Morris tribune., 1884-08-20
THE TRAGIC SEQUEL.
An Old st. Louis Scandal Revived
by a Pistol Shot.
Russell HI. Tevis, Failing to Shoot
His Wife and Child, Ends His
own Career-A Sad
Story.

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 1S.-Russell Fl. Tevis, the
well-known st. Louisan, the husband OF the
daughter of Gen. Reese, U. S. A, and niece
Of Gen. w. 7. Sherman, lies dead in his
house, at 1854 st. Louis avenue, with bul-
let wound in his head, inflicted by himself.
The deceased is the man who dis
covered Frank T. Iglehart and his
wife leaving one of the notorious
assignation houses in this city,
in November, 1882, and who at that time shot
Iglehart, and afterward was divorced from
his wife. Friday night, about 10 o'clock,
Tevis quarreled with his wife. Remarking
that he thought it would be better for all of
them to die, evidently meaning himself,
wife and one child, he took a large pistol
from the washstand drawer and made a
| demonstration toward his wife, but she,
divining his purpose, fled hastily from the
room. Tevis then placed the pistol to his
| own head and sent a 3S-calibre bullet through
his brain, and fell dead upon the floor.
1t is known that Tevis bought out his busi-
ness partner Thursday, had been drinking
| and was in highly nervous and excited con-
dition before he went home He was 80
years of age and of a very nervous tenn
permanent.
Mrs. Tevis is quite young, a blonde of great
beauty, and possesses a splendid figure, en-
gaging manners, and other charms which
made her the idol of the social circle in which
she moved, and her return to St. Louis
society was hailed with delight by many.
In November, 1882, social circles in st.
Louis were startled with the news that Rush
Tevis, one of the leading society gentlemen
there, had shot and seriously injured Frank
lglehart, gay and wealthy young bachelor,
whom he caught in the act of escorting his
wife from one of the most notorious evil re-
sorts of the city. A general separation of
the three parties to the transaction followed,
[glehart being carried off to hos
pital, the lady being taken to her
friends in Philadelphia, while Tevis,
who was of the emotional tempera-
ment, first of all threatened suicide, but
finally rushed for the divorce court, where he
succeeded in becoming free man, with the
sustody of his little daughter granted him.
In the hospital Iglehart, who was by far the
more innocent of the surprised pair, had
hard time of it, blood d-poisoning at one time
threatening to end his life, and when he
dnally left the hospital Ee was reduced
to mere skeleton. The wife, a niece
of Gen. w. T. Sherman. and daugh-
tsr of Col. H. ,. Reese, U. S. A.,
made strenuous efforts in the direction of
moral reformation as soon as she got among
her Influential friends and relatives, who
were soon able to give the husband most
gratifying reports concerning her. In the
meantime Tevis, whose child's presence con-
tinuously kept reminding him of the domes-
tic joys which had fled, very soon began to
show that he could not live happily without
his old partner at his side, and the infuen-
tal relatives of his divorced wife
using all the efforts possible to bring about
reconciliation, it was not very long
before he began to chafe under the painful
burden of divorced solitude, and to drop
hints to the effect that, under certain cir
cumstances, a resumption of marital rela-
tions, provided the lady so desired, might be
possible. The lady's friends were not slow to
assure him that the required conditions had
been already secured, and, accepting their
guaranty, he joyfully proposed marriage,
and in June, 1888, the couple were united in
the holy bonds in Philadelphia.
An extraordinary feature of the quarrel
between Tevis and his wife which culmi-
mated in divorce proceedings was the fact that
at the time when negotiations were pending
for reconciliation, instead of legal separa-
tion, Tevis made the discovery through the
presence Of G justice constable in the house
that his wife had mortgaged his personal
property for $780, and spent the money This
was the last straw, and the divorce proceed
ings were Immediately instituted which had
such romantic termination.