Seven Wives and Seven Prisons
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L.A. Abbott >> Seven Wives and Seven Prisons
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9 CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1. THE FIRST AND WORST WIFE My Early History. The First
Marriage. Leaving Home to Prospect. Sending for My Wife. Her
Mysterious Journey. Where I Found Her. Ten Dollars for Nothing. A
Fascinating Hotel Clerk. My Wife's Confession. From Bad to Worse.
Final Separation. Trial for Forgery. A Private Marriage. Summary
Separation.
CHAPTER II. MISERIES FROM MY SECOND MARRIAGE. Love-Making in
Massachusetts. Arrest for Bigamy. Trial at Northampton. A Stunning
Sentence. Sent to State Prison. Learning the Brush Business.
Sharpening Picks. Prison Fare. In the Hospital. Kind Treatment.
Successful Horse-Shoeing. The Warden my Friend. Efforts for my
Release. A Full Pardon.
CHAPTER III. THE SCHEIMER SENSATION. The Scheimer Family. In Love
With Sarah. Attempt to Elope. How it was Prevented. Second Attempt.
A Midnight Expedition. The Alarm. A Frightful Beating. Escape,
Flogging the Devil out of Sarah. Return to New Jersey. "Boston
Yankee." Plans to Secure Sarah.
CHAPTER IV. SUCCESS WITH SARAH. Mary Smith as a Confederate. The
Plot. Waiting in the Woods. The Spy Outwitted. Sarah Secured. The
Pursuers Baffled. Night on the Road. Efforts to Get Married. "The
Old Offender." Married at Last. A Constable after Sarah. He Gives it
Up. An Ale Orgie. Return to "Boston Yankee's." A Home in Goshen.
CHAPTER V. HOW THE SCHEIMERS MADE ME SUFFER. Return to Scheimer's.
Peace, and then Pandemonium. Frightful Family Row. Running for
Refuge. The Gang Again. Arrest at Midnight. Struggle with my
Captors. In Jail Once More. Put in Irons. A Horrible Prison.
Breaking Out. The Dungeon. Sarah's Baby. . Curious Compromises. Old
Scheimer my Jailer. Signing a Bond. Free Again. Last Words from
Sarah.
CHAPTER VI. FREE LIFE AND FISHING. Taking Care of Crazy Men.
Carrying off a Boy. Arrested for Stealing my Own Horse and Buggy.
Fishing in Lake Winnepisiogee. An Odd Landlord. A Woman as Big as a
Hogshead. Reducing the Hogshead to a Barrel. Wonderful Verification
of a Dream. Successful Medical Practice. A Busy Winter in New
Hampshire. Blandishments of Captain Brown. I go to Newark, New
Jersey.
CHAPTER VII. WEDDING A WIDOW AND THE CONSEQUENCES. I Marry a Widow.
Six Weeks of Happiness. Confiding a Secret, and the Consequences.
The Widow's Brother. Sudden Flight from Newark. In Hartford, Conn.
My Wife's Sister Betrays Me. Trial for Bigamy. Sentenced to Ten
Years' Imprisonment. I Become a "Bobbin Boy." A Good Friend.
Governor Price Visits me in Prison. He Pardons Me. Ten Years'
Sentence Fulfilled in Seven Months.
CHAPTER VIII. ON THE KEEN SCENT. Good Resolutions. Enjoying Freedom.
Going After a Crazy Man. The Old Tempter in a New Form. Mary Gordon.
My New "Cousin." Engaged Again. Visit to the Old Folks at Home.
Another Marriage. Starting for Ohio. Change of Plans. Domestic
Quarrels. Unpleasant Stories about Mary. Bound Over to Keep the
Peace. Another Arrest for Bigamy. A Sudden Flight. Secreted Three
Weeks in a Farm House. Recaptured at Concord. Escaped Once More.
Traveling on the Underground Railroad. In Canada.
CHAPTER IX. MARRYING TWO MILLINERS. Back in Vermont. Fresh
Temptations. Margaret Bradley. Wine and Women. A Mock Marriage in
Troy. The False Certificate. Medicine and Millinery. Eliza Gurnsey.
