The Portland daily press., 1895-05-20
Unsigned Letters Which Have Made
No End Of Trouble.
A TRIAL BEFORE AN ECCLESIASTI-
CAL TRIBUNAL.
And Another in Prospect in the State
Courts-Rev. MIR. Waldron Censured by
Brother Ministers and Upheld by Lead
ing Citizens-Mrs. Frost's Confession,
Former Portland Man a Defendant.
Especial to the PRESS. }


Former Portland Man Defendant.
Especial to the PRESS.)
West Buxton. May 19.-Anonymous letters
have been the bug bears OF this little village
| for number of years. and they and the
| troubles they have caused have deeply
| agitated the community. The story is a long
one. 1t tells of series of unsigned letters.
a clergyman who was summoned before a
| council and censured. a woman who signed
confession. then swore to retraction and
brought suit for damages, and a CON-
| munity divided in sentiment, many uphold
| ing the clergyman, others condemning him.
The law suit is the one recently mentioned
in the PRESS in which Mr.Cyrus F. Davis.
for long time resident of Portland, is
made one of tho defendants.
| In the sp1irg of 1898, MIR. Leroy McCorri-
son of this place was engaged to be married
to Miss Alice Marston of Deering. One day
in April, Miss Marston received an anony-
nous letter in which it was said that her
future husband was paying at
tention to other women and in particular
was meeting them on the bridge. The fact
that the bridge was the meeting place was
| made OF especial Importance by the M
known writer. Miss Marston did not believe
that the letter writer was telling the truth
about Mr.. McCorIison. and sent him the
letter. AT that time, Mr.. E. A. Smith was
postmaster at West Buxton, and to him Nc
Corrison took the epistle. This was not the
only anonymous letter circulated in West
Buxton. Before and after it Miss Marston
was favored, women in the village received
similar letters warning them that their
husbands or best young men were paying
attentions 10 certain woman who livod in
the town. The wife of one man was advised
to break this woman's 'darned neck"
The letters caused lots of talk, but they
do not seem to have made any real trouble.
II course uf time. Miss Marston became
Mrs McCorrison and went to West Buxton
to live. The other women who received
letters did not believe the statements they
contained any more than did Miss Marston
Some time last summer, however, came a
new chapter in the story Of the anonymous
episiles. Rev. J. D. Waldron was then the
pastor of tie Free Baptist church and
prominent among the members of his flock
was Deacon Willis Crockett. Mr. waldron
is a clergyman who has held a number OF
long and successful pastorates. he came
here two or three years ago.
One summer day, Mrs. Crockett, the
deacon's wife, received peculiar letter to
which no name was signed. The letter
warned Mrs. Crockett that she had as a
friend lad woman. On that same sum-
mer's day, Pastor Waldron
RECEIVED AN ANONYMOUS LETTER
in which he was told that DeaconCrock kett 5
folks were no friends of his. Mr.. Waldron
took this letter to the Crocket1S and SAID !:
''See this foolisl. letter I have received. -
Deacon crockett naturally was indignant
that such a letter should have been sent to
his wife, and when he heard that Pastor
Wa1dron had once written an anonymous
letter, caused Il sensation in church circles
by accusing the clergyman of writing the
two letters, the one addressed TO the pastor
himself and the one sent to Mrs. Crockett.
And thereupon The trouble began in ear
nest. Some of the people sympathized with
Deacon Crockett. Others, including many
of the leading citizens of the town, refused
o entertain tile deacon's suspicious against
the minister. Rev. Mr.. Waldron denied
that he wrote the letters and offered to
submit the matter TO any dlsinterested per
sons Mr.. Crockett might name. SO the
weeks and months went by, and it was not
exactly u state OF hrotheily love that pre-
vailed among the pc ople who were in the
habit of meeting together to worship in the
| little white church on the hill in the viii
lage. Deacon Crockett demanded council
to settle tbegmatter. and anally. last Febru-
aIy, Rev. @. E. Cate of Portland. Rev. c.
E. Hurd of Cape Elizabeth, Rev. Mr..
v ormwood of Little Fails. Rev. C. E. Cook
| and Mr.. o. W. Fullam of Portland, as a
committee of the Cumberland Quarterly
Conference of the Free Baptist church,
took the case in charge and a council was
held.
Rev. Mr.. Waldron's friends rallied to his
| support. Among them were Mr. Smith and
Mr.. McCorrison. They believed that the
person who mad written the letter first
| mentioned in the story, wro'e the latter
letters to Mr.. WaldTon and Mrs. Crockett,
and they suspected that the writer was Mrs.
Mary j. Frost. MI s. Frost came to Buxton
about six years ago, and has been the house,
keeper for the local barber, W. C. Town
send, whose house is in the building in
which he does business. If Mrs. Frost would
admit writing the letters, hat would of
course settle the case so far AS it concerned
Mr. Waldron. But Mrs. Frost was not then
in Buxton. short time before the date
set for the council, she bad left he town. it
being understood that she had gone to visit
friends in Auburn Now comes Mr.. Davis s
connection with the case. Mr.. Smith is
conneo ted by marriage with the family of
Mrs. Daviy, and had
TALKED WITH MR.. DAVIS
about these anonymous letters. So to Mr..
Davis he went at this time and asked him
to write a paper for Mrs. Frost to sign, ad-
mitting that she wrote the letters TO Miss
Marst on. Mrs. Crockett and Mr.. Waldron.
Mr.. Davis, WHO is not member of Ny.
Waldron's church. says he felt no interest
in the trouble except the concern over it
which all the good people of the town
shared. He was reluctant to draft the con-
fession, but finally did write paper which
was merely a statement that the slgner
thereby acknowledged that she wrcte the
three letters in question. Armed with this
document, Nj. Smith set out to ma Mrs
frost. and from Auburn followed ner 10
LlVermore. where she was making vlslet
MRS. Frost signed the paper and mr.. smith
says that she did so willingly, and that he