Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1884-07-24
SINGERS WIVES.
Thread Of Isaac N. singers Numerous
Marriages uyiag with Three
Women nc Once.
Xnrlr &r,r.

women nc Once.
New York SUM-
Among the death notices in a morn
ing newspaper yesterday in this city
was this one:
Sinesr.-Entsred into rest, Sunday,
June 22d, after a painful and lingering
illness, Catherine Nj. Singer, aged %
years.
Funeral services Monday. June ed,
at 3 o'clock, at her late residence, ia
Schermsrhorn street, Brooklyn. Inter
ment in Greenwood.
Mrs. Singer was the first wife Of the
late Isaac Merritt Singer. inventor of
the Singer sewing machine. He died,
leaving $l4.0G, 000 bat Mrs. Singers
name was not mentioned IN his will.
A divorce obtained by Mr.. Singer TWEEN
ty-four years ago, and twenty years
after they ceased to live together, Mrs.
Singer always declared was obtained
wrongfully. She continued ell her life
TO call herself Mrs. Singer. While Mr.
Singer was alive five women laid claim
to him as husband. and twenty-four
children were recognized by him as his
own.
The frst Mrs. Singer, whose funeral
stock place yesterday, was married to
Mr.. Singer in Palmyra, Wayne county.
in this State, where he WAS employed az
q mechanic. Her maiden name waa
Catherine n. Haley, and she went to
Palmyra when child with her parents
from what was then known an Cola
berg, now Croton Landing, station on
the Hudson River Railroad in West
chester county. Mr.. Singer was known
to have genius, but he was lazy, and the
young couple were very poor. They re-
manned poor as long as they lived to-
gether. From Palmyra they removed
TO Port Gibson, N. Y, and afterward to
Waterloo.
About 1896 they came to this city, aud
soon after Mr.. Singer left his wife TO
join company of players which gave
entertainments ia small towns in the
South and West. Mrs. Singer RENAME ed
in this city. In one of the perform
ances of the troupe in Baltimore Singer.
was struck with the beauty Of a Miss
Sponsler. and he sought her acquaint-
ance, representing that he was a single
man. Miss Sponsler accepted his at
tentions. Mr.. Singer returned to bis
FIRST wife, but they quarreled and sepa-
rated, Mrs. Singer taking the children.
Singer brought Miss Sponsler to New
York. After hearing his account of his
marriage with his first wife, she agreed TO
live with him on his promise that a di-
voroe be obtained. Then Mr. Singer. who
played the violin, and Miss Sponsler, who
sang, travelled through the country pick
ing up precarious living playing AT
temperance entertainments in churches.
While In Chicago he found that he could
make more money oat OF Inventions.
and he took ont patents, first for reap
er and afterward for machine 10 carve
type. In 1850 he invented improve.
ments on the sewing machine, by which
be afterward reaped his great fortune.
He lived with Miss Sponsler at IA Fifth
avenue. Ten horses and six carriages
were a part Of the establishment. Be
tween 1887 and 1857 Miss Sponsler bore
ten children to him. To give the family
an airing in the park he had gorgeous
equipage built 10 bold twenty Ave per.
sons and dragged by eight horses.
en- years after Singer took up his re-
sidence IN New York, In Fifth avenue.
he procured decree of divorce from
his first wife. Ii has since been eon-
tended by her and her friends that she
did not know that divorce proceeding
was In danger Of being carried 10 Az,
issue until the news reached her that a
divorce had been granted. Mrs. Singer
mad, she said. legal paper served on
her, but was afterwards convinced that
the divorce suit had been withdrawn,
and that the service of the document
was of no effect. Singers counsel claim.
ed that there WAS no defense, and the
decree west into effect. Mrs. Singers
friends say that she was toe poor and
too shrihkine in disposition 10 recover
her legal rights.
Mr.. Singer, after the divorce was OH
tanned, lived an irregular life. Slx
months after the divorce Miss Sponsler
discovered that he had been living With
Miss Mary Ann McGenicai As Mr.. aud
Mrs. Mathews. She quarreled with him,
and he knocked her down. it is said,
and LETT her senseless and bleeding in
the ball OF the Fifth avenue house. She
had him arrested. He gave eosds, and
soon afterward went 10 Europe for a
year. Then 10 came out that he had
been living also with Miss Mary Il. Wal
ter, ander the name of Mr.. and Mrs
Merritt. Both Miss McGonieal and
Miss Walter have children by him. Miss
Sponsler sued fer divorce, and Singer
compromised by giving her property
In lsSS he married Isabella Eupeni.
Somerviile, whom he met in Paris. He
built castle on the Hudson. near Won.
kers, but did not occnpy 10 long. With
his wife he lived NEST OF the time in
Paris. Whea over sixty years ola he
started 20 build castle in Oldham.
Parqueton. near Torquay. Watering
place in England. but he died in ISIS,
before IL Was completed.
Mrs. Catherine NJ Singer. with 9th.
ers, contested the viii offered for pro.
bate before Surrogate Coffin in White
Plains In September, ls7A. Her son.
William A. singer, was named for $500
and her daughter, Lillian c. Singer, fer
$1,000. The heirs named in lhe will
compromised with her by paying her
S6oOO. She purchased farm in Flor
Ida with seine Of the money. and her
son managed IL. Not long ago she gave
him the farm. and he sold 10. For many
years Mrs. Singer lived quietly with her
daughter in Schermerhcrn street She
died of cancer In the breast