The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-01-04
A ROMANCE FROM LIFE.
Father, Mother aad Son Strangel,
United After q Long Separation
Condensed from the Cincinnati CONNER

Condensed from the Cincinnati Commer-
cial Gazette.
Twenty yeara ago, in a beautiful valley
of Greenbrler county, West Virginia, at
the foot of the Cumberland Mountains,
in ~thatlovelies. ofall picturesque regions,
the headwaters Of the Great Kanawha,
lived young farmer named Goodman.
He had a happy no me; in which were a
young wife and a baby son, but he en-
listed in the Army of the Cumberland
and left for the front. Reports reached
Mrs. Goodman that her soldier husband
had died at AndeIsonville. Close upon
the heels of the awful news came the
awakening on a dark night with the roof
of her home ablaze by the incendiary's
torch, applied by a marauding band of
| Confederates to more than one Union
home in the hitherto peaceful valley.
Crushed by the double loss and having
no relatives near to whom she could app
| ply for refuge Mrs. Goodman made her
way to Cincinnati. whore for ears she
had a hard struggle. Having placed her
child in an orphans asylum she
soon lost trace of the boy.
But Goodman did not ole ut AEder-
sonville. He returned to his home, to
find it desolate and no traces CT his fam
lily. At this time the silver excitement
in Nevada was at its highest and, hav.
ing nothing to retard him. Goodman
went West in the hope of forgetting his
mining camp. He staked Claim and:
to the vices so prevalent among the
miners, he succeeded in a few months
in amassing quite 81 fortune, which he
invested in real estate in the then al
ready flourishing town OF Virginia City.
Success crowned his every undertaking
and it was not long until Goodman was
considered the wealthiest man in all
that region, where cores of men were
counted millionaires. In 1876 Good
man removed to San Francisco and he
came senior partner in a great banking
firm,
One morning in answer to an adver-
tisement for book-keepers, a young man
presented himself in his private Office,
who, by his striking resemblance to
Goodman, led to inquiries and invests
young man proved to be the long lost
son OF Goodman. He had been adopted
from the orphan asylum at Cincinnati
by q wealthy and childless couple of
DAYTON, Ohio, raised in luxury and given
n good education, Financial reverses
and the death of both his benefactors
threw the Young man on his own re-
sources and he had finally drifted to the
far west, carried thither by the fatter-
ing reports Of the new Eldorado. Hen
ry, for such was the young mans name,
was Immediately Installed as junior part
ner of the firm.
In October last a gentleman named
Warren. an old neighhor of Goodman in
OF the comrades that went out with him
from the quiet valley to battle in the
war of the Uni IN, vas in San Francisco;
and, having a draft to negotiate, he
stepped into Goodman's bank to tran
sact his business. While the money was
being paid over to HIM by the elder
Goodman. Warren casually
remarked that he Goodman
very much resembled an old
lriend whom we knew years 9 20 in
West Virginia. Goodman stated he was
from Greenbrier county; exp lanatIon
followed, the identity of each d isclosed
and Warren was invited to the home of
the younger Goodman, with whom his
father was residing. That evening after
tea the party were drawn around the
VI tlIS
past. Finally Goodman related the dis.
appearance aud supposed death If his
wife, when he was interrupted by War,
rem who excitedly stated that Mrs
Goodman was still alive and q resident
of Covington, KY. The revelation came
like q thunderclap on a clear, cloudless
day, and the shock nearly proved toe
much for Goodman. Joy seldom eve,
kills, and so it proved in this instance
Goodman accompanied by his son and
family took the first train for the cas-,
and IN due time arrived at Cincinnati
No pen can picture the meeting after
more than twenty years separation, and
the Joy that came to at least two hearts
alter all these long years of sorrow and
pain. The entire party passed up on the
steamer Fleetwood the other evening,
and a happier or more joyous coterit
wa never seen aboard thai boat.