The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1885-03-28
A Celebrated Case.

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A Celebrated Case.
Wednesday afternoon Of last week case No.
1854, Mary Jones admrx, &c, Is. Coal River
Coal Company, of Streator, was begun in the
circuit court in this city. The allegations of
the plaintiff were that through the criminal
neglig ence on the part Of the defendant her
husband, Thos. B. Jones, was killed in No
vember, 1888, and suit was therefore lnstitu.
ted for damages in 5000. The company
manage what is known as the Peanut shaft.
An opening which passed through the upper
level of the shaft was closed, from which the
coal was mined by :" drifting" leaving an ex.
cavation. A general flooding threatened the
upper and lower levels and it was determined
to close the upper level. Thomas B. Jones,
with others, was ordered to close that level
and while at work, the gas from the level be-
low assembled suddenly and to where the
miners were at work and being ignted by
their lamps, exploded, killing Jones instantly.
| The plaintiff was represented by the Fowler
Bros. an d j. B. Rice and the defense by f. F.
Bull and Walter Reeves, whose plea was that
the deceased was previously acquainted with
the nature of the dangerous work that he was
about to be engaged in, and his widow was
thereby not entitled to damages. Since then
the trial dragged its weary way along with
nothing of particular interest until last Tues
day when the defense sprung a surprise which
amounted to a sensation by producing a
woman who claimed to be the first wife of
Jones. She produced what purported to be
marriage certificate stating that she was
married to Jones in Wales, and that subse-
quently he had deserted her and that she had
married again without the formality of d.
vorce. She was shown photograph of Jones
and recognized II. The lawyers for the plain
tiff strongly objected to allowing her to testify
but her story was heard through, and on last
Wednesday afternoon the question of the ad-
instability of her evidence was argued and
was finally ruled out by Judge Stipp. The
evidence offered by the testimony of the al
legged widow No. being unsupported by 9TH
er than her own statement, was deemed not
sufficient No evidence was offered to show
that Jones did not get divorce before getting
married to the Streator woman. Plaintiffs
lawyers objected to her testimony for these
reasons: first, that she was not competent
witness If she was the wife Of Jones; second,
that the burden of proof rested with the de-
Tense to show that at the time Jones married
secondly he had not the legal right to do so and
that there was no evidence to show that he
had not had a divorce before his second mar
rage; third, that the evidence was immaterial.
Judge Stipp, in granting the motion that Mrs.
Evans testimony be excluded, sustained the
last objection, according to the decision Of the
4Sth Illinois.
The case at this juncture presented some
strikngly novel features, and some of the
older heads of the bar shook their legal caputs
and said that they had never before heard of
a suit which bore resemblance to this.
Wednesday morning last representative of
the FREE TRADER had an interview with Mary
j. Evans, in room 81, at the Clifton House.
She arrived in this city Monday night of last
week and had quietly remained at the hotel
until produced in court last Tuesday In an
swer to the reporters nterrogations she
spoke as follows: :" l was born in Cromnadd,
in the county of Glanmorgan, South Wales,
Great Britain in the year lSii. My maiden
name was Mary John. | was married to
Thomas B. Jones in Mountain Ash, South
Wales, in November, 1867, and lived with him
there nearly two years. He came TO Ohio,
then went to Frostburg, Md, when two years
later joined him and lived there for year
before he left me 1t was there my girl Lydia
was born She is ID and my boy Moses Jones
is Il years of age. One Sunday night ! WIS.,
tied one of my neighbors and when | returned
Jones was gone and that was the last | saw of
him until in Wales some three years later.
During that time heard he was working in
La Sale. Three months after Jones left me
started back to my old home in Mountain Ash
and went housekeeping and when he came
back to the place, from America, was mar
ried 10 William Evans, but he left again in
about a year and never heard of him again
until heard of his death in the papers here.
Evans and myself came to this country and
settled in Thomaston, Ohio. He got to be a
hard drinker and | turned him out Of the
house and he never came back. He left me
with two more children on my hands, John
Evans, years old now and Elizabeth, aged g.
Since then have supported myself by my
needle, and giving lessons in sewing. Evans
seat me so few weeks after he left and that
is all ever heard of him since. The first |
heard of my ;irst husbands death was through