A Spree at Saratoga. Marrying Another Milliner. Again Arrested for
Bigamy. In Jail Eleven Months. A Tedious Trial. Found Guilty. Appeal
to Supreme Court. Trying to Break Out of Jail. A Governor's Promise.
Second Trial. Sentenced to Three Years' Imprisonment.
CHAPTER X. PRISON LIFE IN VERMONT. Entering Prison. The Scythe Snath
Business. Blistered Hands. I Learn Nothing. Threaten to Kill the
Shop Keeper. Locksmithing. Open Rebellion. Six Weeks in the Dungeon.
Escape of a Prisoner. In the Dungeon Again. The Mad Man Hall. He
Attempts to Murder the Deputy. I Save Morey's Life. Howling in the
Black Hole. Taking Off Hall's Irons. A Ghastly Spectacle. A Prison
Funeral. I am Let Alone. The Full Term of my Imprisonment.
CHAPTER XI. ON THE TRAMP. The Day of my Deliverance. Out of Clothes.
Sharing with a Beggar. A Good Friend. Tramping Through the Snow.
Weary Walks. Trusting to Luck. Comfort at Concord. At Meredith
Bridge. The Blaisdells. Last of the "Blossom" Business. Making Money
at Portsmouth. Revisiting Windsor. An Astonished Warden. Making
Friends of Enemies. Inspecting the Prison. Going to Port Jervis.
CHAPTER XII. ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP SARAH SCHEIMER'S BOY. Starting to See
Sarah. The Long Separation. What I Learned About Her. Her Drunken
Husband. Change of Plan. A Suddenly-Formed Scheme. I Find Sarah's
Son. The First Interview. Resolve to Kidnap the Boy. Remonstrance of
my Son Henry. The Attempt. A Desperate Struggle. The Rescue. Arrest
of Henry. My Flight into Pennsylvania. Sending Assistance to my Son.
Return to Port Jervis. Bailing Henry. His Return to Belvidere. He is
Bound Over to be Tried for Kidnapping. My folly.
CHAPTER XIII. ANOTHER WIDOW. Waiting for the Verdict. My Son Sent to
State Prison. What Sarah Would Have Done. Interview with my First
Wife. Help for Henry. The Biddeford Widow. Her Effort to Marry Me.
Our Visit to Boston. A Warning. A Generous Gift. Henry Pardoned.
Close of the Scheimer Account. Visit to Ontario County. My Rich
Cousins. What Might Have Been. My Birthplace Revisited.
CHAPTER XIV. MY SON TRIES TO MURDER ME. Settling Down in Maine.
Henry's Health. Tour Through the South. Secession Times. December in
New Orleans. Up the Mississippi. Leaving Henry in Massachusetts.
Back in Maine Again. Return to Boston, Profitable Horse-Trading.
Plenty of Money. My First Wife's Children. How they Have Been
Brought Up. A Barefaced Robbery. Attempt to Blackmail Me. My Son
Tries to Rob and Kill Me. My Rescue Last of the Young Man.
CHAPTER XV. A TRUE WIFE AND HOME AT LAST. Where Were All my Wives?
Sense of Security. An Imprudent Acquaintance. Moving from Maine. My
Property in Rensselaer County. How I Lived. Selling a Recipe. About
Buying a Carpet. Nineteen Lawsuits. Sudden Departure for the West. A
Vagabond Life for Two Years. Life in California. Return to the East.
Divorce from any First Wife. A Genuine Marriage. My Farm. Home at
Last.
SEVEN WIVES AND SEVEN PRISONS
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST AND WORST WIFE
My Early History-THE FIRST MARRIAGE-LEAVING HOME TO PROSPECT-SENDING
FOR MY WIFE-HER MYSTERIOUS JOURNEY-WHERE I FOUND HER-TEN DOLLARS FOR
NOTHING-A FASCINATING HOTEL CLERK-MY WIFE'S CONFESSION-FROM BAD TO
WORSE-FINAL SEPARATION-TRIAL FOR FORGERY-A PRIVATE MARRIAGE-SUMMARY
SEPARATION.
