Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-08-08
A CASE OF "wILxINsoN.s WIDOWS
George Ketcham Had Two Wives and Kept
Up Two Embellishments.

George Ketcham Had Two Wives and Kent
Up Two Embellishments.
A case of "Mr. wilkinson's Widows" in real
life has inst turned up in Brooklyn through the
| fight Of George Ketcham, trusted employe OF
the Old Colony Steamboat Company.
Ketcham is a plain. retiring man. perhaps
fifty years old, noted among his steamboat &C.
quaintances for two things-his wonderful ca
pacity for hard work and his strange bashful-
ness in the presence Of women. For the last
thirty-threc years he has been In the employ of
the line, with the exception of period Of four
years, when no seeded to take employment
with the Iron Steamboat Company. He was at
his post on the pier .. the foot of Murray street
until last Thursday. when he vanished Then
came the exposure Of his pilferings and his dual
life. He was married In 1855 to Miss Stout His
wife is most cstimable woman. highly re-
garded by every one in the company's en-
ploy. He often worked fer as long as twenty
two hours at a stretch and this made his wife
accustomed TO his long absences from home.
He met in st. Louis Mrs. Annie Berriet in 1887
She was widow then about thirty-six wears
old. He became infatuated with her. He told
her, II Is said. that he was a bachelor and he
married her in st. Louis on December ~ Of
that year and took her to New York city at
once.
He purchased for the use of Mrs. Ketcham
No. 2 in October last the handsome house No.
606 McDonough street, Brooklyn. At the same
time the family homestead in which lived and
now lives Mrs. Ketcham No. /, is at No. 8i6
18th street, Brooklyn, quite at the other side Of
the city.
The McDonoush house is much finer than the
one in which he had installed his mother, his
legitimate wife and his brother-in-law, Stout in
18th street The first is a SNOWY, newly fin
ished, MISUNDERSTANDING residence, with every
Improvement. The other is frame cottage,
shabby looking in comparison, and with cheap
little garden in front.
II Ketcham regulated his expenditures accord
ing to his affections the bogus wife must have
been the best beloved. There was nothing with
which the McDonough street home was not
supplied. The most expensive establishments
in New York and Brooklyn catered to the COM
fcrt OF the st. Louis woman. and the menage
was regarded as the most extrayagant In the
neighborhood.
In 18th street the man was known as sort of
foreman or stevedore. In McDonough street
he was superintendent of the company, with
salary of S12. 600 or SIS. 900 a year. and he was
prominently mentioned in connection with the
presidency of the corporation when there should
be vacancy. Children pointed him out to
each other as the owner Of the Puritan and Pill
grim, the huge Fall River line steamers. From
the way he flung the companys money about
one would have thought he had its treasury un-
der his control.
When Ketchnm was in his prosaic 18th street
home fretting and fuming under domestic re-
strnint and dying TO be off to his McDonough
street bower strange kilograms would arrive
calling him to the Fall River pier. Steamers
were all the time humping into something aud
nearly every kind Of arrangement seemed to go
wrong. The poor tired husband was often PIC
tured by ths wife lifting anchors and quenching
blazing bales Of cotton at the foot OF Murray
street when he was placidly smoking his cigar
ELL
busy he had boon at the pier.
Saturday evening and the whole Of SUNDAY no
invariably spent in McDonOugh street. This
was the cream Of his week w hen he was really
away from his labor. 10 his wife he was in
Boston or Fall River still telling to earn the
dividends Of the New England corporation.
On Monday and Tuefda, ais nights we're spent
perhaps in 18th street. Then he told wife No.
how no was forced to sleep on lounge in his
Office to be on hand for the opening Of his great
campaign against work Mt daylight.
Once he took his real wife to Shelter Island
for vacation. 1t CALLED him 20 be away from
McDonough street. Pretty soon urgen. tele-
grams-that were never sent by the COMPANY
reached him demanding his return. Aprar-
emily the line would go to the dickens without
this sl25 month clerk. Who sent these dis
catches is. Of course, not known.
ketcham, as has been said, vanished on
Thursday. The night before he went he asked
wife No. If she needed any money. She
assured him that she didn't. us there were no
bills coming due. short time before she had
got woman's dread of burglars she knew not
from what source, and became afraid to keep
her diamonds in the house. She intrusted
them to the man she believed to be her hus-
band to tnke TO a safe deposit vault. Where
they are now she does not know
Immediately after the disappearance rome
one who had stood in great awe of Ketcham
went to Mr. Freeland and gave him the hint
which led to the discovery of the stealngs from
the company. An examination was made of
the books with the aid OF the information OF
this person. it is said and it was sho wn that the
pay rolls had been padded.