The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-28
MADE HER A RECLUSE.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA., WOMAN
 MOURNS 4 SOLDIER
sweetheart for Forty Years.

The story of the life of Miss Nina
 Kessinger, an aged maiden lady, who
 lives on farm near this city, Is quick
 ly told: but 1t is interesting inasmuch
 as it shows the strength of womans
 devotion and unfolds romantic story
 of love and war.
 Although Miss Kessinger has lived
 all her life of f1ftynine years upon a
 little farm less than one mile from this
 city, and has always had full control of
 all her faculties, she has not been
 within the corporate limits of Jackson-
 ville for over thirty-eight years. She
 does her daily duties about her little
 farm, and always has a cordial well come for the many curious sight-seers from town, but she consistently refuses to go into the city, which has now
 grown out of all semblance to the
 struggling village she last saw almost four decades ago.
 During all this time she has never
 been over one hundred yards from the boundary line of her farm, and 1t is very rarely that she leaves it at all
 III oou, WilCli Nliso heSSlIStT WAS III her eighteenth year, young man, the son of a nelghboring farmer fell in love with her. and his affections were reciprocated by Miss Kessinger. The l parents of the young lady, however, strenuously objected.
 | When war was declared this young man rallied to the support of the flag, and in 1861 John Trehearne left the cauntry to join his fortunes with many other gallant soldier boys.
 The regiment left for the front the next morning, amid the cheers of the admiring friends of the brave soldier boys, and the happiest man in the reg iment was John Trehearne, who car ried with him his sweetheart's promise to marry him upon his return from the front with the honors of war.
 One day Miss Kessinger received a letter which made her heart leap to her throat and remain there as 1t were-a lump too large to swallow. Her lover wrote her few short lines apprising her of his wounds, from which the doc tors gave little hope that he would re- cover To be sure that it would never fall into unfriendly hands, he returned the small Testament she had given him before he left, and also sent back one half of the ock of her hair which he had worn next his heart during all the time he had been apart from her. As proof that he had worn it near his heart, he called attention to the stains which his life's blood had left upon the dark brown hair as the vital fluid gushed from his breast, which had been torn by a rebel bullet while he was in the front of a charging column. She wrote an mediate reply and an- nounced to him her intention or rebell- ing against her parents will, saying she would start for his bedside the Monday morning following,
 Before she left town in the evening another mail arrived, and Miss Kessin- ger received a short note from the [ nurse saying that with his dying breath her lover had asked her to in | form his sweetheart of his death, and | to assure her that he died true to his | vows and with her beloved name on ! his lips.
 The body of the dead soldier arrived | within a few days and Miss Kessin | ger attended the funeral in deep | garb.
 Her parents relented and did all In | their power to lessen the great mental suffering of the distracted girl, but Miss Kessnger never recovered from | the shock. From that day to this she has never been within the corporate limits of Jacksonville and has never been more than hundred yards from the farm which Is now her own. Neither has she ever received atten tions from any other man, preferring during all these years to remain true to her soldier lover, who left forty years ago with lover's VOW to love none other until life shall be no more,- Dispatch to the New York Journal