SOME one has said that if any man would faithfully write his
autobiography, giving truly his own history and experiences, the
ills and joys, the haps and mishaps that had fallen to his lot, he
could not fail to make an interesting story; and Disraeli makes
Sidonia say that there is romance in every life. How much romance,
as well as sad reality, there is in the life of a man who, among
other experiences, has married seven wives, and has been seven times
in prison-solely on account of the seven wives, may be learned from
the pages that follow.
I was born in the town of Chatham, Columbia County, New York, in
September, 1813. My father was a New Englander, who married three
times, and I was the eldest son of his third wife, a woman of Dutch
descent, or, as she would have boosted if she had been rich, one of
the old Knickerbockers of New York. My parents were simply honest,
hard-working, worthy people, who earned a good livelihood, brought
up their children to work, behaved themselves, and were respected by
their neighbors. They had a homestead and a small farm of thirty
acres, and on the place was a blacksmith shop in which my father
worked daily, shoeing horses and cattle for farmers and others who
came to the shop from miles around.
There were three young boys of us at home, and we had a chance to go
to school in the winter, while during the summer we worked on the
little farm and did the "chores" about the house and barn. But by
the time I was twelve years old I began to blow and strike in the
blacksmith shop, and when I was sixteen years old I could shoe
horses well, and considered myself master of the trade. At the age
of eighteen, I went into business with my father, and as I was now
entitled to a share of the profits, I married the daughter of a
well-to-do neighboring farmer, and we began our new life in part of
my father's house, setting up for ourselves, and doing our own
house-keeping.
I ought to have known then that marrying thus early in life, and
especially marrying the woman I did, was about the most foolish
thing I could do. I found it out afterwards, and was frequently and
painfully reminded of it through many long years. But all seemed
bright enough at the start. My wife was a good-looking woman of just
my own age; her family was most respectable; two of her brothers
subsequently became ministers of the gospel; and all the children
had been carefully brought up. I was thought to have made a good
match; but a few years developed that had wedded a most unworthy
woman.
Seventeen months after our marriage, our oldest child, Henry, was
born. Meanwhile we had gone to Sidney, Delaware County, where my
father opened a shop. I still continued in business with him, and
during our stay at Sidney, my daughter, Elizabeth, was born. From
Sidney, my father wanted to go to Bainbridge, Chenango, County, N.Y.,
and I went with him, leaving my wife and the children at Sidney,
while we prospected. As usual my father started a blacksmith-shop;
but I bought a hundred acres of timber land, went to lumbering, and
made money. We had a house about four miles from the village, I
living with my father, and as soon as found out that we were doing
well in business, I sent to Sidney for my wife and children. They
were to come by stage, and were due, after passing through
Bainbridge, at our house at four o'clock in the morning. We were up
early to meet the stage; but when it arrived, the driver told us
that my wife had stopped at the public house in Bainbridge.
Wondering what this could mean, I at once set out with my brother
and walked over to the village. It was daylight when we arrived, and
knocked loudly at the public house door. After considerable delay,
the clerk came to the door and let us in. He also asked as to "take
something," which we did. The clerk knew us well, and I inquired if
my wife was in the house; he said she was, told us what room she was
in, and we went up stairs and found her in bed with her children.
Waking her, I asked her why she did not come home, in the stage? She
replied that the clerk down stairs told her that the stage did not
go beyond the house, and that she expected to walk over, as soon as
it was daylight, or that possibly we might come for her.
I declare, I was so young and unsophisticated that I suspected
nothing, and blamed only the stupidity, as I supposed, of the clerk
in telling her that the stage did not go beyond Bainbridge. My wife
got up and dressed herself and the children, and then as it was
broad daylight, after endeavoring, ineffectually, to get a
conveyance, we started for home on foot, she leading the little boy,
and I carrying the youngest child. We were not far on our way when
she suddenly stopped, stooped down, and exclaimed:
"O! see what I have found in the road."
And she showed me a ten dollar bill. I was quite surprised, and
verdantly enough, advised looking around for more money, which my
wife, brother and I industriously did for some minutes. It was full
four weeks before I found out where that ten dollar bill came from.
