River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1876-12-21
lis We married again, sophy Z

lis We married again, Sophy y
queried the stranger, anxiously.
''No, isn't said the old woman,
impatiently, almost angrily, ian /
doesen' tend to be again.
After brief pause, the man asked in
a sort of broken voice:
" Whar am dat boy Oh mine
lies down i'm de elumvat0r at de
State line"
Don't you know me ,Sophy, no NOR:
Don't We member when come coortn'
We down at Massa Shelby Martin S
place down dar in Cole county Don't
We members how we got married, an,
an, Oh Sophy, don't We know yer
husband, George Duncan !"
Tears began to gather in the old de-
pot woman's eyes, but she held them
back a moment, when nature gave
way and she gave her old slave hus-
band her hand and babe him ''go see
dot ar boy
After the old slave had left the bag
gage room, a Times reporter took old
aunt Sophia in hand, and from her he
learned the following interesting facts
in the case:
About twenty years ago she was a
slave, belonging to Col. Shelby Martin,
a wealthy farmer of Cole county, not
far from Jefferson City. Not far from
her old home there resided family
by the name OF Duncan, who owned
colored boy named George. After
brief courtship George and Sophia were
married. But George, in his visits to
Jefferson City, got acquainted with a
worthless, degraded woman, and with
her started off on the underground
railway" for Kansas. Sophia lived
with her master until the war set her
free. Her husband was rccaptured,
brought back to jefferson and sold by
his master and sent to the cotton fields
of the South.
George Duncan says he has always
regretted bitterly his runaway scrape
with that worthless white woman, but
when he was betrayed by her when
near the Kansas line, and was taken
back and ''sold South he gave up all
hope of ever seeing his wife and child
again. He was taken to the cotton
fields of Mississippi, and finally trans
ferred to Louisiana, where he has
lived for the past eleven years. lie
says he has been saving money all the
time with'a view of coming north to
seek his family, and this year he says
he raised several bales of cotton, the
proceeds of which have enabled him
to prosecute his Search for his long
lost wife and child. lie went first to
Jefferson City, and found that his wife
had disappeared from there during the
war.
lie searched every town along the
the Missouri river from Kansas City
to Jefferson City, and felt confident
that he would find his family some
where. He got track of his wife ac-
cidentally in conversation with a col
ored express driver, who took him to
the depot, and brought the long sep
arated couple together.
1t is notdefinitely settled in the mind
of the long-deserted wife whether she
will take back her truant husband again.
She expressed her mind last night
in these words
Don't know yet whedder he is my
busban' or not. Use got a nice home,
an lot an furniture. which | worked
hard for. Use been workin in dis
yere depot nigh on five years, an kin
git along without George Duncan. Use
ncber got ober that runnin' away wild
dat air white woman"
Then old aunty waddled out of the
depot ticket office shaking her head
and grumbling terribly over the pros
pect of having to take up with her lost
husband.