Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1861-03-28
The Great Gaines Suit.

In view of the great interest excited by
the celebrated suit of Mrs. Gaines, lately
decided by the Supreme Court of the Uni
ted States, brief resume of its principal
facts will not be out of place:
Daniel Clark, who was one of the early
settlers in the colony of Louisiana, was a
very remarkable person. His sagacity,
prudence and business tact, soon placed him
at the head of its monetary world, while his
beauty of person, popular character and a.
greeable manners, afforded him similar
position in the social circle. In 1902 he
became acquainted in Philadelphia with a
lady of extraordinary personal beauty, nam.
ed Zulime Carriere. She was born in the
old French colony of Biloxi, and her par
euts we're emigrants from the land of poetry
and dromance-Provence-the faTorite home
of the Troubadours. When Clark first lneG
her, she had been living in wedlock with
swinder named Jerome De Ora ange, who,
having dazzled her with agitteriug corouet,
married her, and then disclosed the astoun-
ding facts that he was a confectioner and a
bigamist Zuline appealed for protection
to Clark, who being warm. hearted and chiv-
alrous, at once espoused her cause, and af:
ter becoming convinced that De Grange had
another wife living, espoused her himself,
The marriage was kept secret, and in 1905
Myra, now Mrs. Gaines, was born. Being
naturally desirous of having her connection
with Clark a publicly acknowledged one,
Zulme went to New Orleans to obtain le-
gal proofs of her first husbands raacaity -
While she was gone, Clark, who had grown
into an influential politician, became euam-
ored of Miss Cation, a grand daughter of
Charles Carroll, with whom he contracted
an engagement, though when reports were
brought to Miss Cation alleging her lovers
marriage to Hulime, she at once insisted
upon release from the engagement, and
she subsequently became the Marchioness
of Wellesley
In the meantime, Hulime had returned
to Philadelphia, and sought to obtain proofs
of her marriage with Clark, who had, with
singular treachery, destroyed all that he
could discover. Finding herself helpless,
in a strange country, and with child de-
pendent upon her, she was wholly at loss
what to do, and, in her destitution, driven
almost to despair, she accepted the hand Of
DR.. Gardette, who, with kindness and gen.
erosity united his fortune With hera. Clark,
in the meantime, had become penitent, but
on fastening to find his former love, ascer-
tanned that she was the wife Of another. He
took the child Myra, placed her in care of
a friend, and had her most literally cduca'
ted. Zulime lived for long time after
that, attained the age Of 7S years, and died
at New Orleans but few years since
Clark, whose business talent was proverbi-
al, amassed an immense fortune in Loulsi-
ana, Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland,
which he bequeathed by will, to his moth
er, Mary Clark, naming Beverly Chew and
Richard Relf, bankers of New Orleans, as
Executors. Charges have been preferred
against the executors of bad faith and mis-
management, but however that may be,
Mrs. Whitney-having dlscov-
cred at maturity that her mother had been
the wife of the deceased millionaire, deter
mined to assert her right, as the legitimate
child and consequent heiress to the entire
property. That she met with opposition
and obstacles of all sorts may be we'll imag-
ined, but she battled for her mothers hon.
or, and evinced the most commendable splr-
it and perseverance, in spite of most fearful
odds. Her husband died, but she remar-
ried, and in so doing enlisted powerful
auxiliary in tho person of Gen. Gaines, who
believed in her Legitimacy, and aided her
with all his might. 1t would be wearlsome
merely to index the various legal struggles,
the attempted social ostracism, the treache'
ries, the sorrows, the hopes and fears expe-
rienced by Mrs. Gaines in this work of her
lifetime. She sued in numerous courts, and
with varied success, until her fortune was
gone, her friends convinced of the useless
ness of further trial, and all but her own
indomitable spirit fled. She still struggled
on, and, as last resort, brought the case in