St. Paul daily globe., 1888-02-08
SINGER AND HIS FAMILIES.
A Daughters BetrOthal to q Duke
Brings to Mind a Remarkable
Story

Brings to Mind a Remarkable
Story.
There is one American family in Eu-
rope that might be thought to have long
ago attained sufficient nOtoriety, and
yet there is hardly month passes that
the cable does not tell us something
about them, says New York dis
patch. Every now and then some in
cldent happens that seems to bring
tnem quite willingly to the front, and
it would seem as though the numerous
brood of children which Isaac M. Singer
left behind him are determined to keep
their names and his memory before the
pupllc. The last announcement is that
one OF the daughters is about to marry
an Italian duke. OF course the duke
mas no money, and Miss Singer will be
expected to supply enough to keep the
lmpecunl0uS nObleman and herself from
poverty.
The publication of this coming mar
rage recalls some of the curious facts
that have made these people somewhat
notorious, and serves to bring to mind
something about Singer and his numer-
Gus wives and progeny.
When Isaac NJ. Singer was chopping
wood around Schaghticoke, N. Y, in
1880, he never had an idea that he
would invent Sewing-machine that
would bring him milliOus, and that his
daughters would be spending them in
buying up titles on the other side of the
Atlantic. He was living from hand to
mouth, and he married stout Irish
glrl named Catharine Haley and moved
10 Waterloo. He was ShiftleSS, bright
sort OF fellow, irregular in his way of
living, and with natural bent for any
thing but hard work. He took to the
stage, and was at one time somewhat of
a popular favOrite, but he never seemed
TO have any money.
One night while playing in Baltimore
he became enamored of young woman
named Mary Ann Sponsor, land promptly
married her. Then he and his new wife
started out, and for fourteen years
worked as actors in temperance pieces
through the churches all over the cOun-
try, and were wretchedly poor. They
drlfted finally to Chicago, and there
Slnger invented reaping machine and
later on machine for carving type, and
both OF these brought him some money.
About 1850 he had completed the i'll
ventiOnS which perfected the Singer
sewing machine, and, with a lawyer
named Clark, had formed the firm of
Singer & Co., and
HAD BEGUN TO PILE Up HIS WEALTH.
From that time until 1858 these two
men grew richer and richer every day,
until they counted their fortunes by the
millions.
In the meantime Singer came to New
York and settled down in one of the
most stylish houses in the city at No. II
Fifth avenue. and he and his second
wife began to go good deal into so
ciety. He and everybody else seemed
to have forgotten his legal wife, who.
with her two children, managed by bard
work to live over in New Jersey, and
never Thought the rich Singer whom she
used to hear about occasionally was the
man for whom she had in her early days
toiled and struggled. In 1860, Just
twenty-four years after he had left her,
Singer quietly obtained divorce from
+. Catharlne Haley, and at that time his
second wife had already borne him ten
children.
Three months after he had obtained
divorce he abandoned his Wife No. 2
and went to Europe. After he had
gone it was discovered that he had been
married under assumed names to two
other women in New York city. One
of them he had married as Henry
Matthews, and five children had been
the result or the union; and the other,
whom he had welded as Charles Mer-
ritt. had borne him one son.
While Singer was abroad he publicly
married a French woman named ISa-
belle Bryce, and taking her, his fifth
venture in matrim0ny, to Paris, became
quite lion among the money-spenders
of that gay city. He and she, the only
woman to whom he was supposed to
have been faithful, finally went to En-
gland, where he purchased a castle and
an estate. and died in 1873
His five wives and most of his twenty
fOnr children We're alive at the time of
his death, but the six who were borne to
him by his last matrimonial bargain re-
celved the greater share or his fortune.
OF course there was litigation, and
there is some yet going on, but the heart
less old fellow had long before his death
so distributed his property that there
leave will. When the litigation first
began it became apparent that new
and up to that time unheard-of
claimants would crop up on
every side, for every moth seemed
to bring forth new woman with unim-
peachable proofs that Singer married
her. Indeed, it is not more than year
ago since an enterpriSing newspaper
man found another of Singers widows
living in Central Pennsylvania with two
children that bore his name. The peO-
pie who are getting themselves tele-
graphed about over the cable are the
children by Singers fifth wife, and she
has kept herself rather prominently be-
fore the public, while the children of
his first and only legal wife have long
since taken themselves and their affairs
beyond the reach of comment upon their
fathers misdeedS.