Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-11-12
An Interesting Family Romance.

THE happiest household in the city of
Louisville, says the COUrier-,joUrnaL, is
that which nightly gathers about the
lamp-light at the residence Of Mr.. L. p.
Baron, the well-known stove merchant,
who lives on Green Street, near Wenzel.
Mr.. Baron's estimable wife and her two
sisters, Mrs. Lizzie Cross, of Sacra-
mentO, Cal, and Mrs. IIettie Lowe, Of
Iowa, are reunited after separation Of
nearly thirty yesrs, under circumstances
so romantic and unusual that few chap
ters in fiction are as entertaining. The
three ladies are of English parentage.
About forty years ago their father, Mr..
Joseph Powell, of London, England,
accompanied by his wife and children,
sailed Tor Trinidad, one of the British
West India Islands. Mr.. Powell was
wealthy, and had made purchases of
land in Trinidad from agents. The
children were small when the voyage
began. 1t lasted four months in a sail
ing vessel, and consequently they can
still remember il. On reaching Trim
idad, Mr.. Powell discovered that it was
impossible for an unacclimatedf foreigner
TO live there. Disease was ravaging the
island, and, further, he discovered that
in the purchase Of the land he had been
swindled out of large sum. They did
not disembark, but came on to the
United States with the remainder of his
shattered fortune. He went TO Peoria,
ILL.,, and settled there, investing all his
means IN property. He was swindled
again, and, to crown the misfortunes Of
the family, the father fell ill and died
four months after arriving. The family
were left almost penniless in a strange
land. Mrs. Powell pined away and died
of broken heart, one month after her
husbands death. This great misfor-
tune left four little girls and boy at the
mercy of the world The oldest was
seven years old, who is now
Mrs. Baron. The children secured
homes with kindly people, and for
two or three years saw each other fre-
quently. Then came a separation.
Mrs. Baron remained in Illinois, Mrs.
Lowe went to Iowa, and Mrs. Cross to
California. The other brother and sis
ter died soon afterward in Springfield,
Ill. The separation took place in 1852,
and Mrs. Cross, then a child Of nine or
ten years, accompanied her brother to
California, where the gold fever was
raging. They made the passage of the
plains in wagon trains, and were at
tackled by Indians, narrowly escaping
annihilation of the party. Her friends
went to the mines, and the little girl grew
up in the magic changes and romantic
surroundings of the gold mines. The
children lost sight of each other, but
did not forget. Years passed, and the
girls grew up to be intelligent and edu-
Gated young ladies. They married, and
all married well. Then they began to
yearn for each other, and after many at
tempts discovered where each other
lived, and a correspondence began.
With household duties and their chill
dren to occupy them, they could not
meet on account of the distance which
separated them. Last spring Mrs.
Cross's husband died, and some time
ago she came East, stopping for some
months with her sister, Mrs.
Lowe, in Iowa. Then both came to
Louisville, and several days ago the
three long-separated sisters were reunit-
ed happily. A happier group could not
well be imagined. They are all respect
ed people, occupying high estimation
with their acquaintances. There are
romantic threads underlying this brief
outline which deserve fuller relation,
and Mrs. Cross, it is understood, is go
ing to write the history of the eventful
lives of the three sisters.