The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-09-07
A MARRYING SCOUNDREL.

MARRYING SCOUNDREL.
He Practices Matrimony and Medicine
aointlS-Wedded Victims I'm Pennsyl-
vaniR, Michigan, California and Ore
gOn-A Fugitive Now.
IFrom the Portland Oregonian.
Little less than year ago there came
to this city a scoundrel under the name
and title of Ira EllertOn Welcome Al
drich. This individual rapidly estab-
lished himself in practice by dint of in
dustrious advertising; ;paying for drinks
in saloons and putting many dollars in
the church plate in an ostentatious
manner. 1t appears, upon investiga-
ton succeeding his sudden departure
from our midst and the inevitable de-
velopments following, that he procured
as early as 1865 diploma from an
Eclectic College in Philadelphia, pre-
sided over by John Buchanan, M. ID.
Where he spent the three years imme-
diately following is not known, but in
1865 he turned up in Crawford County,
pennsylvania, as canvasser of an illus
trated Bible. Here he made many ac-
quaintances in the course of eight
months, and among them gained the
affections of Miss Susie Alexander, of
Espyville. When he left this vicinity
it was
TO GO WEST
to practice his profession. His first
letters to Miss Alexander were from
Ovid, Michigan; but he seon left for
California, where he came in 1869. In
1875, having corresponded with Miss
A. regularly since 1868, he returned to
Pennsylvania in July and married Miss
A. on the 18th of August at Erie, the
| ceremony being performed by Rev. |
Charles G. Kimball, of the Central
Presbyterian Church of that city. Very
soon after DR.. Aldrich and bride left for |
California, where, after stopping one
week, they proceeded to Portland, as
above related. On the 14th day of July, |
1876, DR.. Aldrich departed this city, |
ostensibly to visit patient near Salem,
but really, as has since been determined,
to take himself out of harms way, for
it now appears that vision of arrest
for bigamy was troubling his peace.
The Doctor had
TASTE FOR MARRYING
respectable and innocent young women
about as often as once year, and not
having taken time to be legally rid of a
wife whom he had espoused in 1874, was
what so disturbed him in the midst of II
lucrative practice that he felt compelled
to leave it. A correspondence between |
certain parties in California and the
Chief of Portland police, together with
other mutterings of the coming storm,
warned the gay Doctor that it was peril
Gus remaining on his native soil, and |
sent him abruptly to British Columbia.
The cause of this reasonable alarm was
that Mrs. Emma Louise Gould Aldricb,
his legal wife, had discovered his where
abOuts, and was gradually withdrawing
the vail from the eyes of Portlanders,
including those of the wife he had un-
lawfully taken in Pennsylvania. 1t is
a long story. Suffice it to state the
facts and give such evidence as shall
place the Doctor in his true light before
the public.
DIR. ALDRICH WAS AN ORPHAN
adopted by Ralph Gould of Elmira, New
York, and by him sent 10 medical col
lege to be fitted for the profession he
had liking for. Returning home from
college he sought and won the affections
of his GUARDIANS daughter, Emma
Louise, and after several years in Cali
fornia returned again to Elmira in 1874,
and married this young lady, taking her
with him to the Golden State very soon
after, and this without intermitting his
correspondence with Miss Alexander.
Eleven months they lived together, but
not long in any one place-the time be-
ing divided between San Jose, GilrOy,
Round Valley, Ukiah and Salinas CITY.
At the end of that time the Doctor sud
denly abandoned his young wife, send
ing her word that he had gone to South
America. 1t was at this time that he
went to Pennsylvania after Miss Alex
ander. A correspondence having been
established between the two ladies
above named, they have been able to
discover
STILL ANOTHER WIFE
of the Doctors, who, for a reason not
yet ascertained, procured a divorce
from him in 1873, in Santa Clara Coun-
ty, California. Other rumors very
damaging 10 his reputation as a man
and practitioner have also been circu-
lated. 1t seems incredible that it
should have been possible for this
scamp to have been in correspondence i
with both Miss Alexander and Miss !
Gould without being discovered by the {
first wife; but so it must have been.
The second wife very nearly made S
discovery, which is best related in her {
own words: "Shortly after we were 1
| saw letter from you (MiSS i
and L guessed by the con- ]
tents that you did not know he was
married, and l addressed a letter to
you, asking if you deemed it right to
correspond with married man, sign
ing the letter Mrs. Dr. E. w. Aldrich
Did you never receive it?" The letter
was intercepted and never came to
hand. To prevent any further awk-
wardness, DR.. Aldrich advised Miss
that, having to settle up his .
business and travel about good deal, !
he should not be able to write for some (,
time, but that as soon as he could get
ready he should come on to be
MARRIED TO HER. ,
In two months from that time he did !
come on as above related. To show i
what an uneasy Benedick this man is, ,
he was no sooner in Portland with his ,
new wife than he began writing to an ,
aunt of Mrs. Gould Aldrich that he ]
could not tell how dark, gloomy and t
his life on earth had been ;
for all these weary months since his +
from his dear Emma, and
asking where she was. These letters 6
so imposed upon the credulity of those i
who had been accustomed TO hold him '
in their esteem, that they wrote to the 8
deserted wife in california of these c
loving phrases, and very nearly were !
the csneo ( Of deceiving her into recon {
still being ignorant he ;
was guilty of the crime of bigamy. A
letter from her, inspired by these rep. +
reservations, telling him of the birth and /
death of their child, and asking him if !
he had :
OBTAINED A DIVORCE
from her, coming to the Doctor after !
his flight, was the first clew that Miss '
Alexander was able to get at of the real [
tho h + |