The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-10
RUTH IS
A MIXED.UP CHILD
Pretty QuadrOon Girl Has Con.
fuSing Number of Parents,
Foster and Otherwise.

eO-up girl In the whole world.
Little Ruth Bucklin, pretty quad
room child, gave this opinion of herself
last week when she was trying to ex-
plain to Probation officer Graves why
she was found out on Reaney street,
Wednesday night trying to discover to
whom she belonged. AS already pub
lished, Ruth has since been cared for
by her father, Walter Bucklin, of Sd
East Fairfield avenue. West St. Paul.
But he's only one of my fathers
said Ruth, telling her relationships.
I've got four or five fathers"
You mean grandfathers," suggested
Mr.. Graves.
Indeed, I don't" persisted the child;
II mean just fathers. There's Father
Still, and Father Conley, and Father
Buckley, and Father Buchanan, and one
or two more, I'm pretty sure. And I've
all kinds Of brothers and sisters, with
so many names can't remember"
Ruth had been living with a Buck
man family, she said, who, as she
thought, had adopted her, though her
clothes were furnished by her own
mother The Buckmans were colored
people. 1--WE had to care for their
three kids" continued Ruth, land 1
got tired of 1t. 1 went to where my
own mother used to live and she isn't
there. Her name was Miss Moore, and
my first papa, a white man, was
named Still; he's dead. Then my own
Papa Bucklin was colored, but only
half cOlOred-mamma's white; I don't
know whether he's dead or alive, and
l never see him at all. After that my
new papa was named Conley, and
mammals living with him now-per-
haps; he's white, too. 1 don't know
what the other names WERE"
Father is NonpIused.
But when Ruth's father, Walter
Bucklin, a mulatto porter, claimed his
daughter last Friday morning, he de-
clared he'd never heard OF any Buck
mans. He said that Ruth left her
mother because Conley didn't like the
girl; that Ruth had been living with
his second wife on the, West side This
second wife had been married before,
and 'Ruthie" had a happy home with
his children by his second wife and a
child of hers by her first husband, who
was named Brown.
In the girls pocket, however, the po-
lice had found a note addressed to Mrs.
Bucklin presumably No. D and read
ing:
Mamma, you said you hated me and
you leased me, and now have gone to
my mother. Papa, love you still, but
mamma did not give me peace; that's
why l am gone. You don't have to
bother with me. Ruth Bucklin."
Saturday afternoon a letter was re-
ceived by the probation officer credit
ing Mrs. Conley with one more hus-
band. This letter. which was unsigned,
RAM:
P'HomeIess Ruth Bucklin. Still or
Henderson. Mothers name five wears
ago was Henderson. Gave. Ruth to
porter when married Conley, who is
teamster for U. S. army in st. Paul"
Ruth's Mother Seeks Her.
Then last Monday the child's actual
mother, Mrs. Still-Bucklin- Conley, a
respectable looking woman eight
years old, came to Mr.. Graves office in
search of ''her little girl" The mother
never heard of the Buckmans; she
didn't know that Ruth had been living
with the Bucklins; she did know that
after she had married her last white
husband, Mr.. Conley, her quadToon
child had been adopted by a family
named Terrier; that Ruth, SO far as
the mother was informed, had been liv-
ing with the Terriers for several years.
1t isn't true what Ruthie says,' the
mother added, that l saw her three
weeks ago"
Mrs. Conley said also that she'd been
divorced from Bucklin; that she had
married Mr.. COnley; that she had left
him and was supporting herself as a
cook; that she was living with a mar
ried son by her first husband (StilD,
and that she wanted to get Ruthie back
again.
AS to the alleged husband No. 4.
Mrs. Conley explained, "Mr. Buclzlin
had halfbrother named Hender-
son.
The divorce mentioned was granted
to Malvine Bucklin from Walter Buck
lin April 20, 1898, by Judge ]. w.
Willis, of the local district court. The
charges against the husband, then a
coachman, included according to the
court records, the assertion that he is
not possessed Of the finer qualities or
sentiments of man." Custody of the
child, Ruth G. Bucklin, was awarded
to the mother.
The respective claims Of Ruth's par
ents upon this "mixed-up" daughter
are now being investigated by Proba-
ton officer Graves.
Ruth Has Many Relations.
Meantime, he is oppressed by the
fact that Ruth, when living with her
own mother, had one real father liy-
ing, one stepfather dead and one or
two stepfathers alive; that when she
was living with her stepmother she
had still another stepfather dead or
alive; that she also reveled in a fos-
ter-father named Buchanan, whom her
real parents had not heard of, and in a
second foster father named Terrier.
whom the child herself had not heard
of; that among her living mothers
was one real mother named ConIey,
one Stepmother named Bucklin, one
foster-mOther named Terrier and, per-
haps one more foster-mother named
Buchanan; that Ruth has no genuine
brothers or sisters of her own, but that
she possesses brothers or sisters
named Still and Bucklin and Conley