The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-02-15
A Ruined Family.
fChicagA Tribune.

Ill ~ SRIN&HAC2Ly ANFSN i DtONNS3
q successful cloth merchant Of New
| York, and nearly connected with some
of the NEST prominent representatives
of the wealth and benefeence Of that
city, retired from business with a hand
some competency. Eight years pre-
vious he had married a Miss Stiles, a
daughter Of a leading Philadelphian,
and, seeking a home of ease and ele-
gance, Mr.. Stokes chose Philadelphia
as his future residence. There his elf-
est son was born in 1885, and was named
Edward Styles, after a maternal rela-
tive. The lad was a boy of unusual
beauty and promise. a quick, active
mind, a generous and loving disposition
these traits being remembered well
after the lapse OF years by those who
knew him at that time. Two daughters
and two other IONS were born in the
period between 1910 and 1850. The
family is recalled as being rarely en-
dowed with all that seemed needed
to insure the happiness Of q household.
The home was one of wealth and lux
ury, the culture of the best. Edward
was educated at the university, and
took high rank as a scholar. He went
to New York at the age of seventeen,
to enter into the store Of Samuel Perry,
on South Water street, an extensive
cheese dealer. Perry failed three years
later, and young Stokes made a new
partnership with a junior of the. col
lapsed house, and they, as Stokes & Bud
long, opened a cheese store on Nesey
street. They had excellent success,
large, calling Stokes to Europe several
times within the next few seasons.
About this time the senior Stokes was
induced to remove to New York, where
he made his office with his son, though
not originally intending to become en-
| tangled in business. Such was the re-
suit, however, andnotOnly was the father,
but other and prominent wealthy rela-
| tives, gradually but heavily involved i'll
the extended ventures of Stokes & Bud
long. The failure of the firm followed,
and father and SON were thrown into
bankruptcy. With the wreck of his
| fortunes, young Stokes embarked next
in the enterprise Of establishing an oil
| refinery at Hunters Point. Three hun
bred thousand dollars were expended
in the works, which were to be of the
best class, when the company fell into
| difficulties, and at this juncture >the
baleful light of jim Fisk's c0untenance
comes into the story. Jim was III full
tide of his operations with Erie. He
1IC4O IN AZ t11NOSS WV ASA Az "SlS
less employed by even more %scupulous
railway managers than he), supplied by
his corporation, in transportation and
control of market, as the Erie was the
great thoroughfafe to the oil regions.
A compact was struck. Fisk entered
the refinery company, reinforced its
capital and with a change of name and
heavy drawbacks on the Erie freight
bills, the Hunters Point refinery sailed
| strongly into successful competition.
/ Stokes was Secretary as partner. At
one time the profits from the refinery
gave him one. thousand dollars per
week. In 1864 Stokes married the
daughter of J. w. Southwick, O promi-
nent furniture dealer in New York, one
of the oldest in his line in that city.
A short time since n of u oldest
residents showed us a set of furniture,
a wedding outfit brought to Chicago in
1886, bought of Mr.. SOuthWick, who is
now a man of immense wealth, and
still in active business in a great Broad
way establishment. The wedding Of
Stokes with Miss Southwick seemed to
lack nothing that wealth, position and
social surrounding could bring to in
sure happiness. They made their
sumptuOUs home in the Hoffman House,
and moved among the most brilliant
life of the metropolis. The next scene
in the drama brings the Infamous w0-
man Mansfield into the plot. Solomon
described her many centuries ago, and
we fear Solomon knew what he" was
writing about. But his painting has
never been surpassed, and If somebody
could have slipped into Stokes mind
this little pen-poFtrait, made two thou
sand years ago, of Josephine Mansfield
and her infamous sisters, it might have
spared the community the fruits of the
new acquaintance. Here T some of
the wise mans cOlOrings of his subject:
"She lieth in wait as for a prey, and
~inereaseth the transgressiOns amOng
men. Her feet go down to- death; her
steps take hold on hell. The house in
clineth unto death, and her paths unto
the dead. None that go unto her re-
turn again. He goeth after her straight
way, as an OK g0eth to the slaughter.
She hath cast down many wounded,
yea many strong men have been slain
by her. HerhOuse istha WaytO hell, 60
ing downt to the chambers of death. The
dead are there. Her guests are in the
depths of hell.n .s t.,:
And just precisely that happened
which the Son of David predicted from
! the house of the harlot the path turned
downward. A quarrel between Fisk
and Stokes followed. It was carried
into affairs of business. Fisk refused
to allow the Hunters Point concern to
make a dividend, and thus cut of
Stokes supplies. The disgraeeful rela-
ton with Mansfield becamemore shame
less, and the father-in-law, Southwiek,
sent his daughter and her child to Eu-
rope early in 1871, to emove her from
Il 41o sao-n re tho nonr19n7 G%o5-n1 ~,
ragged at Fisk, used his position as
secretary to collect thirty tn rusand
dollars from Devoe, an oil merchant,
which sum he held openly and defantly
as his share of>the profits. Fisk caused
his arrest on a criminal charge. Stokes
turned to hig wealthy relatives. No
one of them would bail him, and he
was forced to make terms and submit,
and refund the money. His relations
to Fisk were bitter, and out of the in
tensity of the evil passions and crimi-
n~aiities of his position with Mansfield
grew murder. Turn to Solomon again,
and there lis no mystery in the chain OF
sequence. It is said that the same
steamer that took out to Europe the
murder of Fisk by Stokes carried a di-
vorce procured by her family for his
wife, who still remains abroad. The
story of family grief and reverses is
not at all told. The senior Stokes, af-
ter thirty years of retirement and en-
jOyment OF o luxurious home, is bank
rupt and homeless IN his old age. One
of the daughters died two weeks after
marriage. The second daughter, the
wife Of d Nh. Sutton, attached herself
so strongly to the fortunes of her
brother, that her husband discarded
her, and she is IN refuge with her aged
and penniless parents, The second son,