The Paducah sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, 1902-09-09
Young Woman Still Claims to be
49, Mrs. Reginald DuvaIl.
A Fierce Contest Was waged FOR Pos
session of Dead Mans Per
sonal Effects.
NO RECORD OF THE NJ RRIAGE

Since the Paduoah papers published
the alleged duplicity of the young
woman claiming to be Mrs. Reginald
Duyall, wife of the popular young Pa
,LL .,,s who met his death in
a wreck on the Soutn> =" i"iiio"u IN
Indiana not long since, the Lo~-'s'iiie
papers have taken up the threads OF
the story, and woven quite a romance
about it.
Yesterdays Louisville Courier
Journal coatsins pictures Of the de-
ceased engineer, and the young
woman, aud the following account Of
the case:
4 Mrs. Reginald Duvall2
In the pocket of Reginald Duvall the
brave young engineer who stuck to his
to post and rode to his death in q
wreck on the Southern railway at
Georgetown, Ind, during the early
morning of August "a. was found
license authorizing the marriage of
Flora Chamberlain and Reginald Duf
vail. The hesrtbroken Woman had
the body of her dead two-days mate
borne to her fathers home and from
there butied in Gave Hill cemetery.
A few days. ago the body was disin-
TERED and shipped to Paducah at the
instance Of the dead mans mother.
And now the question arises; Was the
marriage ever performed? ,E
Since theivery day Of the funerak-Tt
quietly, but none the less fiercely-in
fact, more bitterly from the, very
anxiety to keep At under cover, a fight
has been raging between the mother
Of the dead man and the woman who
loved him. And the climax seems new
to have been reached in the removal
of the body from Cave Hill, where it
was first buried. The dead mans
watch, his rings, his papers,. his
trunk-all have been procured by the
family, while Flora Cham berlain, the
girl whose name was mentioned in the
license, has not even seen that paper
to prove that Reginald Duvall ever in
tended to. marry her. She has only
her mourning dresses and her mem
cries. Everything else is gone, while
those opposed to her claim TO be pre-
pared to prove that no m arriage ever
took place.
Duvall was just 81, strong, hand
some and game. Already he had come
to be looked on as a rising young en-
gineer when he met Flora Chamber
lain, whose father has record Of
thirty years good service with the
railroads. Duvall boarded at the
house, and it was whispered that soon
the young man and girl were to set up
in house of their own.
Both sides are agreed up to this
point.
But now comes the division. On
August 10, Duyall called at the court
house and took out a license to wed
Flora Chamberlain. Two days later,
on the evening of August 81, accord
ing to the story of the girl, they were
married.
In the early morning of August "a
Duvall's train crashed into another
and Duvall was killed. The next day
some of the papers had a notice of the
marriage. The grief-strinken young
woman took charge Of the body. II
was buried from the Chamberlain
home, 2941 Bank street.
And the next morning the war be.
A lawyer for the family called on
the Southern Railway company to see
about settlement. Mrs Reginald
Duvall was announced AMI introduced
at the same time. No settlement was
arranged.
Then came the securing of the prop
erty. First the marriage license dissp-
peared from the possession of the
Chamberlalns. 1t turned up in the
hands of the opposition, and the GER
titcate Of marriage was not filled out.