The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-16
BOTH DEAD AND ALIv e IN LAW.
Although Presumed to Be in His Grave
BE Furnishes Ground For Divorce.

Although Presumed to Be in His Grave
BE Furnishes Ground For Divorce.
From the Kansas city Journal
The courts seldom produce more interest
ing or stranger story than the one related
by witness in Judge Scarritt's court in
Independence yesterday. It was told by j.
D. Green in prosecuting his suit for divorce
from his wife, Sarah +. Green.
Twelve years ago the defendant, Sarah
E. Green, then a young and handsome
woman, became the wife Of l. NJ. Clark, a
Kansas City contractor, aud Green, a
former sweetheart of the bride, was one of
the guests at the wedding. A few months
later Green quit Kansas City, and when he
returned, a few years later, he found the
woman whom be had left happy bride
wearing the weeds of widow.
Here begins the remarkable story of this
most remarkable case. For three years Mr.
and Mrs. Clark lived happily and then
came parting as mysterious as it was
crushing. One day he left the house to at
ted to business matters and the happy
wife waited in vain for his return. Weeks
later the body Of man. disfiRured and be-
yond recognition, was found in the Shiny
waters Of o. K. creek. Near the body was
found a memorandum book on the fly leaf
Of which Yves the name ~. NJ. Clark The
identity of the body seemed positive, oil
though Mrs Clark could not bring herself
to the belief that it was that of her husband
1t was given burial, however. and as weeks
passed without bringing tidings of the
missing one she reluctantly credited the
story of murder and robbery.
Urged by some strange impulse she con-
tinued to visit the morgue to view the bodies
Of unknown dead, and scanned closely the
features of hundreds whom she met on the
streets, and who bore u resem blance, fanced
or real, to her husband. During all the
months Of her anguish she cluug, intuitively
perhaps. to the hope that the tragedy which
had darkened her home would yet prove to
be not associated with the disappearance of
Clark.
In the early part of 1885 a new face at
tracted her. J. ID. Green, her former lover,
returned from the west. He had read the
accounts of her husbands DEATH and after
waiting for a suitable length of time in re-
spect to the memory or her deceased hus-
band, he pressed his suit. The sable gar
ments Of mourning we're cast aside, and the
widows cap gave way to the Grange bios
SONS wreath. A wedding soon followed
the reunion of the former lovers, A year
Of happy married life passed, when one day
there came TO the ears of Mrs. Green the
report that Ira Clark had been seen on the
streets OF Kansas City. week passed aud
a second report Of the kind found its way
to the Green homestead.
At frat she was inclined to believe Ii a
case Of mistaken identity, but this belief
was dispelled when her brother in-law met
Clark face TO face on Main street. Thus
Mrs Green found herself in a strange
dilemma. She was possessed Of two living
husbands. although guiltless of bigamy in
the eyes of the law. Mr.. Clark did NOT in
terfere with the domestic relations of the
Green family, although no soon got to call
ing at the house. His presence in time be-
came irksome. and Clark was finally in
formed chat he was in the eyes OF the law
dead. had been buried in the Union
cemetery, with a suitable epiteph on the
headstone.
To further establish the fact, the CITY
records showed that the coroner and twelve
men had disposed OF his case long ago, and
the county court had liquidated their fees
for services without a murmur. His name
had been erased from the city register, and,
while iG might have been the case that
others had voted in his name, be was, never
theless. dead. TO make the case palmer, he
was informed that be was dead to Mrs.
Green ard the family, and was not wanted
around the premises.
MIR. Green, after puzzling long over the
situation, came to the conclusion that the
hest way TO solve the matter was to leave
Mrs. Green, which he did in 1887, and his
divorce was granted yesterday on the
grounds that Mrs. Green had an uudivorced
husband