The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-20
Miss Hess married Mr.. Wood.


MISS Hess married Mr.. Wood
If some one prayed that he might
be avenged on the pair of them. his
| prayer has been answered. for If was
the other day proved to the satisfac-
ton of the church committee that Miss
Hess husband deliberately beat the
last vestige Of romance out of his mat
rimonial venture, and-shocking to re-
late-he did 1t as the careful rnother
beats the evil out of her rebellious off,
spring, with a slipper.
Among the 5000 or 1000 young per-
! sons in this town who were initiated
into the mysteries of shorthand by
Miss Hess, there are some dozens who
will remember that she had a habit Of
plnch1ng their ears when they were
obtuse. Well, they are avenged, for
her husband spanked her
Miss Hess romance began six years
| ago. It's rather an odd story. When
1t began, and for some years before,
! she had been the principal of the j. d.
Hess business college, and the rooms Of
the college, on the eighth floor of the
Pioneer Press building, We're crowded
with pupils.
Prior to going into the business of
teaching, Miss Hess was stenOgrapher
in the office of the st. Paul Harvester
| works. That must have been ten years
ago. She was early IN the field Of
teaching, and found it lucrative She
was a successful woman in the busi-
ness world, but, when she attempted
to coast the shores of matrimony, she
soon got afoul of the shoals.
1t must have been along in 1892 that
| Miss Hess, as some Of the people then
connected with the business college re-
member 1t, began to think that mat
rimonial anchor to windward would
not be bad thing. Soon after that,
letters from Heart and Hand" or
Glad Hand" a matrimonial paper,
| anyway, commenced arriving at the
business college. They were post
marked Darlington, r. I. 1t became
| known to the intimates of the school
| that they We're from a man named
| Wood, who lived in Darlington. It
| became generally understood that Miss
Hess was to meet him at the Worlds
| fair, and that she was to become Mrs.
Wood.
He was fifty, possibly, like Jack Fall
staff, "inclining into three score" But
ne was a man of substance clerk of
the town of Darlington, an honorable
office, and, though a widower with
membranes" still not bad match.
In any event, Miss Hess married him.
Not then and there, for Mr.. Wood is a
careful person, and moreover, occupy
ing a position of dignity in his native
place, as he did, it behooVed him to
know something about the lady whom
he proposed to make his wife. He
asked Miss Hess for references and gave
his own. Miss Hess gave him letters
to Percy Godfrey, S. s. Eaton and
other st. Paul gentlemen, and he took
| trip up here.
AT that time Miss Hess lived with
M nil
nue. in the Premier flats, and In her
fiat, in the presence of these two on
the evening of Feb. 3, 1895, Miss Hess
became the wife of Mark H. Wood.
Rev. w. B. Millard, formerly the pastor
of Plymouth Congregational church,
ofticiated. The marriage was kept
practically a secret for a year.
There were reasons for this. Miss
Hess had a profitable business that
could not be thrown on the market and
disposed of. There seemed to be no
| reason why she should not continue
| her work and use her old name But
Mr.. Wood made a reservation about
| the name. If his wife was to be known
| to the world as Jennie D. Hess, then
| she must have another name for him,
| and, in the early days of their mar
| riage, he christened her Virginia. By
this latter name she appears in the pro-
ceedings that have torn up the social
fabric of Darlington, r. l.
During 1895 Miss Hess continued to
preside over the business college. Early
in the spring, Mr.. Wood, according to
| the business college people began to
preside over Miss Hess. D. :. Coffey,
who managed the school for Miss Hess
and who bought her out when she
finally left says that Mr.. Wood was
jealous. He, Mr.. Wood, used to say
to the principal:
Genie, you don't need any of those
young men around here"
In January, 1896, Mr.. and Mrs. Wood
went to Darlington to live. Mr. Wood
was not only honored in being the clerk
of his town. He was also deacon of
the Congregational church and a pillar
thereof. Mrs. Wood went into society
much and became prominent in church
work. The couple held a position Of
prominence socially, for it was rumor-
ed that Mrs. Wood had. as Miss Hess,
attained to affluence. This rumor was
given force through the fact that Mr..
and Mrs. Wood took a trip abroad In
the following summer.
According to Mr.. Wood 1t was dur
ing the trip abroad that love made his
escape-not having a window handy he
flew out of the portfolio of the cabin,
probably. They had trouble in Paris.
1t got worse when they got back
to Darlington. Mr.. Wood thought
that his wife was talking about him.
He forbade her doing it. She went
about and refused to speak to anybody.
Folks inquired about it and Mrs. Wood
told them that her husband had told
her not to talk to them. They called
him a brute the women did, and they
talked about it at sewing circle. She
was spoken of as THAT poor Mrs.
Wood" One day bomb was exploded
that Jared Rhode Island from Apo
naug to Conanicutt.
Mr. Wood was charged with having
spanked his wife.
The lady was found In a most dis
tressng state. She told her story and
said that she could not live with him
any longer. This was last November.
The Congregational Church society
took the matter up and interrogated
Mr.. Wood. He said that he thought
his wife was out of her mind, that he
had tried to induce her to act properly,
and as she could not be ajoled he had
administered corporal punishment
He was a deacon. but they expelled
him. They held a church meeting first
and suspended him until March 1. Then
his wife applied for 6 divorce. She
retained ex1Congressman Page, of
Providence, and asked for decree,
alleging extreme cruelty. The church
held another meeting and expelled Mr..
Wood. He did not appear to defend
himself, for at that time Mr.. Wood was
here in ST. Paul. That was three weeks
ago.
He came here about six weeks ago.
Just before he came the record of the
superior court of Providence Planta-
| III j. Il