St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-20
MATRIMONIAL swINDLE,
Which Shows That Advertising
Is Not the Safe Way to Get an
Ads--4A

Which Shows That Advertising
Is Not the Safe Way to Get an
Adjunct.
The Montana Stock Journal recently
called attention to well-to-do MOntan-
ian who besought Secretary Rusk to
send him wife. In this connection it
seems that the matrimonial swindles of
Sarah Huggell Hitchcock, now in Jail
with her husband at Meadville, Pa,
have features of uncommon interest.
She is the daughter of respectable
parents living near SmethpOrt, Pa.
When she was sixteen years old
she made a runaway match with
gay young man, who first ill-treated and
then deserted her. She did not return
to the hum-drum home of her parents,
but cut daShing figure at the cost of
this life she sought a husband by adj
vertising for one in so-called matri-
monial newspaper. An idle, weak
young man named Seymour Hitchcock,
son of Matthew Hitchcock, a well-to-do
farmer of Franklin, n. Y, saw
the advertisement, and opened
correspondence with the adver-
tiser. The result was that he
married Miss Sarah Huggell, as she
styled herself, and they lived upon the
bounty of the old farmer. But papa
Hitchcock eventually got tired of the
gay and extravaganza daughter-in-law,
and he cut off the supplies. Then the
clever and Inscriptions woman took
her husband to OncOnta, and from that
point worked her neat Swindle. She
sent out advertisements to certain
newspapers in Chicago, Omaha, Kansas
City and San Francisco, as follows:
IA; ANTED-A respectable young widow
w desires to correspond with a Western
gentleman of means and good social standing
with view to matrimony. Address Mrs
Sarah Hitchcock, Onconta. N. Y.
The advertisement brought letters by
the score from all points in the West.
To these replies were sent. ardent in
phrase and enclosing the likeness of a
beautiful yOnng woman. Each deluded
Westerner was prevailed upon to Law
the fare of his betrothed to some point
where they were to meet and marry.
When Mr.. and Mrs. Hitchcock had
secured from their victim the utmost
dollar they could hope to get. they
would ''paralyZe' him by mailing him
receipt for his last remittance signed
Sarah Hitchcock, per Seymour Hitch
cock"
The scheme met with astonishing sue
cess. The records of the Onconta post
Office show that during the two months
that the swindle was operated there,
Mrs. Hitchcock received $400 in postal
money orders, besides nineteen regis
tered letters containing unknown sums,
together with packages of jeWeIry, etc.
When the United States postoffice Off
cials at Washington got after them for
using the mail for purposes of fraud,
they fled from Onconta and repeated
the swindle successfully at Olean, N.
Y. Ashtabula, o., Erie, Pa, and other
points. At last they were arrested by a
United States official at Meadville, Pa,
and were landed In Jail ready for trial.
The artful Mrs. Huggell Hitchcock is
still fruitful in resources. First she
tried to get her father-in-law to give
bail for herself and husband, but he re-
fused to do so. Next she persuaded her
weak and infatuated husband to make a
confession declaring that he himself
was the criminal in the case, and that
his wife was an unwilling accomplice,
doing what she did under cOmpulsion.
Our Montanian wife seeker is fortunate
that he did not fall into the tolls.