The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-12-09
A CHAPTER OF THE STONEWALL DIS
ASTER

4 c0ytc-de-cisite was taken from Il trunk of
ladies clothing Ii represented rather tleshy lady
dark brown hair done up i'll braids and hanging low
on the neck; the collar was white and narrow, and
had breast-pm; right hand resting on table and
riding gloves earrings; forehead high and feat
ure> regular. Could it have been the late lamented
Mrs. Emma Fitch. No. .546 Broadway: [St Iouis
Democrat report Of the Stonewa disaster
This was Ill there was about Mrs. Emma
Eitch.n and the reporter Went on with the
terrible story of the wreck; OF bodies re-
covered and bodies lost of bodies stark and
cold: of bodies chaTcd and blackened: and
the bodies that had been found were ali svs-
tematically numbered so that the reporter.
in making up the LIST, gave every dead body
a paragraph, and piled them one above the
other in the newspaper columns for the bet
ter identification by the friends who mioht be
searching for the lost.
In all the account however, there was, per-
haps, no more significant paragraph than
that about the photograph Mrs. Emma
Fitch was among the lost but this was all
there was that told Of the unhappy fate of
this singular woman, She best known
in Louisville. Mrs Fitch, as she called her
self, was the daughter of a respectable citi-
zen of Louisville, now dead; her maiden
name Serena Talbot. When girl, her par
ents almost idolized her, and when as she
budding into womanhood. she became the
wife of one of its wealthiest business men. it
seemed to her doting father that his darling
child was being torn from him forever
Pettcd and spoiled though she was, and
more a doll than a wife, the husband loved
her, and did everything in his power to pro-
mote her happiness He purchased farm
near the city. and the young wife drove in
her carriage from her beautiful country resi-
denCe whenever she had occasion to visit hel
fnOfp,ap OH 4
magnicence calculated to inspire pedestrian
awe, accompanied the carriage, and many
an envious eye turned that way whenever
her shinmerlng chariot wheels sounded theil
gentcel coming behind two spanking BAYS
She came to the city often, and, although She
seemed the happiest of wives, her father
since her marriage, had been the unhappiest
of men, and it was not long before her par
cnts were urging herto abandon her husband
and return to her Old home Strange to saw,
they al length succeeded in perslladng hel
10 return, and to the infinite astonishment OF
her husband, he was obliged to give hel
mp. The singularity of the case attracted =
great deal of attention at the time, and SYM.
pathy was expressed for the husband, who was
highly esteemed As a worthy as we'll as ;
wealthy gentleman. In order to be entirel,
free from him, the capricious Serena went
away TO Washington, where she remained six
months in order to obtain Il divorce She
waited in vain At the capital for the divorce
was refused. Next she made Il pilgrimage
TO Indiana, where the divorce was finally
granted, and, thus healed of matrimony. she
came home.
Here was most unpromising beginning
for a young woman, and very extraordi
nary sort Of life followed upon this begin
ming, as might well have been expected
The divorced wife, in the course of time fel
= victim to 4 second love- and married al
actor by the name of Swift, of course much
against the will of her parents. Swift the
story goes, was a fat man, but strutted his
brief hour in Louisville to some advantag c
This fair Serena, as Mrs Swift, soon deyel
oped into an actress; but on making her de-
but was Kissed from the stage, and her theat
rical career then and there saw the begin
ming OF its end. Her dramatic associations
ruined her, and in the course of time she be-
came separated from her second husband
from whom she was finally divorced. He
father, it is said, died of q broken heart af
ter her second marriage.
Next she became notorious as the para
mour of Major Fitch, Michigan officer, VIII,
was for some time provost marshal at thi
point. OF her intimacy with this man, an(
some of its fearful results. some accoun
was published in August, 1868. The fol
lowing is an extract:
major Fitch was all that a gentleman
could be-kind, courteous and polite, anc
soon became very popular, moving in thu
highest social circles, and mingling freely
with the merry and gay of his fellows. III
was a married man, bis wife and sweet little
girl child residing At kalamazoo, one of thu
most beautiful of the cities of Michigan, an(
where he had entered the Federal service
His father venerable and highly esteemed
citizen was also resident of that place, and
at home no man bore a more spotless reputa
ton than did Ma or Fitch
''While in Louisville, he was, like mos
other military men, a patron of the drama.
and frequently visited the theater, which, at
that time, was hardly conducted as such an in
stitution should be, for the theater- goers were
almost as familiar with the doings behind the
scenes as with the performances before the
curtain. the ''people" having many accquaint
ances among the audience, and being allow
ed to receive friendly visits from favorites
With one of the troupes then playing wa:
Miss Swift, an actress of moderate merit II