Meanwhile, my wife was received and was living in her new home,
being treated with great kindness by all of us. It was evident,
however, that she had something on her mind which troubled her, and
one morning, about a month after her arrival, I found her in tears.
I asked her what was the matter? She said that she had been
deceiving me; that she did not pick up the ten dollar bill in the
road; but that it was given to her by the clerk in the public house
in Bainbridge; only, however, for this: he had grossly insulted her;
she had resented it, and he had given her the money, partly as a
reparation, and partly to prevent her from speaking of the insult to
me or to others.
But by this time my hitherto blinded eyes were opened, and I charged
her with being false to me. She protested she had not been; but
finally confessed that she had been too intimate with the clerk at
the hotel. I began a suit at law against the clerk; but finally, on
account of my wife's family and for the sake of my children, I
stopped proceedings, the clerk paying the costs of the suit as far
as it had gone, and giving me what I should probably have got from
him in the way of damages. My wife too, was apparently so penitent,
and I was so much infatuated with her, that I forgave her, and even
consented to continue to live with her. But I removed to Greenville,
Greene County, N. Y., where I went into the black-smithing business,
and was very successful. We lived here long enough to add two
children to our little family; but as time went on, the woman became
bad again, and displayed the worst depravity. I could no longer live
with her, and we finally mutually agreed upon a life-long
separation--she insisting upon keeping the children, and going to
Rochester where she subsequently developed the full extent of her
character.
This, as nearly as I remember, was in the year 1838, and with this
came a new trouble upon me. Just before the separation, I received
from my brother's wife a note for one hundred dollars, and sold it.
It proved to be a forgery. I was temporarily in Troy, N. Y., when
the discovery was made, and as I made no secret of my whereabouts at
any time, I was followed to Troy, was there arrested, and after
lying in jail at Albany one night, was taken next morning to
Coxsackie, Greene County, and front thence to Catskill. After one
day in jail there, I was brought before a justice and examined on
the charge of uttering a forged note. There was a most exciting
trial of four days duration. I had two good lawyers who did their
best to show that I did not know the note to be forged when I sold
it, but the justice seemed determined to bind me over for trial, and
he did so, putting me under five hundred dollars' bonds. My
half-sister at Sidney was sent for, came to Catskill, and became
bail for me. I was released, and my lawyers advised me to leave,
which I did at once, and went to Pittsfield, and from there to
Worthington, Mass., where I had another half-sister, who was married
to Mr. Josiah Bartlett, and was well off.
Here I settled down, for all that I knew to the contrary, for life.
For some years past, I had devoted my leisure hours from the forge
to the honest endeavor to make up for the deficiencies in my
youthful education, and had acquired, among other things, a good
knowledge of medicine. I did not however, believe in any of the
"schools" particularly those schools that make use of mineral
medicines in their practice. I favored purely vegetable remedies,
and had been very successful in administering them. So I began life
anew, in Worthington, as a Doctor, and aided by my half-sister and
her friends, I soon secured a remunerative practice.
I was beginning to be truly happy. I supposed that the final
separation, mutually agreed upon between my wife and myself, was as
effectual as all the courts in the country could make it, and I
looked upon myself as a free man. Accordingly, after I had been in
Worthington some months I began to pay attentions to the daughter of
a flourishing farmer. She was a fine girl; she received my addresses
favorably, and we were finally privately married. This was the
beginning of my life-long troubles. In a few weeks her father found
out that I had been previously married, and was not, so far as he
knew, either a divorced man or a widower. And so it happened, that
one day when I was at his house, and with his daughter, he suddenly
came home with a posse of people and a warrant for my arrest. I was
taken before a justice, and while we were waiting for proceedings to
begin, or, possibly for the justice to arrive, I took the excited
father aside and said:
"You know I have a fine horse and buggy at the door. Get in with me,
and ride down home. I will see your daughter and make everything
right with her, and if you will let me run away, I'll give her her
the horse and buggy."
