The union Democrat. [volume] (Sonora, Calif.) 1854-1946, 1871-04-22
ARHoDE ISLAND ROMANCE.
Strange Vicissitudes of Fortune.

The life of Aaron Burr. If his hiographers
wrote correctly. contained about much ro-
nance as reality. His early boyhood was full of
romantic incidents; his services in the revolu-
tionarv war were tinged with genuine chiv-
airy his political elevation to the Vice Pres
idercy was sort of State romance his duel
with Alexander Hamilton was pistol enter
| tainment with a somewhat tragic termination;
| his reputed attempt to revolutioniZe the
| South. western States reads to-day like a fab
| ulcus adventure his trial for treason against
the government ended in Virginia wassail.
| in which Gen. Jackson wa the loudrst rev.
eler his subsequent wanderings in Europe.
and his associations with the savanS OF the
continent, seem like fictitious FAMILIES and
historic tales his marriage with Madame
.Junel when N his seventv-eighth year. was
The c:owning romance of his adventurous
life while his death on Staten Island ended
the romantic visions and vicissitudes of one
who had virtually left the world five and
twenty wears before he died.
Weird and romantic as was the life Of Burr,
that of his second wife Madame Jumel. was
equally mysterious. Who was she /? Where
was she born? These questions have been
asked 40 frequently. and been answered so
differently. that people are still in doubt
| about her nativity. also in greater darkness
! about her character. Some writer's have de-
| clared her a native Of France, others that she
IVES hnrn in San Domingo. while an exten
sive lawsuit has been carried on for years ~
nrove that she was born and raised in New
Yo K city, and that she honestly enjoved a
bad reputation. The above stories regarding
her nativity are all wrong. Madame Jumel
the pnssessor of a French patronvmc, the in
heritnr of singular beauty and great energy
of character, the owner of vast wealth and a
J sharp tongue. the widow of French million
aire and the wife of Aaron Burr, was a ma
tive of Rhode Island. having been born in
Darlington about 1888. Her maiden name
was Betsey Bowen. Her parents were ex.
ceedingly poor and humble. and this Betsey
and her mother earned precarious living hy
gathering herbs and green's. which they ped
died through the streets of Providence, them
s~lves drawing small hsnd-cart, both bare
foot and dust worn in their eight miles Jour
nev to market.
These facts relative to the early DAYS of
Madame Jumel have recently come TO light
through the efforts of Mr.. George w. Bowen.
of Providence, who claims to be the illegit-
innate son of Madame Jumel and her heir-at-
law, the bona fde and rightful inher.tor OF
an estate now valued at several millions,
and which is located in the upper part OF
New York city, near Fort Washington. one
of The most fashionable and valuable sections
of the metropolis A legal commission. az
rointed hv Judge Boecks, If Saratoga, n. Y.
visited Providence last January, and six
aged persons the oldest eighty-three, testified
that Madame Jumel was a native of Rhode
| leland, that her original patronymic was
Betsev Bowen. that she had an iliegitimate
child when fifteen or sixteen years of age.
and that Mr.. George w. Bowen. the present
contestant for the .Jnmel estate, is the son of
Madame Jumel. The witnesses all testified
that they had known this child from birth.
that he attended school in Providence, that
he was for several years boarded on q farm
in Smithfield: also that abaut 1910 his moth
er. Betsey Bowen. removed to New York
lone of the witnesses testified TO the name OF
the schooner in which she took passagel
she subsequently married a man named Jumel.
who was killed by being thrown from his car
ciape in 1882. and that Madame Jumel had
his remains forwarded to Providence, and al.
,erward buried in Swansea. The identity 81
Retsev Bowen MS the historic Madame Jumel.
and of George W. Bowen as her illpgitimate
child. seem thoroughly proved by living wit
nesses of to-day.
Asa part of this Rhode Island romance
f,ow disclosed and seemingly founded on
fsctsl we onght To know something about the
first husband of Madame Jumel. No hicg-
ranhical dictionary contains his name, hence
we must depend on What we can pick M
from "Remeniscences of Old New York Mer-
chants.'' stray volume by Grant thorn
hnrn. also from Parton's Life of Aaron
Burr From these sources We learn that
Stephen Jumel was an enterprising French
man. who in early life emicrated to San Do
m;nro. where he became the owner of a large
coffee nlantation. In 1904. when Dessal'nes
made proclamation for the massacre of all the
white Inhabitants. Jumel fed to New York.
TO which port he bad just sent cargo OF
coffee. from the proceeds of which he embark
ed il trade, rrospered and became immense
" wealthy. For several years he menopo-
lized several products of the West Indies,
and retired from business in 1912. 1t was
in this year that he married betsey Bowen
nf Rhode Island. the poor girl who once pei-
died herbs in Providence, and who left there
a con not born under legitimate paternity.