Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-05-20
NO. S.

NO. s.
Up to the time of her coming to the
room at the same house in Amity street,
/ their acquaintance had been very slight
and formal. They had met occasional
/ ly at Mrs. Sinclair's and Mrs. Calhoun s.
and up to the 10th of January, 1907, her
acquaintance with Richardson consisted
solely of two calls. at the request of her
husband to solicit his (Richardson's)
aid in getting Mcfarland a place in the
employ of the Pacific Railroad Com
pany. Of the Amity street lodgings she
says:
"If had any feeling about Mr.. Rich
ardson's coming to take a room so near
Mr. Mcfarland and myself it was one
of aversion, from the fact that he could
not be there without knowing something
of my unhappy life. I saw him there
often, and he did me many Iindnesses.
There was never, prior to my leaving
Mr.. Mcfarland, a word or even a look
passed between US which I should not
be glad if all the world had seen and
heard.
On the day of the separation, Febru-
airy 2I, 1867, Richardson told Mrs.
Mcfarland, "This is a matter in which
cannot advise you. Bnt, whatever
you make up your mind to do, shall
be glad to help you.
On the evening of the separation, as
Richardson was leaving Mr.. Sinclair S,
he bade Mrs. Mcfarland goodbye, saw
ing: 81 wish you to remember, my
child, that any responsibility you choose
to give me, in any possible future, /
shall be very glad to take" and two
days later made formal avowal of his
love, counseling her to tell her friends
all he said, and take their counsel
Richardson was first shot on the 9Th Of
ALarch, 1867, and then Hrs. Mcfarland
says she heard of the intercepted letter
for the first time, but never saw it or
knew the contents until it appeared in
print. After the shooting, Mcfarland
rifled all his wife's correspondence, man
usCripts, private papers, etc, appropria-
ting letters from Mrs. Sinclair and Mrs.
Calhoun, which were read on the trial.
Mrs. Richardson incorporates in this
portion of her narrative a letter from
Richardson, dated March 81, 1867, con-
tanning in more earnest terms the affec-
ton avowed in the intercepted letter,
and which, she says, is the keynote Of
love and trust in which Richardson held
her for the three years which passed un-
Ill his death. The history of the ha6eaS
c02l6IS case and the Indiana divorce are
also given. OF the latter she says:
"The laws there, as / found on con
sulting, permit a divorce for drunken
ness, extreme cruelty and failure to sup
port wife. I knew, beyond a doubt,
that M. Mcfarland had committed
adultery while l lived with him as his
wife. had been offered proof that he
had committed that crime against mar
riage since I had ceased to live with him.
was told that adultery Was the only
ground on which a divorce was obtain
able in New York, but / repeat now,
what l said then, with all my soul upon
my lips, that l consider his treatment of
me, his personal abuse, his terrible pro-
family, his outrages of all kinds, an in
fnitely greater sin against me and my
womanhood, than if he had committed
again and again, unknown to me, the
crime against the marriage relation,
which is the only cause the New York
courts hold as a just ground for divorce.
My opinion in this remains unchanged
even while ] write. During the long
time, nearly three years, that ensued be-
tween my former separation from Mr..
Mcfarland and my legal divorce, my
acquaintance with Mr.. Richardson had
been most carefully guarded. During
all my stay IN Indiana, and all his fre-
quent JouTneyingS west, l never saw
him once, and he carefully avoided
passing through the city where l stopped,
to give no shadow of cause for scan
dal. On the 3Ist of October, 1869, /
came home. On November II, 1860
s-I0 to -ir
house in Medway, to Thanksgiving. On
Thanksgiving evening met him at the
railroad station as he came from his
aged mothers, whose youngest son he
was. For the first time since he was
shot III 1867, ] walked with him in the
street. In all that time we had entered
no place of amusement together, and
had only met once, accidentally, at an
evening party at the house Of mutual
friend
"On the day after Thanksgiving, Mr..
Richardson went back to New York
Nothing definite was planned about our
future. Just a week after he left, a dis
patch came that he was mOrtally hurt,
and came to New York to nurse him
till he died. When / came he asked me,
if there should seem at any time to be
no hope of his recovery, if would mar
ry him at once, and l said would
Otherwise we decided to wait until he
recovered. l supposed he wished to be
married that l might have a firmer legal
right to take the charge and rearing Of
his three orphaned children, and also
because he could die more peacefully
after having made me his wife.
As for myself, if l had ter thousand
lives, / should have been more than glad
to have given them UP for him who was
dying for the crime of having loved me,
and his lightest wish in the matter would
have weighed with me against all other
motives in the world; so when it became
plain that he must go away from all the
hearts that yearned to hold him here, we
were married.