Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1888-01-13
Judge Mackey Gives an Account Of
Mrs. Witherbee's Troubles and
Denies All Charges.
The Scandalous Reports Denounced
aad Documentary Proof of Her
Good Character Given.
The Judge is a Pretty Good Fighter
Himself and He Fells the
Elgin Cobbler.
The Observation-Disclosures Scandal.

Last evening a TRIBUNE representative
called on Judge Mackey to take his state
ment concerning the charges which have
been made against himself and Mrs. With
erbee. In proof of the following state
ments the judge presented documents, the
reliability of which cannot be questioned.
He spoke as follows:
''First, as to Mrs. Witherbees marriage.
Mrs. Witherbee was married to her hus-
band, AS. Witherbee, at Washington, d.
c., on February "a, 1886, by her maiden
name, which was that of her adopted
mother, Marie A. Dunlap, as shown by
the marriage certificate exhib tied.
Mr.. Witherbee was designated as book
seller and stationer. He represented him
self prior to the marriage as member of
the leading firm of Brentanno & Co. of New
York and Washington and in receipt of
5000 per year. Three weeks after the
marriage Mrs. Witherbee discovered that
he was clerk with salary of $75 per
month. With her funds, amounting to
some $1,000, he secured partnership in the
Washington branch.
They lived together until August IL,
1886, when they separated upon her re-
fusal to pay notes Of Ills to the amount of
several thousand dollars. At that separa-
ton she charged him with criminal inti-
macy with a young lady of high social
position in Washington. His repeated acts
of cruel and brutal treatment made the
separation inevitable, had they not mutu-
ally agreed to separate.
Thirteen days after that separation she
wrote him from New York, demanding
that he should forward money for her
maintenance. This was done in order to
lay the foundation for a divorce on the
ground of non-support. Witherbee replied
to that letter, declining to forward funds,
but making no imputation upon the char
acter OF his wife. The following is his re-
ply, as shown in his own hand writing:
WASHINGTON, d. c.,
September z, 1886.
Yours of August Goth just to hand, it having
been forwarded to Chicago and remailed from
that point to me here. The things Of which You
present remain as they are. Under existing cir
cumstances cannot admit your right to anything
beyond what your personal comfort Immediately
ceipt of which cheerfuily enclose. The reason
why your request for money must be unheeded
cannot fail to he obvious to you. AS long as you
bear my name there can be no controversy be-
tween us as to these things.
ALFRED s W1rnERBEE.
Seven days after the receipt Of that letter
sne commenced proceedings to recover
from Witherbee her personal property
which he had seized, consisting OF silver
ware, furniture, etc, valued at $4,000 He
thereupOn published a card in the National
Republican at Washington. notifying the
public that he would pay none of her
debts contracted i'll his name, as she had
left his bed and board without just cause.
same paper on September 10th, in which
she stated that the separation was by
mutual consent and that if his name was Il
source of credit, her funds had made it so.
This was never cOntradlcted. On the day
before she published that card Witherbee
invited her to return to his home. where he
resided with his highly respectable mother
and sisters. In that letter, referring to the
articles in question, he wrote as follows:
"If you wish to use them you can return
where they are and you will always be
treated kindly by everyone as you have
been in the past. 1t was never my wish
that you should leave, i,; as you know" n.
the charge that Witherbee had cast off his
wife for her infdelity, discovered, as
alleged, by him in Chicago during her visit
west in July, 1885,
THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE
of the defamatory attack recently insti-
gated against his wife by Witherbee is that
in August, 1887, she applied to him to join
her in executing deeds for the sale or
mortgage of her separate real estate. To
that application, made through me as her
counsel, he sent the following reply:
BRENTANNo 4 Co., 1O15 PA. AVE,
WASHINGTON, d. O., Aug. q 1887.
6IR: Replying to yours of 24th inst, just to
hand, wish to say that if can render any service
OF aid to Mrs. Witherbee in the way that you sug.
eest, will do SO willingly, and not through any
misapprehension from the allusion you felt It
necessary to make in the same letter. will do
it for her sake alone, but it must be direct and
through her. do not recognize You in the mat
ter at all. Whatever may be my opinion as to
the course that she has thought proper to take
and the irretrievable wrong she has done me.
do not harbOr sufficient resentment against her
to deny her q favor, especially when it costs me
nothing to do it, as is the case in this instance.
Mrs. Witherbee is misinformed regarding any
sale on my part OF real estate, lately or within
the past two years. Upon receipt of q written
request from Mrs. W. for my signature to the
release you speak of, I will forward same without
delay. Ileave Washington this afternoon to be
absent from home perhaps week. By the time
you get this to her and she replies, will be back
again. a A. s.. WITHERBEE.
Ar. Vry