The offer was too tempting to be refused. The father had the warrant
in his pocket, and he accepted my proposal. We rode to his house,
and he went into the back-room by direction of his daughter while
she and I talked in the hall. I explained matters as well as I
could; I promised to see her again, and that very soon. My horse and
buggy were at the door. Hastily bidding my new and young wife
"good-bye," I sprang into the buggy and drove rapidly away. The
father rushed to the door and raised a great hue and cry, and what
was more, raised the neighbors; I had not driven five miles before
all Worthington was after me. But I had the start, the best horse,
and I led in the race. I drove to Hancock, N.Y., where my pursuers
lost the trail; thence to Bennington, Vt., next to Brattleboro, Vt.,
and from there to Templeton, Mass. What befel me at Templeton, shall
be related in the next chapter.
CHAPTER II.
MISERIES FROM MY SECOND MARRIAGE.
LOVE-MAKING IN MASSACHUSETTS-ARREST FOR BIGAMY-TRIAL AT
NORTHAMPTON-A STUNNING SENTENCE-SENT TO STATE PRISON-LEARNING THE
BRUSH BUSINESS-SHARPENING PICKS-PRISON FARE-IN THE HOSPITAL-KIND
TREATMENT-SUCCESSFUL HORSE SHOEING-THE WARDEN MY FRIEND-EFFORTS FOR
MY RELEASE-A FULL PARDON.
At Templeton I speedily made known my profession, and soon had a
very good medical practice which one or two "remarkable cures"
materially increased. I was doing well and making money. I boarded
in a respectable farmer's family, and after living there about six
months there came another most unhappy occurrence. From the day,
almost, when I began to board with this farmer there sprung up a
strong attachment between myself and his youngest daughter which
soon ripened into mutual love. She rode about with me when I went to
see my patients, who were getting to be numerous, and we were much
in each other's company.
On one occasion she accompanied me to Worcester where I had some
patients. We went to a public house where she and her family were
well known, and when she was asked by the landlord how she happened
to come there with the doctor, her prompt answer was:
"Why, we are married; did'nt you know it?"
She refused even to go to the table without my attendance, and when
I was out visiting some patients, she waited for her meals till I
came back. We stayed there but two days and returned together to
Templeton.
A month afterward her brother was in Worcester, and stopped at this
house. The landlord, after some conversation about general matters,
said:
"So your sister is married to the Doctor?"
"I know nothing about it," was the reply.
This led to a full and altogether too free disclosure to the
astonished brother about the particulars of our visit to the same
house a month before, and his sister's representations that we were
married. The brother immediately started for home, and repeated the
story, as it was told to him, to his father and the family. Without
seeing his daughter, the father at once procured a warrant, and had
me arrested and brought before a justice on charge of seduction.
The trial was brief; the daughter herself swore positively, that
though she had been imprudent and indiscreet in going to Worcester
with me, no improper communication had ever, there or elsewhere,
taken place between us.
Of course, there was nothing to do but to let me go and I was
discharged. But out of this affair came the worst that had yet
fallen to my lot in life. The story got into the papers, with
particulars and names of the parties, and in this way the people at
Worthington, who had chased me as far as Hancock and had there lost
all trace of me, found out where I was. If I had been aware of it,
they might have looked elsewhere for me; but while I was
felicitating myself upon my escape from the latest difficulty, down
came an officer from Worthington with a warrant for my arrest. This
officer, the sheriff, was connected with the family into which I had
married in Worthington, and with him came two or three more
relatives, all bound, as they boasted, to "put me through." They
were excessively irate against me and very much angered, especially
that their race after me to Hancock had been fruitless. I had fallen
into the worst possible hands.
They took me to Northampton and brought me before a Justice, on a
charge of bigamy: The sheriff who arrested me, and the relatives who
accompanied him were willing to swear my life away, if they could,
and the justice was ready enough to bind me over to take my trial in
court, which was not to be in session for full six months to come.
Those long, weary six months I passed in the county jail. Then came
my trial. I had good counsel. There was not a particle of proof that
I was guilty of bigamy; no attempt was made on the part of the
prosecution to produce my first wife, from whom I had separated, or,
indeed, to show that there was such a woman in existence. But,
evidence or no evidence, with all Worthington against me, conviction
was inevitable. The jury found me guilty. The judge promptly
sentenced me to three years' imprisonment in the State Prison, at
Charlestown, with hard labor, the first day to be passed in solitary
confinement.
