The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-08-04
II Was Dissolved by the Familiar
Methods of the Divorce
Court
Mary Mckinney Respected and
Would be a Sister to
Charley Reed.
lint He Got a Gun. and Undery Foar OF
Death She Promptly Married
Him.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3.-Ihe strangeSt mar
riape q divorce court was ever called upon
to dissolve was recently annulled by a do
cree of Justice Hegner, of the supreme
court of the District of Columbia.
Mary Stuart McKenney, who was welded
vet no wife" was granted a divorce from
Charles T.. Reed, with permission to resume
her maiden name. Her ground Of COM
plant was that she had been married by
force,' almost at the point of the pistol. III
fact, and that she had never sustained the
relation Of wife to the would-bo husband.
Mary Mckinney is about twenty-four years
old. She can hardly remember her father,
who died when she was very Young. and her
mother has long been all invalid; so for
years Mary has had no one to lean upon and
no ono to whom to appeal for advice and
assistance. She was one of the first clerks
appointed by Supt. Porter to assist in the
census work. One of the first acquaintance
she made in the oensus bureau was Charles
Ed win Reed, y good-looking fellow, who
was regarded as an excellent clerk. Inc
young people worked side by side for sew
eral months and a close intimacy grew up
between them. After Superintendent Por-
ter assigned them both to night work Reed
was in the habit of escorting Miss Mckin-
nsy to her home in the early morning hours.
Reed was politely attentive, but never OBJ
truslve. AS the days went by she noticed a
slight change in his demeanor, but she is
quite cure she was totally unprepared to
recive from him a declaration of love and
an offer of marriage. 1t was the old story;
she respected him and would be a sister
to him. but she really could not love him.
Reed did not shed tears oyer his rejection.
He told her very coolly. but with quiet
emphasis. that he wanted her to be his
wife, not his sister. and ended BY de-
claring his firm conviction that sooner or
later she would change her mind and marry
could wait.
Mary did not NOW what to make of
Reeds conduct. She had expected to see
him either angry or fearful. This cool, un-
moved determination frightened her, but
she contented herself with forbidding him
to call upon her, and avoided him as much
as possible when engaged in her daily task.
But Reed was not to be shaken OF SO cas-
lily. He intercepted her at every opportun-
ity. and even risked being handed over to
the police in order to have a few words with
her. On her way to and from the bureau
he would wait for her at quiet corners, and
always with the urgent request that she re-
consider her determination. Her fear of
him soon increased to positive terror, for,
besides declaring that he would surely
marry her some day, he warned her that he
would kill her before she should we'd an
other.
About the first of last November Miss
Mckinney resigned from the census bureau.
In giving up her wo-k she believed she had
also got rid of her importunate sutton. One
day, toweSer, she went to the bureau to
get something she had left there, and upon
~r,sn h. ~Sllf H. -nr ,rrk 49, Dad
who drew her into a corridor and, telling
her that be had a revolver in his pocket, de
clared that he would kill her at once unless
she would consent to marry him. She says
that, looking at his determined face and
into his glittering eyes, she believed he
toll her how easily they could be married
without anyone knowing of the affair. They
would not live together until she had
learned to love him, but. once married, he
would feel sure of her and certain that she
could not marry another.
With the fear of death thus before her,
she consented, and obeying his instructions
met him within an hour and they were mar
ried the same afternoon by the Rev. Asbury
II. Reilly, the colored pastor of Grace NJ.
E. church. Reed had secured the help of
Justice of the Peace O'Neil, who got a Ii
cense for him and kept it out of the record
for a few days, 30 that it would not get into
the newspapers. Buta wideawake local re-
porter found the blank in the record, and
when it was filled up he printed the notice
OF the marriage.
For two days Reed had kept his promise
not to claim Mary Mckinney as his wife.
She had gone home, and, with the fear of
her eccentric husband strong upon her, she
had said nothing to her mother of the mar
riage, but when the marriage was published
Reed wrote his wife, pointing to the fact
that their secret had been divulged and
urging that she acknowledge him as her
husband and live with him.
She replied in a curt note, refusing his
plea, and declining oven to grant him an
interview. Reed followed his first letter
with others, and the girl, almost frantic
with fear, consulted an old family friend,
David A. Mcknight, a well-known lawyer.
Mcknight sent a peremptory message to
Reed to call on him. Reed came promptly.
and told his story without the slightest
hesitation. He admitted everything that
Miss Mckinney had said, but said he loved
the girl passionately and had no thought of
injuring he-. lie was sure she would in
time return his love and they would be very
happy. He wanted his wife to live with
him. and pleaded for an interview SO that
he might persuade her.
The lawyer concluded that it would oe