The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-13
walkerville Stirred Up Over .
Disappearance.
THE STORY BEHIND 1T ALL
Pretty Nellie Coroett Left Her Father
without a Word Ed Mahoney
Left q Wife and Several
Children.

lies st the extreme western end of the
little city on the hill, is agog with Cos
sip over the disappearance Of two resi-
dents of that locality. One of the two
is Miss Nellie Corbett, h pretty
daughter of Dennis Corbett, a pipeman
at the Mountain Con mine. The other
person who has disappeared is Ed Ma
honey, for IL years a w~ell-known miner
of Butte, who is 46 years of age. a year
older than the father OF Nellie Cor
bett.
The story dates back three years to
the time of the death of Mrs. Cor
bett. Mrs. Ed Mahoney was at Mrs.
Corbett's death bed and promised the
diving woman hat she would do all she
could to bring the girl. soon to be left
motherless. up in the way that she
should 90.
After the death of his wife, Corbett
continued to live in his little home at
s07 Transit street. along with Nellie,
who became II years OF age on July ?.
Mrs. Mahoney took an interest in the
girl. who was a frequent visitor at
the Mahoney residence, which Is sew
eral blocks further down the hill on
the edge of the gulch. Mrs. Mahoney
had the utmost confidence in the girl
and considered her as good as n girl
in the land. Although she has three
children of her own. she took much
pains in helping Nellie and watching
her to see hat she got n no evil
ways.
Nellie developed rapidly and is a
large girl for her age, well proportion
ed, good looking. with flashing black
eyes and black hair. As she continued
TO be n visitor at the Mahoney resi-
dence, gossip began TO fly back and
forth in walkerville. The gossip
49, - ,4Aa 90 The ~fr1 nd Nv
Mahoney. This gossip reached the ears
Of Mrs. Mahoney, but she refused to
place any credence In II. She had too
much confidence in Nellie to think there
could be anything wrong.
That didn't stop the gossip. however.
| Boys reported seeing the couple out on
! the hills together above Walkerville. II
was said that they had been seen In a
cabin together, and one story had IL
| that Mahoney was caught climbing into
q window OF the Corbett house. Things
got 10 such a pass that Mahoney and
the girl were sometimes Kissed as they
walked through the streets.
Mrs. Mahoney saw nothing wrong in
the conduct OF the girl and her husband
when the girl was at the Mahoney resi-
dence, but the gossip came so thick and
fast that she began to have suspicious.
IN went TO her husband, and, with
tears. asked to know the truth. She
1 hIh II nv ~ - ~ 49, Aa~
would let him have a divorce and he
could marry her properly, but for Gods
sake and the sake of the dead mother,
not to ruin her. Mr.. Mahoney denied
s~trenuously and emphatically that he
had ever done the girl any harm. He
had only taken a fatherly Interest in
her. Then Mrs. Mahoney went to the
girl. and the girl also denied that there
was anything wrong at all.
IT was soon after this, namely. on
June 90 last, that Mr.. Mahoney left
home. He told his wife that he found
II hard TO get a steady Job in the Butte
mines. He only worked of and on. and
he had an offer of a steady job at the
Republic mine, in Washington, so he
babe his wife and three children good
bye and left.
Just one week after Mahoney disap-
peared, Nellie Corbett suddenly van
ished from home. h left no word
with her father. She packed her things
into a satchel and left while her father
was at work.
About a week ago some m told Mrs.
Mahoney that her husband had not left
town at all. but was living with the girl
In n cabin down on South Montana
street. Mrs. Mahoney at once started
down to the cabin. but she did not find
them there. People living round how
ever. told her they had seen Mahoney
In the vicinity n a girl answering the
description OF Nellie Corbett had also
been seen around there.
Mrs. Mahoney scarcely knew 70
believe. She went to Under Sheriff
Murphy with her story and she went
to Chief OF Police Mulholland and told
her story. Both agreed to try and To-
cate Mahoney. Mr.. Corbett had asked
the police to watch out for the girl. and
they have done so. but have not found
her. Many believe that she is still In
town.
Mrs. Mahoney considered II strange
hat she had heard nothing from heI
husband since he left. But on July
she received this dispatch. signed Ed
Mahoney, from Hope. Idaho:
why don't you answer my let
ter?"
Now Mrs. Mahoney had no received
a single letter from her husband, and
did not believe he had written n
However. yesterday she was handed 9
letter which came by bearer from spo'
kane. 1t was dated at that place CT
June Q and was signed by her husband
He said in this letter that he had jus
met George Fftzgibbons there, ant
George had told him the story was h,
had run of with the Corbett girl. Ma
honey, in the letter, earnestly denied
that he had run away with the 6irl
He said he did not even know the CIR
had left home.
"If Mr.. Corbett wants me to com
back" he wrote. I'll come back an
face the music. I a done nothing
wrong with the girl"
: That is all there is about the anal
I'D to the present lime Some peopl
In walkerville believe the couple hav
eloped. Others believe that they wer'
/, in Butte together for a while. but tina
, Mahoney II gone away and the girl
stiil here. Others don't believe that III
/. disappearance Of the two has n con
nection whatever n consider Ma
honey innocent in this matter.
: Amid all the gossip the only fact
. surely known apparently are that Ha
/. honey left home and the girl left he
home a week later. He has been hear
, of in Hope and in Spokane, and she ha
not been heard from directly at al
= Mrs. Mahoney Is heartbroken and doe
not know how she Is going to supper
herself and three children. one of whor
IL an infant. n Ii trying 20 sell tn
= organ which was purchased for he