Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-10-12
WIFE NO. 5
Former Senate Postmaster Ac- . cuses Spouse of Bigamy.
SHE IS DAUGHTER OF NO. 4

{
 Corner, Who at Seventy one Welded
 Stepdaushter, Says She Has More
 Husbands Than the Law Allows.
 New York, Oct. 12.- William H. Lasher, formerly postmaster of the state senate and poohbah of the village of Griffen's Corners, N Y, of which he is the town clerk and road master, 1 caused the arrest of his wife, Etta Lasher, on the charge of bigamy. She is his fifth wife, her predecessor hav- ing been her own mother. Her mother, the fourth Mrs. Lasher, died last ] March in the Seney hospital. Brooklyn. | and in the passage at arms succeeding the arrest the fifth Mrs Lasher alleged that her stepfather had forced her to marry him at the point of revolver three months later. '..'
 Lasher is seventy-one years old, and for two score and ten years he has been the factotum of the little farming community of his native county. He himself, in spite of his gray hairs. did the sleuthing that enabled the police to ] arrest his wife. A week ago he brought Constable William Newton from Grif- fen's Corners, and together the gray boards rubber shoed through Brooklyn and told the result of their labors to Captain McCauley of the Brooklyn de- tective bureau.
 
 went to 191 Adams street, whither the trail followed by the aged sleuths had led, and found Mrs. Lasher. She is thirty five years old and of really charming appearance. The detectives found her prepared for bed, and she refused to leave the house. Their threat to back patrol wagon up to the door moved her to get into her street clothes and accompany them.
 Thought Her First Dead.
 The charge of bigamy is based on her marriage fifteen years ago to George R. Dennison of Cold Spring, N. Y, at which the Rev. Dr. Cox of that village officiated. Mrs. Lasher said that she had long supposed her first husband dead, and she was amaz- ed at the charge against her. She said she had no knowledge of the evidence her aged spouse had found to warrant his action. Lasher was not present, but the news of his wife's arrest was telegraphed to him, and he returned answer that he would hasten to town.
 Mrs. Lasher told the police tabloid history of the marital experiences of her spouse. She said that he had bur jed three of his wives with tears up to two years ago, when in his lone someness he induced her mother to &C., cept the post of housekeeper. It seems that the village patriarch had suc- cumbed to the charms of his previous wives through admiration of their abil- ity as housewives. and Mrs. Lasfier the fourth followed in their footsteps by becoming his bride. The village made much of the~wedding. Mrs. Lasher the fourth fell i'll six months after the wedding and was brought to Brooklyn, where she submitted to an operation at the Seney hospital in March, dying few days later.
 The disconsolate quadrupled widow CT retired to the lonesomeness of his old home and wept for weeks fin se- cret. Then came a letter to his last wife's daughter in Brooklyn asking her to take the highly potential job of housekeeper. The daughter was then known to him as Mrs Dennison, and he thought her to be widow.
 The Mothers Footsteps.
 Mrs. Dennison departed. bag and baggage. and became wife No. by the housekeeping route. in the course of the three short months that she baked cakes and swept the house. In the fifth wedding the village did not join boisterously. because of the prox- imity in time of the departure of the fourth wife.
 Five weeks ago Mrs. Lasher left her husband and came to New York. He followed her to her old address, 77 High street. Brooklyn, but she had left before he arrived. Lasher went to Captain McCauley and told him of his desire to prefer a charge of big. amy. The captain advised him to go back home and prefer the charge there. Lasher went before a local justice of 1 the peace and shortly after appeared with a warrant charging bigamy. IL was with this warrant that he and the | venerable constable came to Brooklyn | last week. He knows that my first husband is dead" said the imprisoned woman. 'I cannot conceive how he could do such | a thing. I did not want to marry him. He came at me with a pistol one day | and forced me to do it. We were mar ried June 2S. 1901"