Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-04-25
RNMANChIN KEALLiFE.
The victory Of a WIFE VINO Was Fol
aakea when Nineteen Years ola.

The Victory of a VIE VINO was FOR
aakea when Nineteen Years ola.
A Middleton (N. " telegram says ::
Romantic interest attaches TO the career
of Rachel Smith. comely girl, who,
with her parents, left the adjoining town
Of Mamakating many years ago and
found home In Dryden, near Cayuga
Lake. Soon after she reached there and
before she was quite fifteen years old
Rachel was persuaded TO elope with and
marry a wild young fellow, Cyrus Rum
sew, son of q neighboring farmer.
The pair were forgiven for the esca-
pade by their Respective parents and set
tied down in a home Of their own. But
the young husband fell by degrees into
dissolute and evil ways and after four
years of neglect and abuse of his girl
wife, and after two children had been
born to them, he deserted his family
altogether and went Off into the western
part of the State. He had not been
gone long when word came back TO his
former home that he had been convicted
Of larceny and sent TO Auburn State
prison. At the expiration of bis term he
drifted ont West and disappeared.
Meanwhile the young wife, thus de-
serted and destitute, set desperately at
work tosupport herself and her children.
In this task her parents gave her such
slender assistance az their means per
mitted, and she had the active sympathy
of her neighbors. Among those neigh
bors was Alexander Lewis, q rich
old bachelor OF more than twice
her age. who speedily fell head over
ears in love with the comely and
brave little woman who was struggling
to support herself and little children re-
specially. He proposed marriage, and
when the apparently authentic report
came that Rumsey had died in Chicago
she accepted him and the pair were
happily married. But they took tae
precaution, after the first husband had
been missing and unheard of for a period
of five years, of having the nuptial cere-
mony performed second time.
In the spring of 1886 wreck of man,
who represented himself as Cyrus Rum
sew, reappeared in the neighborhood and
said he WAS the lawful husband Of the
reputed Mrs. Rachel Lewis. About the
same time Alexander Lewis died interstate
and childess. leaving large property in
farm lands and current securities. Mrs.
Lewis claimed her widows dover and
share rights in the property, and also
claimed the real estate for her children by
Rumsey, under a deed of gilt executed
in their favor by her last husband
not long before his death. An action in
the court was Immediately begun by
nephew of Alexander Lewis In behalf
of himself and other kin of the deceased
by blood for busting the reputed widow
and her children from the possession of
the property, on the ground that her
marriage to Lewis was bigamous and
void, she then having a husband living
also. for invalidating the deeds convey
ing the real estate to the children on the
score of lack of consideration and eff
cacy. The case came to trial before
Justice Forbes and a jury at the late
term of the Tompkins County Circuit.
The finding of the Court and jury
were that the marriage of Alexander
Lewis and Rachel Smith Rumsey was a
lawfal and binding nuptisl contract, and
that the deeds of the real property were
held by the widow in ecrOw and were q
competent and complete conveyance.
la effect, the claims upon the property
by the widow and her children are fully
confirmed.