Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-09-17
A SOUTHERN MILLIoNAIRE,s FORTUNE.
The story OF Planter Who Built
Now Lonely Mansion In Connecticut.

The story Of a Planter Who buiit q
Now Lonely Mansion In Connecticut.
Groton Comm Letter 10 v. Y. Sun.
Before the war Robert Stafford, a mil
lionaire planter, owned two islands of
the coast of Georgia which We're noted
for the superior cotton they produced,
the famous Sea Island variety. On the
larger OF the TIVE islands MIR. Stafford
lived. He fell in love with Creole girl
who was one of his slaves, and married
her. She was educated and refined
i'm manners. Six children were the fruit
Of the marriage. Two boys died in
their youth. Just before the breaking
out OF the civil war Stafford, who noted
the gathering clouds, came North and
built a magnificent dwelling among the
pastures a few miles north of this viii
lage, on the swelling bank Ofthe Thames
River. Then he returned to the South,
and thence sent his wife and daughters
TO the Northern home. Here they were
surrounded by every luxury. The in
terror Of the house was very fine and
the grounds were triumph of the gard
ner's skill. Beautiful and rare plants
and shrubbery diversified the rolling
green Of the lawns, fountains played
among marble statues, and through the
grounds broad gravel walks wound up
TO the spacious verandas. The advent
of the beautiful girls in New London
and GrotOn was an event that Is still
fresh in the memory of Connecticut So
ciety.
The girls received a fashionable
Northern education. Private tutors
taught them French, Italian, music,
painting, and the arts of the ballroom.
They were reared in the most preten-
tious society, and suffers were not few.
One sister married Fred Palmer, Of
New London. The union was not a
happy one, and separation soon fol-
lowed. Another sister was welded to
Commodore Brady, of New York. The
honeymoon was passed in Paris, where
the bride shOne as society star far q
few months. Soon afterward the couple
were divorced. The youngest sister was
married to New York gentleman, and
is living happily with her husband.
Adelaide, another sister, has lived dur
ing the past eight years in Paris. A
few months ago she met Count Cybul-
ski, who il connected with the diplO-
matte service of Russia, and about q
month ago she became his wife, the
nuptials being celebrated in the Church
of NItre Dame. She sent wedding
cards to her friends in Groton and New
London, dainty pieces of pasteboard,
perfumed, adorned with the regel coro-
net, and bearing the words in Italian !:
Counties CybulSki, Paris" The young
wife is described as tall, 1.-the, graceful,
with olive-tinted skin and lustrouS eyes.
The Count is little, old, withered and
bent, with a whiSk of yellow beard.
He has taken his wifetO live ia the most
elegant quarter of Paris.
Robert Stafford was loyal TO the
Union. At one time the troops of Gen
eral Joe Hawley, the Seventh Connec-
ticut Regiment, were quartered on his
plantation. He passed his summers in
the North from 1867 to the year of his
death, 1873. He bought property in
New London and Norwich, which the
heirs still hold. He left u will by which
500, 900 was divided equally among the
daughters, while the bulk of the prop
erty, several million dollars, was divided
among distant relatives. The great
mansion that he built in GrotOn re-
mains in treeless and isolated grandeur
among the bleak pasture lands, and
every tourist that Journeys up the
Thames valley inquiries, who is the
owner of that splendid place" 1t is
many years since daughter of the Gre
ole slave of the Georgian Islands has
revisited the mansion.