The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-11-04
SHE HAD A FIHND
TOR A HUSBAND.
One of the Most Remarkable
Cases of Cruelty on Record.
MRS. CUMMINGS BAD FIX.
Robbed, IIl.Treated and Placed in an
Asylum.
Her Lord and Master, After squanderins
a Fortune of $3.50, 900, Was Finally
Lost in a Snow Storm
in the Andes.

New York, Nov. 3.-The moving pa
|pers of Mrs. Christine Lathrop Gun
ming, niece, of the late Senator Lee
land Stanford, of California, and cor
|roborrative affidavits, together with the
statements of her counsel in the SUI
|preme court chambers today, devel-
Ioped one of the most remarkab bic cases
lof cruelty on record. The judgment
on one of the notes for $1,000. obtained
ceedings.
Lawyer Joseph B. Barcus appeared
for Mrs Cunning and moved the judg-
ment secured in Connecticut by the
Lincoln National bank of this city on
January 2, 1889, be set aside. Barcus
largued that the judgment could not
be collected, as all of Mrs. Cunning S
money was gone. Supplementary pro-
ceedings in the court were subsequent
lily brought to recover on the note
and Walter H. Butler was appointed
receiver of Mrs. Cummings property.
1t was to prevent the receiver get
| ting at legacy of 100000 left by
Leland Stanford her uncle, that Law
lyer Barcus moved the judgment be
Iset aside, in order to allow his client
to come in and defend the suit. Her
defense is that the note was obtained
while she was under duresS and the
bank had been notified before the
note in question was given that the
notes were obtained from her by
| force.
Mrs. Cunning recites numerous acts
of cruelty on the part of her husband
now dead, that makes him appear in
a most despicable light.
Cunning ran away from his wife and
creditors in November, 1888, with $685.
600 of her money, after squandering
her fortune of S250,000. He was lost
in a snow storm in the Andes noun
tains in May, 1899 Mrs. Cunning s
her marriage with Cunning he began
threatening her and despoiling her OF
her property. He made her an in
mate of an insane asylum for six
weeks; in Hartford, Conn.
Mrs. Cunning relates that on one oc-
casion when he wanted her to sign a
note, her husband presented a re-
volver at her head. At another time.
he choked her until she tainted, and
once he knocked her down and in
jured her spine. To save her life, she
signed the notes in those instances
On still another occasion, when she
protested against signing any more
notes, Cunning knocked her down and
grabbing her hands, bent her fingers
back until the flesh was torn.
In October. 1887, Mrs Cunning says
her husband leased farm of his
brother near Norwalk, Conn, and
stocked it with thoroughbred horses
and called it the Scientific Stock
Farm He added 500 acres to it anc
sunk 100000 of her money in it. Or
October 90, 1888, he told her he wanted
her to sign more notes, and when she
refused he threatened to put her in ar
insane asylum. He took her to the
Chemical National bank and she there
signed several notes, including one
that figured in the suit against her
Mrs. Cunning says she notified vii
| liam T. Cornell cashier of the Lincolr
National bank. Of the duress she wa:
under. and she would not be respon
sible for the notes thus extorted from
her.
Mrs. Cunning secured a separation
from her husband in Connecticut ii
February. 1885,
Ex-Judge Noah Davis and Lawyer
Daniel Gerber, in opposing the motion
submitted the affidavit of William T
Cornell. in which he denied that Mrs
Cunning notified him she had signed {
note or any notes while under duress
1t was shown the bank discounted
many notes of the couple previous t.
the one involved in the suit The Of
f1cers of the Lincoln National banl
denied that they had any knowledge
of the o11arreIs of the Cummings.