Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-12-13

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Cleveland, Dec. 10.That a woman
Of lowly origin, with none of the ad-
vantages that persons of even ordinary
circumstances are able to give their
children in the way of education and
refined surroundings should at the age
of AZ be able to astound every City in
America and even set tongues a-wag-
ging In Europe by her ability to raise
stupendous sums Of money on nothing
much more substantial than her bare
word. seems almost beyond belief. Yet
that Is what Mrs. Cassie l.. Chadwick.
who is said by many Cleveland people
to have been known as Elizabeth Big
ley, Alice Bestedo, Nine. La Rose,
Nine. De We're and Mrs. Springsteen,
has done.
These facts would be amazing
enough in themselves il the woman
had IN her youth given indications Of
exceptional brilliancy, or had she in
her prime been possessed OF great
beauty to charm men. But that wo-
man whose youth was clouded by
squalor and poverty and whose early
womanhood was spent in prison for
the crime Of forgery should do all this
and come out scot free amazes and as
tounds.
The story Of the woman as told by
Cleveland people follows:
Mrs. Cassie l.. Chadwick was born
in Eastwood, Ontario, about the
year 1857, one of the eight children of
Daniel and Mary ann Bigley. In 1879,
at Woodstock, Ont, on the ground that
she was insane. she was acquitted on
the charge Of forgery. She appeared
in Cleveland about 1872, and mad vari-
Gus experiences with money lenders
under the name of Bigley and Mrs.
Alice Bostedo. On October 81, of that
year. she married a DR.. w. S. Spring
steen. They had not been married
a month before certain of her doings
became known to her husband, and she
was forced to leave his house. In 1888
DR.. Springsteen divorced her. Three
years later she again turned up in
Cleveland as Mrs. Scott" and lived in
q boarding house kept by Mrs Hoov-
er, at No. 122 Euclid avenue. In 1880
she, with an express agent. Joseph
Lamb, was arrested in Toledo on the
charge Of obtaining $4,000 by forgery.
On the plea that Lamb was Simply her
dupe he was acquitted, but she was
convicted and sentenced to the Colum.
bus penitentiary for nine years and
six months. Governor Mckinley re-
leased her on parole in 1898.
In the following year she again ap-
peared in Cleveland, this time as Mrs
Hoover" having borrowed the name of
1.-THE boarding house keeper with whom
she formerly lived. In 1897, still under
the name of Hoover. she wormed her
way into the affections of Dr. Leroy S.
Chadwick, of Cleveland, of a very old
and respectable family, and he married
her. 1t was not long before her hus-
band and his daughter by a former
marriage were forced by her erratic
conduct to leave the home OF his birth
and seek oblivion In foreign land
Despite the fact that all these things
have only just now been made public,
the woman's identity with the former
| convict, Nine De We're, has been
for a good many years, and despite the
fact that she has time and time again
been confronted with this dark spot
in her career by dozens Of Cleveland
lawyers, and that many times she has
been forced to disgorge large sums of
borrowed money through threats of
exposure, yet up to the very last mo-
ment she has persistently denied ev-
erything.
4 There is scarcely a LAWYER, banker
or business man of any prominence in
| this city who is not more or less &C
quainted with her life's history; yet
lit is almost impossible to get any one
of them to speak of her or her affairs
|! or to acknowledge that they have in
any way been connected with her.
They are almost all willing to tell
what they know in confidence. but
they expect a solemn pledge that their
names shall not be revealed.
| A Cleveland attorney who repre-
sented several money lenders in suits
against her as early as 1882 tells this
story of her career, and there are any
number of others who will back it
/ up:
/ II first knew Mrs. Chadwick under
! the name of 'Bigley' She was then
/ to be a sister to Mrs. York. She had
a mania, then for raising large sums
Of money, and would in almost every
case pledge her sisters furniture. She
used various names at this time
among them being Alice M. Bestedo
She very soon got into trouble with
i Mrs. York, and moved away from her
neighborhood Then she met DR.. Wal.
lace S. Springsteen and aroused his
/ sympathy with tales of her troubles, at
the same time representing that she
was heir to great deal of property
in Canada They were married by JUS
! ..,n- cAeEe ARR 1,en.,ee