The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-17
STRANGE FATE
UNITES LONG LOST
Many Instances in Which Relatives
Long Separated Meet After
Many Years Absence.

(Chicago Tribune.)
Fate-working in ways that are
stranger and more fantastic than ever
fiction maker dreamed, recently has
brought together, seemingly from the
ends of the earth, persons lost to each
other for many years. Within few
weeks there have been recorded cases
In real life which would have stag
gered the belief of any one if found in
fiction. Stranger and weirder than the
Imagination of Haggard, these stories
from real life need only a master pen
TO become wonderful bits of fiction, or
the skill of some play wright to trans
form them into ''thrillers" of the melo-
drama.
Case after case, reported in the pub
lie prints of various cities in America,
with details proved and verified by the
persons who become the principal char
aCters in these real melodramas, add
convincing proof TO the old saying that
truth is stranger than fiction.
John NJ. Lomax, formerly of Canal
Dover, o., and his sister, Mrs Anne
Hastings, from whom he had been sep
arated for more than thirty-four years,
were reunited by one of the strangest
means ever employed by fate.
LomaX found his sister through his
sense of taste after he had believed her
dead for many years-and long after
she had given up hope of ever seeing
him again.
Anne Lomax was 10 years old when
her mother died, leaving her to become
the hOusekeeper of her father, a car
penter, and her brother John, then 8
J ears old. For nearly three years she
did the cooking for her father and
brother Her special dish was beef stew
with dumplings, and both her father
and brother we're particularly fond of
the dish. Just how she favored il is
not known. except that she used pep
per, salt. onions and a dash of garlic,
When she was nearly 20 years old the
father married again. and, within
short time Anne married Fred Wallace
Hastings, barber. and moved with
him to Cincinnati, where he worked at
his trade.
Not long aftSrWard her brother, haV-
ing disagreement with his stepmoth-
err, ran away AMI went to Cincinnati to
find his sister. He never found her, for
who had worked in a place
on Sixth street, had got into debt and
then left town. The 12-year-old boz
found work as an errand boy, then as
a messenger, then as a bell hop in a
hotel, and finally went to work as
train boy on the L. z M, running to
Louisville.
After twenty years passed without
either brother or sister discovering any
trace of the other, each took it for
granted that the other was dead.
A few weeks ago Lomax went to
Louisville. ILL.,, in the interest of his
firm to buy potatoes, and also to ar
range for the rental of some apple or
chards in that district fer the coming
season. He hired a carriage at Louis
vile to drive through the country
around there in the heart of the apple
belt and see the owners. The second
day out of town he was informed that
a farmer named Hastings. living a few
miles away, had talked of selling his
orchard the following year and also
that he had apples stored, holding them
for a rising market. Lomax drove over,
made deal with Hastings, and was in
vited to stop to dinner. He stopped.
The farmers wife brought on d grea /;
savory dish of beef stew with Dump
lings- Lomax says that the first scent
of the dish brought back memories of
his early bOyhOod. When ne tasted the
ne leaped from his chair and
demanded to know, of Mrs Hastings if
her name had been Anne Lomax. She
was startled at mis- actions, but told
him that it had been her maiden name.
Then he revealed his identity to her
and they were clasped in each others
arms before the surprised husband
could discover what the trouble was
about.
One of the oldest freaks of fate re-
Gently reported was the finding of
Frank Schweringen cf Oneida, N. Y.
by Attorney Roy S. Glenn of New York
City.
Glenn never had seen Schweringen.
had no description of him beyond a
Terbal one given by some friends, or
rather acquaintance, of the missing
man, yet he went IN search of him and
found him by trick of fate as as
founding as it sounds impossible.
Glenn is a young attorney and he had
an important case on his hands involv-
ing the identity of one of the claim
ants to an estate. The claimant de-
ciared he was the nephew of the maker
of the will and tried to establish his
identity as being the one mentioned.
He claimed he had worked as an iron
molder in Oneida and later in Utica.
These things he proved. But to estab-
fish his claim he would be forced to
produce certain letters, photographs
and documents, which, he claimed,
were in the possession of Schweringen,
who had worked with him and roomed
with him in Oneida
Schweringen at that time had left
Oneida five months behind him and no
one knew whittier he had gone. He
was young but rather nomadic, and
had worked in many cities in many
parts of the country. Glenn was con-
WINGED of the business of his client s
claim, but he knew he could not sup
port it in court without the documents
There was little time, as the court or
der for a final settlement had gone out.
The claimant had heard of his luck by
accident, had failed to take the proper
steps and the chances of his losing all
were great unless Schweringen could
be found. Glenn went in search of
He hunted for three weeks, writing
foundrieS all over the country, but could
find no trace of mis- man. He followed
a false trail to Pittsburg. and. giving
it up as a hopeless search unless his
letters revealed some trace of the man,
he started back to New York taking