Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-05-20
MRS. McFARLAND'S STATE
MENT.
THE TRUTH ATLAsT.

MENI.
THE TRUTH AT LAST.
The New York Ziz6Hze of the nth
! publishes the sworn statement Of Mrs.
Albert d. Richardson written not, she
says, for her own vindication, but for the
sake of the noble men and women who
have stood by her through all revilings,
often without explanation from her, and
| always in full faith that she was cruelty
wronged, and for his sake who lost his
/ life in her behalf The publication of
this statement created great excitement,
and almost completely reversed public
sentiment. Orders for large numbers of
extra copies came pouring into the Tri-
bune office from different parts of the
| country and an enormous extra edition
was printed.
The Tribune says editoriaIly The
trial of Daniel Mcfarland having ended
/ IN triumph of assassination over law,
we print this morning the sorrowful story
of her life by the woman whom the as
sassin made wretched for nine years then
numbering the friend who dared to
stand between her and the further graft
flcations of his terrible passions upon
| her otherwise defenseless head We defy
any man or woman to read her artless
! narrative and not hlzOzO that it is the ma
ked truth. There may be some who will
refuse to confess it, but their conviction
will be in accordance with the martyred
wife and mothers painful disclosures.
The statement occupies nearly a page
and a half of the Tribune and is very
| ably written. We quote from a summa-
ry as follows
Mrs. Richardson says she married
Daniel Mcfarland in 1857, he represent
ing himself at the time to be a member
of the bar at Madison, Wisconsin, with
a fourishing practice, brilliant political
prospects, and personal property to the
amout of $4,000 or $4,000. He also
professed to be of temperate habits, pur-
est morals, and previous to marriage ap-
peared neither Incorporate nor brutal.
During their bridal tour he borrowed
money to get back to the West, and soon
after their arrival at Madison he inform
! ed her that he was going to move to New
York that all his property consisted IN
Wisconsin State lands, on which only a
small amount was paid. He had no
money but sufficient to pay their fares to
| New York; never had any law practice
Of any consequence, having devoted
himself solely to land speculations in the
| West. They came to New York on
| February 5th. She was taken i'll on the
way with a violent cold and detained in
Rochester ten days. On leaving Roch-
ester he had to leave his watch and
chain in pawn for the board bill. In New
| York he kept her three or four weeks,
and then taking all the jewelry she had
to d pawnbrOker to pay a board bill,
sent her home to her father, in New
| Hampshire. For fourteen days she
never heard from him. Nearly beside
herself with anxiety, went to New Haven
and telegraphed friend for news Of him.
I He appeared in two or three days, and
| for the first time she suspected he might
/ be incorporate. A week or two after
ward she returned to her fathers and re-
manned through that summer of 1858.
| He came over twice to visit her, and
seemed attached to her but during the
| time she had lived with him she discov-
cred that he was not temperate, that he
was terribly profane in her presence that
his temper was htful and passionate,
and that for some slight or fancied cause
he would become sullen or morose, not
speaking to her for day or two.
Returning to New York in the fall OF
1868, Mcfarland hired a cottage in
Brooklyn, and furnished two or three
rooms. Some of the time, perhaps half.
he was good to her, and prOfessed most
passionate devotion, but here he first
began to come home drunk. He would
also come home sober, bringing bottles
called 'Scheidam SChnapps' containing a
quart or SO of vile liquor, put them by
his bedside, and drink sometimes the
whole before morning. When she beg
ged him not to do this, he said his brain
was on fire, and this made him sleep
AS this was only two OF three months
before her first child was born, his
breath and whole body steaming with
vile liquor, during the time when she
Law awake beside him, it was very obi
GUS to her, so that before she had beer
married year, her affection was very
much chilled, if not nearly destroyed
During the fall of So he had made two
or three trades of his Wisconsin lands
for real estate, and made what he calleC
"excellent bargains During all this
time she was oppressed always with wan
of money, and with great difficulty got ;
scantY wardrobe for her baby, which wa
born in December. In November he
sister visited her. Mcfarland took he
10 a matinee at the theatre left her. Re
turned at the close of the matinee, gross
: " intoxicated, made love to her, in hi
: drunken foolishness, and frightened he
) exceedingly. When reproached for hi
J conduct, ne swore he would never drlnl
: again, and drew up written pledge t
2 that effect, which he kept severa
a months. Early in the spring of 1859 sh
3 went home again. Her baby died, an
: her father paid the funeral expenses. L
: Iuly she returned to Mcfarland with
\ heart sorely bruised. She was less abb
4 to bear the brutality and violence of hi
: temper. His treatment was so bad sh
n went back to her father in October, an
i remained until August 1860. Had sh
S | had courage to tell her father and moth
i er of her troubled life, she probabl
+ would never have returned to this man
e but her ideas of a wife's duty were mos
) conservative. She believed she shoul
/ suffer unto death rather than resist th
c laws of marriage. Part of this time, fc
/. the first time in her married lit'
n she paid a small sum of her boarC
v Two of her children were born there, an
e the expenses came principally upon he
e father, although at the birth of her young
1t est child she paid the physicians bi
e with the result of her public readings.
d In 1860 Mcfarland returned to dad
= son, Wisconsin, and here they lived
e year and two months-the happiest tim
S of her life with him. Mcfarland earne
IS nothing and getting out of money b.
A. came morose and ill-tempered. She hH
n attracted some attention in private Ct
h cles by her reading and mad given a pul
Of lie reading for the benefit of the Soldier
is Hospital. On this Mcfarland propose
c. to take her to New York and nave n
fitted for the stage in the profession OF 9
actress. He also announced that
ID should himself adopt the profession