The San Francisco call., 1899-08-17
ROMANCE OF OHIO GOVERNORS.
How Several Noted Men of the Buck
eye State in the Past Wooed
and Waited and Won or Lost

dllo W dlJSQ anu w OIL VI LOSL
William Allen was handsome man in
youth, and he was much admired by the
young women of the Scioto Valley. To
their surprise he remained unmarried until
When he first entered politics he fell in
love with Efhe Macarthur, the lovely
daughter of Governor Duncan ..-cArthur
! The sturdy old Scotchman did not be-
lieve in young Allen. They did not agree
in politics. The doughty Governor was so
enraged at Aliens wooing that he for
bade him the house.
In revenge Allen ran for Congress
against Macarthur and beat him by one
vote.
This broke the old mans heart and
made Aliens wooing altogether an i'm
possibility Allen went to Congress and
Eftie married a Mr.. Coons of Kentucky.
William Allen ceased attentions at the
shrine Of Love and gave up his life to
ambition
His nephew, Allen G. Thurman, not
many years younger than the distin
guishad uncle, also had a disappointment
in love. He wanted TO marry Mary Dun,
daughter of a rich farmer. There were
man was poor, but he waited patiently
saw Mary Dun marry Gwynne Tcynpkins
of Kentucky, and still the Thurman faith
failed not. In a few years Allen Thur
man was a rising lawyer and Mary Dun
Tompkins was young widow
The young lawyer proposed again and
they were welded in Kentucky. William
Allen went to his nephew's wedding.
There he met Effie Macarthur, his first and
only love. She was a widow with one
daughter, still young and still beautiful.
After the years of separation they found
their love for each other renewed, and
shortly after the marriage of Allen G..
Thurman, his uncle, William Allen, and
the daughter Of Duncan Macarthur were
married. In the language of the story
book, They lived happily ever after
ward"
Mrs, Allen was with her husband in
Washington while he was Senator. There
she died. 1t was before the days of rail-
roads, and Senator Allen, oheying her
dying wish, brought her body to Ohio that
1t might rest beside those Of her blood on
the banks of the Scioto.
The coffin was placed in a wagon and
brought slowly over the mountains. Day
! by day he followed that dear dead clay
| through the woods and across the streams
| on horseback, watching faithfully every
minute lest harm should come to the dead.
| Think of that lonely ride and the long
| nights of vigil There is no finer story Of
| pathetic patience in the history of our
| State.
With the death of his wife William AL
/ len lost ambition for politics. He retired
| to Fruit Hill-her fathers home--a home
| to which he was once denied admission
and lived in seclusion until drawn into the
| campaign of 1873, when he was elected
| Governor When he died, in 1S79 he was
! grave of Duncan Macarthur, his foe for
life, but the father of the woman he loved
No less splendid and beautiful was the
married life of William Aliens nenhew
Allen G. Thurman Mrs Thurman was
ever watchful of her husband. and he
never wanted to make a journey without
her company. He used to joke about her
watchful worry about him, but he appre-
was ideal.
William MedilI was the only bachelor
! Governor of the State. He died in Lam
caster at the close of the war. an old
man full of honors. Early in his career
he was In love with a Beautiful young
woman of Lancaster. His wooing was ar.
dent but unsuccessful. Possibly she did
not expect any great future for the young
LAWYER, and probably she did not care for
future lame as balanced with present
love. She refused him and married an
other. Medill vowed that he would never
marry He kept his word and flung him
self into the lists to do battle for fame
and wealth. The woman he loved lived
In Lancaster. The rejected lover saw her
day by day as he went upward in the es-
te teem 6anl, OF ms fellow men, n She saw hum go
State. Her husband died, and MedilI
was mourner at the funeral of his dead
rival, and condoled with true manly sym
! pathy with the widow Medil was a
courtly. graceful gentleman of the old
school. When the one woman he hau
loved was a widow of several months the
old statesman would make formal call
: at her home once a week on a certain
day. Every one in Lancaster who knew
or the romance thought quite naturally
that in good time Governor Medili would
wed the woman who had years before
refused him. His frequent and formal
calls gave color to this belief but he
never mentioned marriage.
1t was a delicious sight for the gossips
of Lancaster to see the stately old man.
arrayed in his best, make his weekly cali
He was almost dandified, even In his old
days, and was a striking, long remem-
bered figure in Lancaster streets. He was
rich man, too, and the woman of his
early love was left in straitened circum-
stances. When Governor Medll died in
1865 it was thought that he would leave
some substantial legacy to the widow, but
again he disappointed the gossips. and
his property went to a distant relative
The widow lived serenely, evincing no re-
gret that he did not propose marriage or
remember her in his will The old Gov
ernor Is buried in the Lancaster ceme-
terry near the father and mother of John
Sherman, and not far from the tomb of
Thomas Ewing, and In the same cemetery
sleeps the woman for love of whom he re-
mained single all his life.
Governor Salmon P. Chase, who sleeps
in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati
was not without romance in his career.
He came to Cincinnati as young man
blessed with an aristocratic lineage and
an immediate entry into the fashionable
circle which had its headquarters in the
Fourth and Pike streets locality. He met
Miss Kitty Garniss, a famous beauty and
| fashionable belle of that period. 1t was