Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1877 — A Strange Story. [ARTICLE]

A Strange Story.

The wise man who first originated the remark that troth was stranger than fiction must surely have been enabled by faith to cast his prophetic eye over the columns of the newspaper of the present day. Whether such was his privilege or not, certain it is that scarcely a day passes but we read some one’s life story bearing ample verification of the truth of the adage. We read hastily—blame or pity ia a lazy, indifferent sort of way, ana rush off to the theater, perhaps, to shed showers of tears and have our hearts wrung with anguish over the imaginary woes ot some unfortunate creatnre who never existed except in the brain of fancy. Off the stage we hear of a strange, pitiful story, the scene of which is laid in Elmira, N. Y., of a woman spending ten years of utter wretchedness in expiation ot a sin committed when but a girl of seventeen. The storp is related by a correspondent of the New York Times, and is worth repeating. Uri Gates, the father of the girl, was ten years ago a well-to-do country merchant in one of the Pennsylvania counties bordering on Maryland. The daughter, Eliza, was a handsome and accomplished young lady, while Amzi Turner, a miller by occupation, was, though only twentyfive years old, the leading man of the place, who had loved the merchant’s

pretty daughter before he entered his "Sfr Mr. Gates wib pleased with the prospect of his daughter becoming the wife of the prosperous young miner, but she was not. George Mjlls, a handsome, swarthy young Virginian, a clerk in Gates’ store, was the suitor whom Miss Gates tv vored, and he pressed hia suit with no little warmth and audacity. The father put a stop to the attentions of the clerk, however, and brought such influences to bear on the young and motherless girl that she consented to marry the miller. They were married In September, 1867, and were gone three weeks on their bridal tour. After having been home but a shor time the bride announced her intention of visiting a sick friend, to be absent two or three days, and the day after her former lover, George Mills, also left the village. The affair—for it was at once ascertained that they had been seen together—caused the most intense excitement, and the husband, being respected by the entire community, had the sympathy of every one. No tidings could be obtained of the couple, however, all search proving fruitless. The erring woman’s father died in about three years, leaving a fortune to his son-in-law, with directions that every possible effort should be made to find the lost girl. The deserted husband sealched faithfully for his wife until 1872, but he could find trace neither of her nor of Mills. He believed that If she was living she had left the country. In 1872 he was granted a divorce from her, on the ground of desertion, and soon afterward married again. His second wife died in 1875, leaving two children. Last July a letter was received by the executor of the estate, dated at Litchfield, Minn., which proved to be from the absent Eliza, and in which she claimed that she was not the abandoned creature they had thought her, but that after ten years of suffering she pleaded ter return to her father’s house, if only as a servant. Mr. Turner at once proceeded to the home of his former wife, and learned the sad story of her elopement. It appeared from this that she went to Lafayette, Ind., where she found a lawyer, named Bowditch, who procured her a divorce in a short time, and shortly after she was married to Mills, and went to Central City, Col., to reside. From that time her troubles came thick and fast. Mills began to treat his wife with cruelty, and habitually taunted her with her elopement with him. From Central City they removed to Corinne, Utah, and from there to Salt Lake Citv. To this latter place she at first refused to go, but Mills threatened to kill her unless she went along. At Salt Lake Mills and “ Bill” Olney opened a gambling house. For two years they lived in Salt Lake, the wife being subjected to habitual beatings and'other cruelty. At last Mills joined the Mormons and gave up his gambling place for a time. But he brought two other wives in the house within three days. This was the indignity of all others that the woman who had given up all for him could not brook, and she fled from his house one night in the fall of 1871. She had since supported herself by the most menial services, and was through ill health driven to write to her father. All this Mr. 'l'umer heard, and. pitying aud. still loving her, claimed her once again as his wife. They were remarried, and are again living in the home so ruthlessly invaded ten years ago, apparently as happy as if nothing had occurred to disturb the even tenor of their lives.— Chicago Inter-Ocean.