The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1876-10-19

A MARRYING SCOUNDREL.
He Practices Matrimony and Medicine
Jofntly-Wedded Victims In PennsyI-
vania, Michigan, California and Ore.
gon-A Fugitive Now.
From the Portland Oregonian.l
Little less than a year ago there came
to this city 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. It 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, Nj. d.
Where he spent the three years imme-
diately following is not known, but in
1868 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 sson 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 DIR. 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.
L 1uc DOCUOr lldu
ATASTE 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 u
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 Aldrich,
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. It is
long story. Suffice it to state the
facts and give such evidence as shall
place the Doctor in his true light before
the public.
DR.. ALDRICH WAS AN ORPHAN
adopted by Ralph Gould of Elmira, New
York, and by him sent to medical col
lege to be fitted for the profession he
had a 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 reason not
yet ascertained, procured a divorce
from him in 1878, in Santa Clara Coun-
| ty, California. Other rumors very
damaging 10 his reputation as 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
| 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 a
discovery, which is best related in her
own words: "Shortly after we were
married saw letter from you (Miss