Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-09-18

Wis of Montana was the A. J. Davis who
had married her SO many years before
Davis did not remain long at the Queen
farm. He was sorry for his desertion and
returned to his Iowa home. He remained
only short time, however, and went back
to the Arkansas farm, where he began to
make love to the girl Hulda. He came and
went, wandering from place to place, 60
Ing without taking leave and returning
without asking it. He wished to hide his
past. and that is why Mrs. Smell knew
nothing but the merest fragments OF his
history before 1889.
In 1941 Davis took up permanent resi-
dence near the Queen farm, going into
partnership with brother Of Hulda The
young man had evidently forgotten his
wife and little ones In their Iowa home.
In ls4a, after three years Of courtship, he
married Hulda Queen. His first wife had
already obtained q divorce and q month or
80 later was married again. Her second
husband was Jeremiah Cornutt, who took
her and her children back to Edgar coun-
ty, nla ,.-.
Davis seemed to be happy In his new
home In Arkansas, but he moved from
place to place, sometimes disappearing
without cause and returning without ex-
PLANTATION. In 1e43 his first child was born.
In the following year the husband and Ia
Their left his home for Texas, where he
hoped to secure some permanent residence
and living. He returned to learn that
his wife Hulda had received q farm as q
gift from her father. :. -
In ls48 he persuaded his wife to 60 with
him to Texas, and in the following year
he lett for the goldfelds Of California
For year after that Mrs Davis received
letters from her husband, who was pros
pecting on the Tuolumne river. He was
Interested In the construction of q dam and
was greatly distressed when he wrote to
his wife that the dam had been washed
away and with it had vanished his hopes
of fortune Mrs Davis received very few
letters after that, and short time after
the last was sent from the mines.
There was q year Of silence, and then
Mrs Davis sought man who had arrived
In Texas from the California mines The
STRANGER told the woman that he had
known her husband when both worked on
the Tuolumne river. Davis had been
killed, the stranger said, in quarrel The
long silence of the husband seemed to be
explained by his death. A year later, In
1869, Mrs. Davis married J. E. Williams.
The couple lived for two years on the lex
as farm and then went to California. They
took up their residence at Fort TETON, near
the Tehachapi, where the aged woman has
lived ever sinca Williams had a freight
ing contract with the government. His
duties took him frequently from home and
out on the southern roads.
Many people stopped on their way at
the Williams home. 1t was natural that
the young woman should question them
in reference to her first husband A j.
Davis, who, the stranger had told her, had
been killed in a quarrel. These inquiries
reached the ears Of o miner on the Tue
lumne river. 1t was q strange coincidence
| that two men bearing the name Of A. j.
Davis were at that time mining on. the
| Tuolumne river Both of these men had
been interested In the building Of dam
that had been washed away. Both showed
several remarkable similarities in physical
characteristics, although the two men
were In no way related Both were known
| as A. ]. Davis, although the name OF one
was Abraham John Davis and that of the
other was Andrew Jackson Davis.
The inquiries of the woman at Fort Te-
Jon In no way seemed to interest Andrew
| jackson Davis, but they seemed to possess
q remarkable interest for Abraham John
Davis, who started on his way to see the
woman of Fort TETON and to learn who
she was He arrived at the fort one morn
ing shortly after Williams had left for a
southern journey. Davis was met at the
door by Mrs. Williams. IN a moment the
woman Doognized her first husband, who
had been killed, she thought, at the mines.
Upbraidings followed, ard then Davis
went away. He said 1t had been all his
fault, but that he would never call another
| woman his wife That was in 1866, and
Mrs Williams, or Mrs. Sncll as she now
is, never saw him again. He lett the
mines, but no one knew where he went
At the very same time Andrew jackson
Davis left the Tuolumne, and no one knew
what became of him until his old friends
learned In 1889 that he had died at Butte.
Mon, leaving fortune of between &c.,
000, 900 and $40, 900, 900.
No one knew what had become Of Abra-
ham John Davis, and no one knew that he
| was not Andrew jackson Davis until De-
tective Stilwell filled in the blank that be-
gan In 1865 and ended In 1858.
| When Abraham John Davis left Tuo-
lumne In 1855, he returned to his illinois
home and to the neighborhood In which
his first wife still lived He told his fam
ily Of his strange experiences In the west,
but kept secret the episode Of mafria3s
that began In Arkansas and closed with
the discovery at Fort TETON. After remain
Ing q few months in Illinois, Davis MI
grated TO Missouri, where In Mays ooun-
~ be purchased farm and married his
third wife, Malinda Harris Again his
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