Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-03-28
A SINGULAR CASE.
A Wealthy Californian UnknOw
fngIy Marries his own Daughter.
From the San Francisco Tribune.l

From the San Francisco Tribunel
1t would seem, from the frequent oc
currence of remarkable incidents, that
there is certainly nothing of an improb
able nature, judging from the following
wonderfully strange and hardly credit
able story which came to our ears few
days since.
In the spring of l849, when the gold
fever was at its highest possible state Of
excitement in California, there lived in
the State of Virginia, on the banks of the
York river, few miles below Yorktown,
gentleman of culture, whose parents
were in moderate circumstances. 1t was
during the gold excitement he left the
comforts of home, his friends, relatives,
loving wife, whom he had led to the
altar but year since, and an only child
"a daughter of two months-and took up
his lonely journey to seek his fortune in
the wild distant West, over and beyond
the Rocky Mountains, where the bright
and golden sun sinks down to rest amid
the blue waves of the grand Pacific.
After years of toll, drudgery and re-
verses of fortune in the mines, he came
to this city and engaged in business.
He being successful, soon amassed an
immense fortune. His beloved wife had
died during prevailing epidemic while
on visit to some relatives during the
yellow-fever season at New Orleans, as
at the same time did little girl OF
another family, of the same name and
age as his little daughter. He visited
the States, but could find no clue to his
deceased wife's sister; he thought ma
turally she, too, had died. He returned
to the Golden State, and time and the
whirling excitement of business soon
healed his sorrows, and effaced, appar-
emily, all recollections Of his old home
ON the banks of the placid York.
Shortly after the completion of the
Pacific railroad there arrived at this city
gentleman, his wife, and beautiful,
well educated and graceful young lady,
just blooming into maidenhood, appar-
emily and really about eighteen summers
1t was by chance that the young lady and
aged widower met-and to meet was to
love- They were duly married after a
short acquaintance; the ceremony being
celebrated with great eclat, and creating
no little hutter in the fashionable and
wealthy circles of our city. The fact
that both parties bore the same Christian
name excited no comment or inquiry, as
it was almost quite as common as that of
Smith or Brown.
A few weeks after the marriage, as the
husband and wife naturally inquired into
each other past history and dantecedents,
and were gradually becoming better ac-
quaiuted with each other, the denoue-
ment came-they were father and daugh-
ter-man and wife; the instructive love
of the parent for the child, and the daugh-
ter for the father, had been superseded
by the strong emotional passion of sex
ual love. Both innocent at heart, but
foully criminal in the eyes of man and
God.
His daughter was not dead, as he sup
posed; but, after the death of his wife,
was kindly taken in charge by his sister
in-law, who had married and moved to a
distant State, and who, also, with her hus-
band, accompanied his wife S daughter to
meet as strangers, lovers, and subse-
quently parent and child, as they we're,
cultivated passionate love changed into
6lial and parental devotion.
Wonderfully strange, indeed, are the
fortuitous circumstances which control
and guide the footsteps of erring and sus-
mortals