Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-09-11
STOLEN BY GYPSIES.
A Pretty 16-Year-OId Girl Deserted
After Years of Captivity.


After Years of Captivity.
For the sake of a fathers love
Tor his child or for the love of q
brother for his sister,
This is the human motive of q
member of the firm of c. R. Boat
wright & Son, of Farmville, Va, who
has discovered a 16-year-old girl in
Pamplins, on the Norfolk and West
ern road, 20 miles west of Farmville
who was kidnapped by gypsies anG
who seeks her parents
In a communication to the Dis.
patch Messrs Boatwhight & Son ask
the cooperation of the press of the
entire country in the effort to restore
this child to her parents. She is
now at the home of man named j.
L. Weber, near Pamplins, and her
heart is being eaten out with the de,
sire to know the love of her own
mother and father or to find someone
/ of her own blood whom she may
/ claim as protector.
| The girl was left at the Web ,er
house on December 1, 1901, by Jim
Govel, or Goble, and Mary Stanley
who travelled as man and wife and
who are gypsies. There had been a
quarrel between the two over the
purchase of a pair of shoes for the
child, and they decided to leave her
and be rid of her forever.
She may have been taken original
ly in the hope of ransom or merely
because a pair of gypsies were chlId-
less, and this little one, playing in
the road near her home. was beautl-
full and appealed to them by her in
nocence and beauty
Her story is of the most romantic
as follows:
Il was playing in the road near
my home, when a woman came along
and picked me up. She put me in
wagon and drove away very rapid
ly. My home was a tall, white house
with a porch in front. The yard was
inclosed with palings, and there was
gate in front, opening on a biz
road.
I'VE lived with the woods around
us and the town in easy reach. We
had lots Of COWS and horses, and we
children had plenty of nice things.
Il had brother nearly grown ano
he used to bring big pieces of slate
home for us children.
IL remember papa coming home
of an evening, and believe he must
have been connected with some big
coal works, for his clothes were gen
orally smutty, and he would wash
and put on nice clothes at night ana
wear his smutty ones away in the
morning.
"My sisters called me Becky but
1 do not recall any other family
name"
The girl was asked if she wanted
to see her father and mother and
sisters, and her reply was: ABOVE
all things in the world"
Her voice was choked with sobs
as she said this. She still remem
bers that her kidnapper treated hel
so cruelty that she ran away to an
other gypsy woman in nearby
camp, and in this way she fell into
the hands Of Mary Stanley and hel
husband.
She cannot remember the name O.
the first gypsy woman She remem
bers that she never travelled owe
water, and therefore, &C is believed
that she is an American girl AM
that her parents are somewhere il
this country. She says she Away
/ travelled in wagons.
She remembers that her home wa
, in a colder climate and that Their
was a great deal more snow and ic
than in Virginia.
Today Becky is five feet tire
inches tall, slender, with light brow
hair hazel or h1un ov-o~ ~oo1oct on