The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-10-24
AFTER FIFTY YEARS.
A Long Lost Parent Heard From
by His Family.
In 1SiS He Went West Each Thought
the Other Dead.

A romantic story OF husband restora-
tion 10 wife and family after nearly half a
century's absence has come to light One
end of the strange drama rests In Washing
ton, the other In a village In the hills Of
Idaho.
Mr.. A. H. Kite. clerk I'm the agricul-
tural department, has found his father,
whom he has for years believed dead, and
out In little Ohio town the aged wife Is
weeping glad tears and Offering prayers Of
gratitude for the happiness that has como
to her declining years.
Soon she will see the husband who left
her, a stalwart young man, bound for the
golden west and its FL Dorados The sor-
row Of lifetime will be healed when those
two meet, for each has believed the other
dead.
1t Is the old story Of the west, the great
all swallowing mysterious west of 40 years
ago--a story of false reports, Of mistakes
and rumors.
In the year 1s47 X. ii. Kite moved from
his homo at St Paris, o., with his little
family, consisting of his wife and son, to
farm near Peru, Ind. Two years later,
hoping to better his circumstances, the ia
ther sot out alone for the west The jour
ncys in those days were made overland and
on horseback, SO when they next heard
from h!m he was pushing into the far
west, having joined band OF forty
Miners In their quest for gold.
His absence was SO greatly missed that
the remainder of the family returned to
their old home I'm Ohio. The days went by
and then the years passed, and no further
tidings came of the husband and father.
At lust stranger wandered into the little
town of St Paris. He had bSn a COM
rade of X. III. Kite. He brought a gloomy
report that Kite, soon after reaching the
west, had received word In some way that
his little family in the east were dead. So
he had driftcd away on that great sea, the
wilderness of the prairies, forests and
mountains No message from civilization
could pass through the banas Of hostile In
dians and find one lone prospcctor. To
his family he was dead. The support Of
the family then fell upon the son, Mr.. A.
H. Kite. For long time he worked on
the farm at st. Paris. Then the turbulent
days of 1851 came, and In 1862 he Joined
an Ohio regiment and fought bravoly for
the Union all through the war. When the
war was over, he studied telegrapby and
spent some time as IN operator. Now he
Is attached TO the animal bureau of the
agricultural department His sister, who
Is now dead, married and has six children,
all Of whom are married. With these
grandchildren Mrs Kite is living, still in
st. Paris, o. In all that time but one
rumor was heard of the absent father. An
old Baptist minister told how one night
he rode up TO the inn of little western
town, when the landlord requested him TO
administer the last consolation to dying
man. He asserted that lac knew the man,
and he was X. II. Kite.
When Kite set off for Ohio, he had no
intention Of going farther, when, falling
In with a party bound westward, be soon
caught tho gold craze, and, expecting TO
shortly return to his family with plenty of
golden dirt, Joined the crowd. His expert
ences were those of every forty niner'-
story of hardship, suffering and shattered
hopes. Still he lived IN hopes of 'strik-
ing IL rich" and returning home until the
fatal news, which he had every reason TO
think reliable, reached him Of his family
Then tho adyersities Of the world hardened
him.
AT last fortune smiled upon him, and
he struck "pay dirt" Time scftens all
sorrow, and Kite married again in the
west BY his second marriage no had four
children, but has boSn n Whoever for 2o
y>ars and Is now living with his children
by his second marriage in Rudy, Fremont
county, Ida
you may well believe, said Mr.. A. fl.
Kite 20 "a reporter, "that this letter, telling
of my father being on earth, seemed like
n message from t>o land of the dead. +"
The letter referred to, which was dated
Sept 20, was from his cousin, Jason u.
Kite, and Is as follows:
"You will be greatly surprised whom |
tell you that your father is yet alive. L
have not made the fact known to you be-
fore for fear Of a mistake, but now have
corresponded with him, and his identity is
established without n Gc-lbt."
Mr.. Kite, the elder is now over 40 years
of age He is well fixed financially
Plans are now under way for a big fam
lily reunion of husband and wife, son and
grandchildren in ST Paris. Hero, in the
old homo, where so many years ago
they started oat in the world, the aged
couple will again settle down to spend
lifc's winter. ---Washingtcl Times.
Buried Guns.