Red Lodge picket. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1889-1907, 1902-10-24
.ELOPED WITH A TURK
Pretty Little Clarke Fork Schoolgirl
Falls in Love and Skips by
Light of the Moon.
WILD MIDNIGHT RIDE
Johnny Turk and Carrie Wilmington
outwit Girls Parents and Drive
FurousIy to Easin City.

Acting on the maxim that all is fair
in love and war, Johnny Turk aged 81
and Carrie Wilmington, aged II, last
Tuesday evening cleverly outwitted
the girls parents and that night par
ticipated in a spirited and somewhat
sensational elopement by escaping
from the city under cover OF darkness
in livery rig and driving furiously
to Basin City, Wyo., distance Of over
100 miles, to get married.
The parties to the runaway match
live On the Clarke Fork, a few miles
down the river from Chance Mr.. Turk
owning small ranch not far removed
from that Of G. B. Wilmington, the
girls father. The couple formed an
attachment for each other sometime
ago and had lately been holding clan
destine correspondence and meetings.
The girls parents strenuously object
ed to the love affair, and Carrie was
sent to Red Lodge to attend school in
|
ken off. But as absence makes the
heart grow fonder, this parental ruse
failed Of success, for Mr.. Turk follow
ed the girl to Red Lodge and met her
at her boarding house. In furtherance
Of their plan to get married in secret,
Mr.. Turk secured marriage license
from District Clerk Esselstyn last Sat
urday evening, but in the meantime
Carries mother came to town and
took her daughter back to the ranch
to remain over Sunday, bringing her
to town again Monday morning. On
her arrival here Mrs. Wilmington be-
came suspicious and soon ascertained
that the marriage license had been is
sued. On learning of this fact she be-
came hysterical and, on the verge OF
insanity, started out to find Turk. She
met him at Weaver's livery stable and,
thrusting hatpin in his face, declared
that if it were a gun she would blow
his brains out. After this stormy
meeting she became fairly beside her
self and hastened to Talmage's hard
ware store, where she tried to procure
a six-shooter Mr. Talmage, however,
seeing that the woman was laboring
under such excitement as to be prac-
tically insane, declined to either loan
or sell her gun, whereupon she
broke down and wept as if her heart
would break Later in the day she
again met Mr.. Turk, who burned up
the marriage license in the mothers
presence and promised to break off
the engagement until next June, when
the girl should become of legal age.
This matter, as Mrs. Wilmington
supposed, having been settled, she ac-
companied her daughter early that
evening to the home of Mrs. Creiger,
\ a dressmaker it having been agreed
between herself and husband that the
girl should be outfitted with new
I dresses and other wearing apparel and
sent away to school. In furtherance
of this purpose, Mr.. Wilmington was
to come in from the ranch the next
morning and accompany his daughter
to the Methodist seminary at Seattle
| Wash, but these plans were destined
l. to fail of fruition.
Shortly after dark Mrs. Whiting
ton left her daughter at the dressnak
er's and went over to neighbor's
Hardly had she departed from the
house when the girl, who had beer
standing hatless on the stoOp, secretly
watching for her lover, disappeared
Her absence was discovered soon af
terward, but by the time her mother
had been notified and had reached th'
scene, Mr.. Turk and his pretty imam
orata were nowhere to be found.
developed later that Mr.. Turk had pre-
viously arranged for livery rig a
Weaver's barn, to which place the.
fastened, the girl bareheaded, as sool
as Mrs Wilmington was out OF sight
Arriving at the livery stable they en-
tered the rig in waiting and Mr.. Wea
yer, very generously and gallantly
j provided the eloping girl with hi
wife's hat and some wraps, telling tn
couple, as they departed, to cove
themselves we'll with the robe an
keep snug and warm. On leaving tn
barn Mr.. Turk piled the whip to tn
horses and drove furiously out G
town, with his pretty schoolgirl brid
l. nesting safely in his arms.
When Mrs. Wilmington reached tn
Creiger home and found her daughte
gone she instituted search, but t
no avail. At II o'clock she starte
horseback for her Clarke Fork rancl
; reaching there at 4 o'clock the ne1