermott in my employ. “I have a brother by that name,” said William, “ whom I have not seen for years. Where can I find James?” “ I will have him here in ten minutes,” said the milkman. Of coursej the two brothers did not recognize each other, but their stories were convincing proof of their relationship. Both had served in the army during the war. William came on to Lee and became satisfied that he had found his long-lost father, but the one being a Protestant and the other a Catholfc, and having been separated so long and educated with such different tastes, there was not the sympathy between father and son that might have been expected from the relationship. Both brothers, however, moved to Lee and William bought a house on Main street, and, being a bachelor, let it to his brother James, who was a man of family. The brothers subsequently removed to New Jersey, William to Bricksburg and James to East Long Branch, where the latter now lives and keeps up a correspondence with his halfsister in Lee, Sarah McDermott, a miss of nineteen, the only child of the second marriage, who has reeivede a respectable education iu the common schools and is the main-stay of her prematurely infirm parents. Barney says the age and description of Bessie Turner correspond with his remembrance of his lost daughter, and although Tilton testified that tbe name of the waif whom he brought into his family some fifteen years since was Lizzie McDermott he feels very hopeful that Tilton was mistaken, and that her real name was Mary Ann. Further inquiries are now being prosecuted. If Bessie Turner is really Mary McDermott she need not be ashamed of her brothers nor of her halfsister, although the latter lives in a miserable old shanty, with few of the comforts of life around her. She is a bright girl and a most dutiful child, devoting the four dollars which she earns per week in a paper-mill wholly to the comfort of her feeble father and half-blind mother. She walks over two miles a day to earn this money and seems to take great pleasure in her self-sacrifice and independence. Her father works, summers, in the quarry, but in the winter is not able to stand the rough weather and rough work, though he contributes his mite by doing light jobs for the support of the family.