Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1876 — A Canada Romance—Curious Case of Mistaken Identity. [ARTICLE]

A Canada Romance—Curious Case of Mistaken Identity.

One of the most singular cases of mistaken identity ever* brought to light in Canada has just taken place at Ottawa. On the afternoon of the 29th of September Inst, a dying man was found by a farmer living at Edwardsburg, lying on the roadside, about seven miles from Prescott. The farmer brought him to the latter place, where he died, evidently from sheer starvation, having been lying around the countiy side without any visible means of support for several days. An inquest having been held a rennet was recorded in accordance with the facts, and he was buried at the public expense. Meanwhite, the prevailing opinion was that the unfortunate man had been a resident of Ottawa, and many people there who had friends from home, they knew not where located, grew anxious, and compared the description given of the deceased with that of him on whose account tney were so uneasy. Now Mrs. Hughes, who resides on Nicholas street, between Rideau and St. Paul, in that city, had a husband who left the city in July, 1875, that is to say, fourteen months before the date of the sad event, but she was morally certain, from the description given in the papers, that it was her husband who had been buried in Prescott. Acting on her apprehensions, she started for that town on the fifth day after the burial, and, after very great difficulty, succeeded in having the grave opened, the lid of the coffin taken off, and the body exhumed. It was a disagreeable task, and Mrs. Hughes was requested several times to desist and rest satisfied with the description which hap been given in the Ottawa Timet, but she persevered.

At length eveiything was ready for inspection, and she found that so far as the state of the body would permit, every mark corresponued, even to the most minute particular, with those she knew to have been on her husband. The height and apparent age corresponded in a marked degree, and as Hughes had served in the One Hundreth Regiment of Foot, Airs. Hughes brought his discharge with her, and the description of his person therein given exactly corresponded with the body lying before them when in life. Buch was the opinion of all present at the examination. To add to the proof of identity she mentioned before the coffin was op'ened all these particulars; and in addition that her husband wore a long black coat, which, on inspection, proved to be the case. Thoroughly satisfied that she was a widow in the land, the relict of Air. Hughes had the body reinterred, and came back to Ottawa, where, acting on the advice of Major Buckley, she had affidavits prepared for her by Mr. J. J. Kehoe, embodying the facts of the case. The days and weeks rolled on, and the first grief was beginning to wear off the edge of Mrs. Hughes’ sorrow for her lost husband, when, to her astonishment, amusement and delight, he, whom she thought she had seen buried under the earth, walked into her presence on Wednesday morning. We pass over the first transports of joy and the mutual explanations that ensued, merely remarking that Hughes was in profound ignorance of all that happened, and had himself undergone strange reverses of fortune while away from Ottawa. He had two very pretty little girls, - and when the eldest saw him enter yesterday, she exclaimed, “Ma, has papa come up out of the rround?” All the friends of James Hughes, except one, agreed with his wife that it was the body of her husband which was buried in Prescott, and that one was his mother, who, by some strange instinct, could never be brought to believe it, though why she could not very well explain. Hughes had had a very narrow escape from death during his sojourn at the other side. He was one of the sufferers by the oil train taking fire in Pennsylvania, and causing the death of seven and the injury of about fifty. He was taken to the hospital in a very bad state, and remained there three months between life and death, but ultimately recovered. He is by no means like a dead man at present, nor even like one who had been dead. He is as hale and hearty as any man in the city of Ottawa.— St. John (N. B.) Telegraph, Dec. 8.