This severe sentence fairly stunned me. I was taken back to jail,
and the following day I was conveyed to Charlestown with heavy irons
on my ankles and handcuffed. No murderer would have been more
heavily ironed. We started early in the morning, and by noon I was
duly delivered to the warden at Charlestown prison. I was taken into
the office, measured, asked my name, age, and other particulars, and
then if I had a trade. To this I at once answered, "no." I wanted my
twenty-four hours' solitary confinement in which to reflect upon the
kind of "hard labor," prescribed in my sentence, I was willing to
follow for the next three years; and I also wanted information about
the branches of labor pursued in that prison. The next words of the
warden assured me that he was a kind and compassionate man.
"Go," he said to an officer, "and instantly take off those irons
when you take him inside the prison."
I was taken in and the irons were taken off. I was then undressed,
my clothes were removed to another room, and I was redressed in the
prison uniform. This was a grotesque uniform indeed. The suit was
red and blue, half and half, like a harlequin's, and to crown all
came a hat or cap, like a fool's cap, a foot and a half high and
running up to a peak. Miserable as I was, I could scarcely help
smiling at the utterly absurd appearance I knew I then presented. I
even ventured to remark upon it; but was suddenly and sternly
checked with the command:
"Silence! There's no talking allowed here."
Then began my twenty-four hours' solitary confinement, and
twenty-four wretched hours they were. I had only bread and water to
eat and drink, and I need not say that my unhappy thoughts would not
permit me to sleep. At noon next day I was taken from my cell, and
brought again before the warden, Mr. Robinson, who kindly said:
"You have no trade, you say; what do you want to go to work at?"
"Anything light; I am not used to hard labor," I replied.
So the warden directed that I should be put at work in the brush
shop, where all kinds of brushes were made. Mr. Eddy was the officer
in charge of this shop, and Mr. Knowles, the contractor for the
labor employed in the brush business, was present. Both of these
gentlemen took pains to instruct me in the work I was to begin upon,
and were very kind in their manner towards me. I went to work in a
bungling way and with a sad and heavy heart. At 12 o'clock we were
marched from the shop to our cells, each man taking from a trap in
the wall, as he went by, his pan containing his dinner, which
consisted, that day, of boiled beef and potatoes. It was probably
the worst dinner I had ever eaten, but I had yet to learn what
prison fare was. From one o'clock to six I was in the shop again;
then came Supper-mush and molasses that evening which was varied, as
I learned afterwards, on different days by rye bread, or Indian
bread and rye coffee. These things were also served for breakfast,
and the dinners were varied on different days in the week. The fare
was very coarse, always, but abundant and wholesome. After supper
prisoners were expected to go to bed, as they were called out at six
o'clock in the morning.
I stayed in the brush shop three or four months, but I made very
little progress in learning the trade. I was willing enough to learn
and did my best. From the day I entered the prison I made up my mind
to behave as well as I could; to be docile and obedient, and to
comply with every rule and order. Consequently I had no trouble, and
the officers all treated me kindly. Warden Robinson was a model man
for his position. He believed that prisoners could be reformed more
easily by mild than by harsh measures--at least they would be more
contented with their lot and would be subordinate. Every now and
then he would ask prisoners if they were well treated by the
officers; how they were getting on; if they had enough to eat, and
so on. The officers seemed imbued with the warden's spirit; the
chaplain of the prison, who conducted the Sunday, services and also
held a Sunday school, was one of the finest men in the world, and
took a personal interest in every prisoner. Altogether, it was a
model institution. But in spite of good treatment I was intensely
miserable; my mind was morbid; I was nearly, if not quite, insane;
and one day during the dinner hour, I opened a vein in each arm in
hopes that I should bleed to death. Bleed I did, till I fainted
away, and as I did not come out when the other prisoners did, the
officer came to my cell and discovered my condition. He at once sent
for the Doctor who came and stopped the hemorrhage, and then sent me
to the hospital where I remained two weeks.
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