The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-03-08
MARIA HALP|N IS DEAD.
Her Name Figured in Presidential
Campaign Of 1884.
READERS WILL REMEMBER INCIDENT.
Beecher's Defense Of CleveIand-Had
Suffered Similarly Himself.

Maria Halpin is dead. And so re-
tired was her life in New Rochelle,
where she lived for so many years.
and died, that many Of her nearest
had forgotten Or had not
heard the story of 1884, which stir
red the nation and figured so largely
in the campaign that preceded the
election of Grover Cleveland to the
presidency of the United States, says
the New York Herald of recent date.
In neat frame cottage in the
Westchester town she died on Thurs
day, after a weeks suffering from
pneumonia, and almost the last thing
she did was to beckon her husband,
Wallace Hunt, to her bedside and
say: "Do not let the funeral be too
public. / do not want strangers to
come and gaze on my face. Let every
thing be very quiet; let me rest"
And her husband, gTief-stricken,
would not talk of her life or death
because she had asked him not to.
Her sister, who came from an up
state town, sat sobbing in the little
parlor where the coffin lay, Her son,
man of twenty five or thirty years,
who was only known to the under
takers as "Mr. Halpin, from some
town up the Hudson, had arrived
in time to see his mother die and look
at her in her coffin. Then he had
gone away.
MaFia y, Halpin, aS she signed
herself to the afidavlt on october
%, 1884, ten years after the birth Of
her son, in which she made charges
against Grover Cleveland was mar
ried three times first, to Frederick
Halpn, who died before she went to
Buffalo in search of employment and
where as widow she met the man
who has since twice been elected pres
ident of the United States; the sec
ond time to Albert Secor, with whom
she lived many years in New Rochelle,
and the last time. about three years
ago, to Wallace Hunt, of the same
town, who conducts prosperous
zinc and tin store there
She lived in New Rochelle during
the campaign of 1884, and had lived
there ever since.
Many in New Rochelle had never
heard the story that stirred the
country in 1884: Others had forgotten
the CHEF features Of the story, and
some did not know that Mrs. Wallace
Hunt or Mrs. Albert Secor, as she had
been known, was Maria Halpin.
The funeral will be held on Sunday,
at 3 O'Clock in the afternoon, the
Rev. Francis E. Smith officiating,
but none seem to know whether her
son, the young Mr. Halpin, who
called yesterday, will be there. The
undertaken said she was between So
and so years old, he thought, but
would not say anything more as he
had been forbidden to talk.
Possibly one of the most dramatic
incidents Of the Clcyeland-Blaine
campaign, growing out Of the Maria
4 Halpin charges, was in Brooklyn,
where she was born, Mary Hoverton
as it was stated in New Rochelle,
yesterday.
Henry Ward Beecher, advocating
the election Of Mr. Cleveland, read
the presidential candidates letter to
Mr.. Beecher denying the charges Of
immortality in Buffalo and Albany,
and then said:
''When, in the gloomy night of my
own sufferings, in years gone by,
sounded every depth of sorrow,
) vowed If God would bring the day
: star Of life to me / would never suffer
brother, friend or neighbor to go un.
befrlended should a like serpent seel
to crush him. If l refuse to interposC
: shield Of well placed confidence be
tween Grover Cleveland and th,
swarm Of liars that nestle in the mud
or sling arrows from ambush, may nj
! mouth and my right hand forget 1t
! cunning"
] After the death Of her first husband
o Mrs. Hunt went to New Rochelle
D and was a housekeeper and goyernes
I ia several Of the wealthy families.
! 1 rr-..fl-..AU Cl...ol...1 nIl.