The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-15

A Boston MilliOnaire's Left Handed MAR
riace-An Actress Claiming Vast Estate.
New York Special
remarkable suit, which involves not
onIva great estate but also the personal
character of the late Henry f. Durant, the
well-known Boston lawyer, has been begun
in Brooklyn. The suit is for a widows right
ri dover, and is brought by a Mrs. Caroline
n. Shelley, woman forty-nine years old,
Who formerly lived in Boston, but who now
snends most of her time in New York. The
principal defendant, against whom the suit
Is brought both individually and also as the
executrX and trustee of MIR. DuranTs
estate, is Mrs. Pauline A. Durant, the law
Ver's widow, who lives at Wellesley Mass.
Mrs Shelley, in the detailed account which
she gave to the Boston reporters OF her rela-
tions with Mr.. Durant stated that she was
the daughter of a physician, mot of the
regular school," who now "would be called
an eclectic" and that her maiden name was
Caroline E. Kendrick. While she was
young girl, she continued, she was seized
with desire to become an actress She did
SO, much to the disgust Of her family, and
PLAYED in New York and Boston, under the
stage name of Carrie Moreland. Her sister
had trouble with her husband and consulted
Mr. Durant about a divorce. In this way
Miss Caroline met the young lawyer, and
finally he told her that he loved her, but
that he did not believe in church or
civil marriages; and that besides ne would
ruin his professional prospects if he
openly married actress. He brought
her books about Byron and the Countess
Guiccioli, and talked to her about
what he called "true MARI ages about
Dante and Beatrice, Petrarch and Laura, and
Shelley and many Others who had been
blessed with true marriages" So she final
1y consented to come TO New York
with him, where she alleges they lived to-
gether as man and wife at the Astor House.
Il
when. as she says, ''he took my hand in his,
and told me that in the presence of the one
and only living God that he and l both be-
1ieved in he would be true to me unto death,
and took me for his true wife, and did the
same with him." After this the relations
continued the same for some years, and Mr..
Durant, she alleges, frequently introduced
her to people as his wife In the meantime
her child was born. One day when she Wis
tied Mr.. Durant's office she saw there
lady and a little girl who, she
was told, were Mr.. Durant's wife and
daughter. He came to see her at once after
this, and there was terrible scene between
them She tried to kill him, and he tried to
pacify her with large offers of money She
would not be pacfied, and they separated.
Then she married Richard Shelley, in 1859.
Shelley enlisted in the army, and was on Cen
eral Ords staff. When on long furlough he
visited Boston with her, and hearing of her
relations with Mr. Durant he left her, and
after going tn rough considerable trouble she
was sentenced to the House of Correction for
one year for theft, but was pardoned by Gov.
ernor Andrew. She obtained a divorce from
Shelley in New York, and resumed her for
mer relations with Mr.. Durant for a short
time Then she "broke them off, She says
she made an investigation, and found that
Mr.. Durant was married to Pauline Adeline
Fowle, of Brooklyn, two years after his "true
marriage" with herself
The will of Henry f. Durant makes his
wife, Pauline A. Durant, the executrix,
without sureties to her bond. 1t provides
that the income of 500 900 and SIC, 900 re-
spectively shall be spent at the discretion of
the executrix for the support during their
lives of Mr.. Durant's brother, W. M. Smith,
and brothers daughter, Bessie Smith; these
funds to revert at their death to the residu-
airy legatee. The will then continues: 81
give my wife, Pauline A. Durant, the use,
income and improvement of all other real
and personal estate during her life, and au-
thorize her to invest and reinvest the per-
eonal property at her discretion, to sell any
of the real property except the the real estate
in Wellesley, and invest and reinyest the
proceeds. give and bequeath all my real
and personal estate, subject to the trusts
aforesaid, and to my wifes rights therein
during her life to Wellesley College, its sue
eessors and assigns, forever"
c. w. Peasants, who has managed the
legal part of the case in New York in Gen.
Pryor's absence, was extremely reticent on
the subjeetwh called upon.
Il don't want to be interviewed on the
subject he said, 'as l have had nothing to
do with the case except in its purely legal
aspects I took the case into the Brooklyn
court, as 1 live in Brooklyn and it will be
more convenient for me. If the defendants
demand it the case will have to be trans
ferred to New York. l know nothing about
any proposed compromise in the case. If
there have been such negotiations, they have
been, carried on in Boston. Mrs, Shelley
lives on Ffty-third street, but do not wish
to have her interviewed, so l must refuse
to give you her address. The case will GER
tainly be pushed; that was what it was begun
for did not give out any OF the facts for
publication"
GENERAL NATHAN KIMBALL.