The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-06-20
A MUCH MARRIED MINISTER.

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A MUCH MARRIED MINISTER.
The Times has been informed of the ar
rest at Bangor, Me-, of the Rev. j. M.
Wells, alias Chenoweth, on a charge OF
bigamy. He was brought to this city, and
is now in Jail here awaiting the action of
the Grand Jury of the Sangamon Circuit
Court. He was born in small town in
Ohio in 1921, and learned the trade of
tailor. When he was % years old he mar.
ried and lived with his wife seven years.
One day he left his house and did not re-
turn. He then went SO it appears, to
Iowa, where he joined the Methodist
Church and became class leader He
married there, and lived with his second
wife about two years, when he left her and
went to Kaskkaskia, in this State. 1t does.
not appear that he got married while at
Kaskaskia, but in 1858 he married in
Manchester, Scott county, and began busi-
ness as a tailor. He had a good business
and made little money, but is described
as being ''of lively, sporting turn" and
he drank freely, gambled little, and
made his shop the headquarters for fast
men and youth of the neighborhood. Af-
ter seven months of this sort of life he told
the boys that he was going to quit his bad
habits and join the church, and this he
proceeded to do with great celerity. He
professed great admiration for the teach
ing of the Rev. G.. w. S. Beer. the Bap-
tist clergyman of the place, and was very
attentive to his ministrations. He was soon
converted and baptized, and was after
ward licensed to preach. He married Miss
Ruth Clement, and devoted himself to the
work Of the ministry, being in succession
| the pastor of the Baptist Churches at
Waverly, Applebrook, Manchester, Mount
Sterling, Clayton, Girard, Whitehall, and
Auburn.
In the fall of 1865 his Manchester wife
died, and on July IA, 1866 he married Miss
Anna Wrightsman of Auburn. In the fall
of 1874 he was in great financial trouble,
and left Auburn. For three years the peo-
pie of Auburn heard nothing of him, but
in the fall of 1877 the Standard, the Bap-
tist organ of Chicago, published letter
from the chnrch at Aurora, Ind, detailing
the misdeeds of the Rev. M. Chenoweth
The people of Auburn wrote to the Aurora
church and an exchange of photographs
revealed the fact that the Auburn fugitive
and the ex-pastor of Aurora, Ind, was the
same person. He had got married at Au-
rora, and after his exposure there bolted
from that place, When he left Auburn he
went back to his old home in Ohio, and
there found that his first wife had got a
divorce and married man who afterward
died, leaving her we'll fixed in the way of
property. He protessed the utmost peni-
tence for his desertion of her, swore that
the story of his marrying in Iowa was not
true, and was remarked to her. After a
time he took charge of the Baptist Church
at Dunkirk Ind. He had steadily urged
his wife TO sell the property left her by
her late husband, but she refused and at
last, as his treatment was brutal, she left
him and went back to her home in Ohio.
Then Chenoweth went to the church at
Aurora, and there, it is reported, forged
the name of one of the deacons of his
church to a note or check, got the money,
and fed. The friends of the Auburn lady
spent the time and money required to trace
him up, and he is now in Jail. The off
spring of his many marriages are one child
at Manchester, two at Auburn five in Ohio
and one in Iowa. Chirn0o Times.