Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-12-29
A Strange Story.

curious case recently transpired in
,he vicinity of Peoria, H., and, as it has
never been put Ia print, | send it to you.
In 1862, man by the name OF John Tai
bert married young lady by the
name of Rebecca Farmer. Soon
alter the celebration Of the nuptial cere-
monies. Talbert enlisted in the - cav
AIRY regiment, and went to the front He
was at home on furlough in 1863, and re-
turned to his regiment in a few weeks. In
one of the battles ia Mississippi he became
missing, and the body of q person supposed
TO be Talbert was found and buried His
friends were informed of his death, and
mourned for him for many days. When
the - regiment returned, with flying
colors. his place was vacant, and his wife
looked al the horsemen as they marched
proudly up the streets of the city, but
looked in vain for the form she would
most loved to have seen.
Talbert had been good citizen, and had
long paid his devotions to the lady whom
he married. Feeling it his duty to join
the army, he had married her before he en-
listed that he might have the right to pro-
tect her when he returned He was good
soldier, always doing his duty faithfully,
and when the battle ragged was in his place
unfiinching and determined When his
supposed body was found, not one OF his
former comrades but mourned that he had
been taken from their number.
The war closed and Talbert was almost
forgotten. Not much longer than year
ago his widow took off the weeds OF
mourning, and gave her hand to young
carpenter in Peoria, by the name OF
Simpson, She had borne child to Tai
bert in his absence, and all her love for its
father had centered in this image OF the
departed one.
About three months after Simpson and
Mrs. Talbert were married, the young car
penter fell from the scaffolding of large
building he was at work upon, and his
brains were dashed out upon the ground.
Rebecca Farmer was for the second time a
widow, and the habliments of mourning
were again donned. Loving hands buried
her dead from her sight, and the world
moved on as before, utterly regardless of
the twice stricken one $50
The child of Talbert had grown into a
lovely girl of seven summers, and was the
only love and hope of her mother. Two
weeks since, the little one suddenly sicken-
cd and died, and the mother supposed her
self bereft of all that knew or loved her.
But now comes the grand denouement.
While the corpse of the child lay in her
mothers house, awaiting burial on the
morrow, stranger called at the poor
woman's door. A neighbor lady, who had
charge of the mourning house, admitted
him, and he asked to see Mrs. Simpson.
The lady came down, and found in the
stranger her long lost husband, John Tai
berthe for whom she had mourned as
dead
He explained his long absence in this
wise. After the battle in which he was
supposed to have been killed, he found
himself prisoner in the hands Of the en-
envy He was hurried from one post to an
other, until he was taken to Andersonville.
In that prison he languished for
months, until he forgot to count the pass
ing time until the intense longing for
home completely broke his heart. When
he was liberated, he says, everything was
blank to him. He wandered to New York
city, and lived there for more than a year,
and then passed to- the great West, where
he lived until year ago. He recovered
his health of body and mind but for sew
eral years could not bring himself Of think
-irg of returning to his home He said
there was an intense yearning to see his
wife and child, but by some curious. NOR
bid feeling, he suppressed the prompting
Of his heart, snd remained away from the
beings he loved, brooding over his curious,
selfimposed condition. a few months
since he was taken with an irresistible
longing to return to Illinois and the scenes
of his former happiness, but he desired to
do SO without being recognized. lie came
back, much changed and altered in appear
ance, visited Peoria, and found his wife
married to another man.
There was fresh agony Of mind, and
poignancy was added to the thought that
if he had returned when his imprisonment
ended, or even after his faculties had been
fully restored, ne would have found his
wife still mourning for him, and could
have gladdened her heart by showing her
TIA. he was still alive. Now there was
nothing for him to do but to 60 away, as
Enoch Arden had done, and leave Philip
Ray TO his happiness. He could not tear
himself completely from the spot, however.
He had seen his child and its mother on
the streets, and he felt like going forward
and claiming his own So he removed
himself about hundred miles from his
old home; for To have remained in Peoria,
where he had been pretty well known,
would have betrayed him, finally. The
news of the death Of Simpson did not
reach him. Though he received paper
regularly from Peoria, this, to him, most
important item Of news failed to meet his
eye. But the other DAY ne dlu see nOt(e
Of the death Of his child, and in less than
Eve hours ne was beside its coffin. Not
till then did he learn Of the death of Simp-
SON. But when his wife, the girl he had
loved and thought he had lost by one of
the strsngest OF the works Of Providence,
eliinto his arms, he realized that he had
still something TO live for. The wife re-
ceived the husband again in place of the
child she had lost, and the neighbors re-
joiced al her good fortune, notwithstand.
ing a few Of them felt some indignation
that he had remained away 30 long after
HIS imprisonment had ended - Cor Csnci1sr