Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1888 — A Romance Fifty Years Old. [ARTICLE]

A Romance Fifty Years Old.

Cleveland dispatch. ■ Among the cases docketed for hearing in the Circuit Court at -Wooster, this State, is a breach of promise case which has been in the courts nearly fifty years. Both parties interested are now old people, and the case has outlived many lawyers, and a host of witnesses. It is entitled Mary Bartol vs. Thomas Eckert, and was first brought in 1842, when the plaintiff, who is now a widow, was Miss Mary Fleming. The defendant is Gen. Thomas T. Eckert, manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company.

In 1842 young Eckert was an apprentice in a harness shop in Wooster, and was particularly attentive to Miss Fleming. Miss Flemming went so far as to prepare her wedding trousseau. According to her recital she had accepted Eckert as a suitor, and the marriage was to have taken place during the winter of 1842. It was all arranged that they were to accompany a sleighing party to Massillon and there were to be quietly married without the knowledge of any one, the announcement to be made when they reached home. The sleighing party went to Massillon, but the bridegroom-elect Tailed to fulfill his Dart of the contract, owing, it is said, to a quarrel with his prospective father-in-law. An open rupture with the Fleming family followed and the match was broken. Miss Fleming sued for damages for breach of promise and was awarded $2,500 by a jury. This judgment has never been satisfied, and the present suit is to enforce payment The judg; ment has been renewed from time to time and still holds against the now celebrated defendant Both parties have married since thesuit was brought. Eckert is a wealthy man, while his former sweetheart is a poor woman and is in need of money. Four thousand Irish emigrants sailed from Queenstown, Thursday, for America.