Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-03-03
A Gray-Haired Free Lover end Lob
hyist.

From the Springfield Mass Republican.
The particulars ofthe bigamy case
of DR.. Stewart Gwynn, who has just
been sentenced to five years impris-
onment by one Of the New York
courts, are especially distressing.
DR.. Gwynn is the man who became
notorious in Massachusetts during
Mr.. Haupt's management of the tun-
mel railroad and the State House.
He WAS in alliance with Mr.. Haupt
as an inventor Of machines for work
ing the tunnel, as well as II lobby
list, and these two, with Edward
Hamilton, another lobbyist at the
State House, were associated after
ward in speculative schemes at
ashington and Philadelphia
They had Joint planv, ior ,4,int-stoct
companies, and for getting fat jobs
from the navy and treasury depart
ments, while Gwynn, especially,
was further associated with Mr..
Clark, the manager Of the printing
bureau of the treasury during the
war. An exposure of some Of their
secrets and operations excited very
grave suspicious OF fraud, and DIR.
Gwynn sued the K'I,abH,a" for H.
bel because Of the publication of
some Of these revelations. The suit
was, however, abandoned by the
plaintiff without any serious attempt
to prosecute it; as, on the other
hand, the Government never sue
ceeded in proving, even if it seri-
ously undertook to prove, fraud up
on Dir. Gwynn and his associates.
1t seems from the testimony in the
bigamy case, that SO long ago as
1897, IA Mrs. Merriheld left her
drunken husband, stone cutter in
Boston, and went to live with this
man of science, DR.. Gwynn, nomi-
nally as housekeeper, on a salary,
but really as his mistress or wife,
without the tornality of marriage
After they had lived together about
a dozen years, she heard Of Mr.. Mer-
ritield having been fatally injured,
but never knew of his death. But
now Gwynn and the woman were
formally married by Rev. DR.. Vain
wright at New York, and they con
tinucd to live together for, in all,
thirty years, or until Two years since,
having eight children, some of whom
have grown up to manhood and wo-
manhood. But, two years ago, DR..
Gwynn deserted his wife, and, last
year, married a young woman nam
ed Maria Brown. The reply of DR..
Gwynn to these facts is that he new
er supposed the woman was his le-
gal wife; he was not a party, he says,
to the marriage before Rev. DR..
Wainwright, and thinks somebody
must have pcrsonatcd him in that
transaction. Still, he admits fully
his living with the woman and treat
ing her as his wife, and calling her
so, for all these thirty years.
OF course there could be but one
verdict upon this evidence, and the
venerable free lover can hardly es-
cape, save by Gov. Hotlman's par
don, the fulfillment of the sentence
which the court has passed upon
him. He is man Of considerable
intelligence and scientific ability,
and has made many inventions,
though few or none of them have
ever proven Of any practica! value.
His loose habits on the subject OF
matrimony are, in part, the result OF
trec-love spiritualism, of which he
has long been Il prominent advocate
and representative. lnputting these
notions into practice, he has run
athv art the preiudiccs Of the age in
the form of II States Prison, where
he seems likely to have leisure to
review his theories, it not to repent
his practice. His fate may also be
taken rs n warning to advcnturers
and Spectators who take to lobby
ing the Massachusetts Legislature
and sucing the R1"bhcon for libel
as means of livelihood.