The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 1, 1866.

A STORY OP REVENGE AND CRIME.

Captain Sladden, who was an East India captain,
28 years ago married a young wife in England, and
came to Canada with a view of bettering his for-
tune, although he was then in receipt of an annuity
of £6OO per annum. This annuity, which came
through his mother, was to cease at the time of his
death, and some portion of it was to revert to his
children from his mother at the time of her death,
and she was then considerably advanced in years.
After reaching Canada the captain settled near
Windsor and there died. His wife had born him
three children, two of whom subsequently died, one
after being married six years and the other in in-
fancy. One girl, Sarah Jane Sladden, grew up to
be ten years of age, but in the meantime her mother

had been married to a man named White, who had
a sister named Hannah, a virago of the first water.
The result of this union was one child, a boy, who
grew up to be three and a half years of age before
the beginning of this chapter of family history, and
a daughter, a year or so older. liannah White, then
a spinster, was staying at the house of her brother,
and was well treated there, the famil3 having in the
meantime removed to Sandwich. One morning Mrs.
White came to this city to do some marketing,
leaving her sister-in-law in charge of the house.
During her absence Hannah White took the two
children, Sarah Jane Gladden, her niece by marriage,
a girl 10 years of age, and her nephew, Joseph H.
White, a child three and a half years of age, and
left with them for parts unknown. The mother, on
her return, found out her loss, and was for a time
inconsolable over it. She advertised in the principal
newspapers in the country, set detectives to work,
and did everything her means would permit of to
find out the whereabouts of her children, but with-
out success. Time passed on, and the mother gave
up in despair, after travelling throughout the coun-
try for three or four years in search of her lost dar-

lings. In 1860, by some means she learned that
the woman who had stolen her children was in De-
troit, and she took measures to have her arrested.
Her efforts were rewarded with partial success,
and after a tedious law-suit she got back the boy,
but could not get any trace of her daughter, who
had gone with her grandmother under the follow-
ing circumstances :—After abducting the children,
it appeared that Hannah White took them to Ver-
non county, Wis., and there was married to a
man named Allen. This marriage was consum-
mated in Bad Axe, in the above county, and she
lived there some time, keeping the children
with her. Some years ago the daughter Sarah, who
had grown up, learned the whereabouts of her
mother, and addressed a letter to her at London,
C.W. This letter was received, and an answer re-
turned, to the effect that her mother would come
after her and take her home. Mrs. Allen inter-
cepted this letter, and calling on her niece (who
meanwhile, on account of ill-treatmeut, had left
her aunt and gone to work for a farmer named
Wilson, near Liberty Pule, in the same county),
drew out the letter and pretended to read it.
But instead of giving the contents as they were,
she made up a story to the effect that Sarah's
mother was dead, and desired her daughter to
remain with her (the aunt). Mrs. Allen had,
during the interval, visited her father, who resided
in another part of the State, and induced him to
leave his wife, after settling a certain sum of money
on Mrs. White, her stepmother. Mrs. White got
the children and started to g 3 South with them, but
on the way White, sen., who was the father of the
second husband of the former Mrs. Sladden (who,
by the way, has since married a third husband, Mr.
Menzis), attacked the woman, and, after a fight,
got the boy. White then came to Detroit with the
boy, and, as related above, he was finally given up
to his mother. The girl went with Mrs. White, it is
supposed, to Cincinnati. White, the grandfather of
the children, came in 1864 to Mrs. 'White's (née
Sladden) house, and, after many expressions of con-
trition, was received into the family. While there
he attempted to abduct the boy again, but was un-
successful, and left to return to his own daughter's
house in the city, the woman having taken up
her residence here, and having obtained a promi-
nent position in a leading church, frotn which she
was afterwards expelled as being an arrant hypo-
crite. Thus far the case was very much mixed
up, owing to the intermarriages, and no mo-
tive could be assigned for the abduction but a spirit
of revenge. But since there has been discovered that
and is sole heir to a consi-
derable amount of property
in England. This the girl Sarah has a legacy amounting to about
$3,000 in this country,
Sladden, and she has
apt. Sladden,
gentlemen of the
pro-
perty has been accumulating for a long time, in fact
ienvelrawsinthcee ft
city have taken the matter in hand, and having unite
rdigeahtthooffitC.
re-
cently got a slight clue to the whereabouts of the
long lost girl, have communicated with the police
authorities of Cincinnati, and will ferret out this
complicated affair to the end. Mrs. Menzis, who
lost her children, resides at 402, Alacumb-street, in
this city, with her husband and daughter, and has
never until recently, though born in affluent cir-
cumstances, had the means to have the matter
thoroughly investigated.—Detroit Post, Nov. 6.