The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-13
WEALTHY MAID OF 70
MARRIES YOUTH OF q
Septuagenarian Romance OF But
falo Woman and Young Syrian
Involves More than 100000.
COULD NOT ADOPT HIM

NEW YORK, April Fin the marriage OF
Gabriel Abu Kali, a Syrian, who came to
this country ten years ago, and Miss Mar
garetta Johnson, of Buffalo, who IN the
seventy years of her spinsterhood has ac-
cumulated a fortune of more than half
million dollars, there is most remarkable
union of youth with age
After courtship of several years the
marriage was solemniZed on Feb. in the
Church of St ChrySoStOm, at Seventh ave
nue. and Thirty-ninth street, by the Rev
Thomas Henry Sill, rector of the church
Since that time Mr.. Kali has continued 10
keep his apartment in the Hotel Marie
Antoinette while his aged bride has spent
most of the intervening time in Bufalo
She is said to be closing up her affairs there,
with the purpose of soon coming TO New
York to make her home with her husband
1t was while the young Syrian was sell
ing Oriental jewery in Buffalo that Miss
Johnson met him. She soon became inter
ested in his personality far more than III
his wares. That was between five and six
years ago. Although before she met Kali
nothing had been further from Miss john
sons thoughts than matrimony, she found
that she had become so attached TO the
young man that her life was incomplete
without him.
Until a few days ago the marriage was
kept so close a secret that hardly any one
was aware of il. At the Marie Antoinette.
where Mr.. Kali has been living for the
last year, there was great surprise when
it was learned that he was no longer a
bachelor. and in Buffalo the announcement
of the marriage was startling news TO a
large circle of Mrs. Kalil's friends.
Mrs. Kali has always had enough money
so that she could live comfortably and
crafty her taste for literature and the arts.
but il is within the last few years that she
has made the bulk of her fortune. She not
only invested in Buffalo real estate, but
she had the courage to hold her property
in the face of a falling market until finally
her foresight was rewarded most handsome
~. Among her other holdings was farm
of nearly $50 acres in West Seneca which
: she picked up at a bargain a few years
ago, paying only a few thousand dollars
for IL. When the Lackawanna Steel Com
pany located at Buffalo her. property be
came much sought after and she was able
10 sell "A little more than fifty acres for $780,
coo. She was paid $4,000 in cash and took a
mortgage for $4,000 for the remainder OF the
purchase price. This mortgage was paid
recently and the proceeds have been in
vested in New York securities.
Mrs. Kalils chief venture at present is
a downtown restaurant. Ii has been in OPP
GRAFTON for about year now. and has been
so successful that recently two other floors
OF the building have been leased and plans
have been made to extend the scope of the
business.
Those who know Gabriel Abu Kali had
only pleasant things to say of him to-day.
He appears 10 have made only a few init
mate friends but at the Marie Antoinette
he was spoken OF as a quiet man, who APP
peared 70 be cultured and to have so far
taken on the manner or lie or Americans
that only by his face would he be dis
tnguished a foreigner by birth. He has
become an American citizen and is said by
his friends 10 be a Mason IN good standing
He came TO this country I'm 1893 from his
home in Lebanon, Syria. and after short
stay in New York removed 10 Buffalo. Ht
engaged in business in small way. and
six years after he landed he had a corner
OF Barnes Hengerer * Co S store with his
brother. Alexander. There they sold orr.
entail trinkets and il when Miss John
son stopped one day TO examine a filigres
chain that she first met the man whom she
has married.
She became interested i'm him almost from
the beginning. and when the Pan-Ameri.
can year came around she established hin
with II. a. Medium * Co, where he had q
stock of rugs for sale.
IL about this time that Miss johnson
determined 10 adopt Kali, and had Sc
about carrying out her purpose In this di
rection when she learned that the law doc:
not permit of the adoption of any one more
than twenty-one years old, and he wa;
suggested, but her friends interpOsed suci
strong objections that for the time thel
prevailed
Meanwhile Miss Johnson's sister Maria
with whom she had been living for half
century, was found dead one morning II
their home. and thereby Miss Margaret;
inherited another 500. 600 but was more thar
ever alone in the world.
Following her sisters death Miss johnson
planned trip 10 Palestine. with Kali AM
his brother Alexander and the lattcr's wifi
as her guests. The only opposition To he
wishes has gone further than personal ex
pressions of oisapproval came up, however
! 10 interfere with her plans. Former Jndg
! Stephen V. Lockwood made an ineffectua