The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1886-01-20
A MILWAUKEE MYSTERY.
The Strange Death of . Prominent Citi-
zen's Wife.

CHICAGO, January 1.-THE sudden death
of Mrs. M. s. Stevens, late OF No. 1,214
Wabash avenue, Milwaukee, between the
night OF December 31st and the morning Of
January LIST, has given rise to a consider
able amount of suspicion and gossip in the
Cream City. 1t appears that Mrs. Stevens
left Chicago on the evening OF December
31st, and was met at the Chicago & North
western depot by a Mr.. Ernest Derry, who
lived with his family in a handsome dwell
ing at No. 836 Racine street. Mrs. Stevens,
who is said to nave been finely dressed and
wearing and abundance of jewelry,
accompanied him to his home. She was
welcomed by Mrs. Derry, and after a pleas
ant social evening, retired to an apart
ment off the sitting room. Mrs. Derry
claims to have seen her alive at 10 or
1890 that night, but when she entered her
room in the morning for some article OF
her toilet she found her partially disrobed,
lying on the edge of the bed, with her feet
on the floor, dead. There was a mass OF
clotted blood in the nose and thro,.t, but
no marks of violence could be found on the
body. The Coroner decided that death
had resulted from hemorrhage. MI. Derry,
in an affidavit, swore that he had
known Mrs. Stevens for two years
III CulCdkO. WHICH, ouc AS0u dV w.
1914 Wabash avenue. She was 81
years of age and was born at Mortified,
Vermont. Mrs. Derry stated, on oath
that she had never seen Mrs. Stevens till
the night of December 81, but had received
a postcard from her saying that she would
visit them on her way to st. Paul. The
coroner took charge OF the personal effects
of the deceased. No money was found in
her purse, nor any ticket for st. Paul, and
no valuables were found in the room. The
body was sent to her relatives in Vermont
for interment.
A Tribune reporter called yesterday at
ling occupied by q family named Van
Buren,. Mr.. C. M. Van Buren, stated that
Mrs. Stevens had rented the house for two
years previous to the fifteenth of last
June, and that his family had roomed with
her. She was the widow of q Boston hotel
keeper, snd was highly educated and re-
fined, but was given to heavy drinking, and
INDUCED in various narcotics. She some
times took spells Of drinking OF six or seven
weeks duration, and on several OF these
occasions her friends were telegraphed for
in the belief that she was dying. She
had some lung trouble, and frequent fits
of breathlessness, which could only be re-
lieved by chloroform, She gave up the
house June Is last, after a protracted
drinking spell, and vent East to her
brothers, at Leomeister, Massachusetts.
MIR. Derry used frequently to call at the
house, and sometimes used to stay for
weeks at q time. He was nicknamed by
them Lord D~undreary." They never sus-
pected that he was married, and under
stood that he was going t" ,larry Mrs.
Stevens. After Mrs. Stevens death Derry
t~elegraphed to a Mr.. Brooks. whose sister
had married Mrs. Stevens brother, and
he had been in Chicago for some days, but
had left again for the East. Mrs. Stevens
called ON them the night before Christmas
in a very intoxicated condition. She told
them she WAS going to Window, Cotton.
wood County, Minnesota. but meant to
pay q visit at Milwaukee on the way. She
had no jewelry about her. and simply called
for a few pictures that belonged to her.
She took two with her, and next day sent an
expressman for the Others to be taken to
an address on Wabash avenue.