Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1906-02-09
UNITE HEARTS
IN OLD ACE
FOR DECADES HUSBAND BE-
LIEVED WIFE DEAD
Perfidious Friend Helps to Keen
Couple Apart and Wrong Is
Righted by Courts Years
AfterWard

romantic story of two loving
hearts separated by the perfidy of a
friend and soon TO be reunited after a
lapse of twenty years was told yes
terday in the suit of w. B. Forden
against Phoebe Forden for an annul-
ment of marriage.
The story which had it's elimination
yesterday is as follows:
w. B. Forden was q surgeon in the
Confederate army during the Civil
War. While smuggling quinine through
the ranks of the United States troops
he met a woman with whom he fell in
love and whom he afterward married.
His fiancee was deaf and a mute and
the match was bitterly opposed by the
parents of the girl, but they persisted
and were married. While the war was
in progress Forden sent his wife to
Cincinnati, o. Owing to the rough
class of associates with whom he was
constantly forced to be in the army, he
began to diSSipate.
After the struggle between the north
and south ended he went to Cincinnati
to rejoin his wife and baby daughter,
who had been born during his absence.
Forden was physically run down and
financially embarrassed, and soon after
his return to his home he went west
with the idea of building up a practice
and his fortunes and health at the
same time. He went to q little town
in the eastern part of Wyoming and
succeeded beyond his expectations.
Then he decided to send for his wife.
The letter which he sent telling her
To come to him miscarried and his wife
did not receive it. After waiting for
some time, he wrote again and sent
money to cover her travelling expenses.
In the meantime his wife had moved
from her former address and did not
receive that letter either.
SO he concluded that her people, who
had bitterly opposed the marriage, had
won her back to them and that she had
deserted him.
Started Drinking
To make absolutely certain of the
| fact he sent a trusted friend back east
with $4,000 and Instructions to find Mrs.
Forden and bring her to Wyoming.
In few months the friend returned
and said that Mrs. Forden had secured
a divorce from her husband and had
remarked. He also said that the little
daughter of the physician was dead.
So Forden drifted westward, all the
time drinking heavily until few years
a go he arrived in San Francisco. Here
he met a woman whom he finally mar
ried and for the last twenty years
| they have lived in Southern California.
In 1908 Forden accidentally learned
J that his daughter, whom he thought
was dead, was alive and married. He
communicated with her and learned
that his former wife had been true to
him through all the years he had been
absent, and that she was still await
| ing his return.
A meeting with his daughter was ar
ranged at Phoenix, AriZ. When he
W ent he took his present wife and
after a consultation with the daughter
it was agreed that the property should
be divided and that Forden should Sc
cure a divorce and go back to his first
wife.
The decree on annulment Of the sec
ond marriage was granted yesterday
by Judge Ewing.
Forden is seventy-two years old and
his wife from whom he was separated
| yesterday is seventy years of age.
The deaf and mute wife, who is now
living in Napoleon, Ark. is sixty years
old. Forden will rejoin his first love
immediately.
The story which the married daughter
of the old physician told of the pri-
walton and want endured by her mother
while waiting for the return of her
| husband was most touching.
Some time this month the aged cou"
pie will be reunited after a separation
of over twenty-five years.