The Washington herald., 1907-11-25
KNOWN TO THE BULKLEYS.
Mystery I'm WOman's Claim That She
Was Governors Daughter.

New York. Nov 25-S0mething Of the
life and a little Of the mystery surround
ing the double Identity OF Airs. Nicholas
NJ. Smith, Who shot her husband and then
herself. after she had fired their home in
New Rochelle. early Saturday morning.
were learned by an investigation into her
past to-day. Before his marriage 70 the
woman. who persisted in calling herself
Grace Bulkley, and who said that she
was the daughter of the late Lieut. Gov.
William Il Bulkley Of Hartford, Conn,
Nicholas Smith accompanied her {, Hart
ford and heard Gen. Buckley deny her
claim to being his daughter before her
face. This was several years after the
woman had pressed her claim on the
BuIkley family in one way or another.
From information given by "a person in
innate with the story Of how this name
less woman endeavored 10 establish her
self as a daughter of the well-knOwn
Hartford politician. it appears that Gen.
BuIkley once went TO Nicholas Smith. and
in a long conversation, persuaded him 10
separate from the woman. VINO was not
then his wife. convincing him, it would
appear. that she was an impOstor. How
IL was that the self-styled Grace Bulk
ley won Smith back and finally became
his wife in the face Of Gen Bulkley's di-
rect denunciation is secret which will
never be known.
II is now known that the story the
woman used 70 convince Smith. DR.. Rob
ert Acton, and w. 9. Medhurst, the men
/ she married, was that because she had
run away from home with the man she
] loved when she was a very young girl
/ her father had cast her of and sup
| planted her with a cousin, who took the
name of Grace Bulkley. and who was
/ considered by the family 20 be in every
! sense the daughter chosen to I'LL the
! place of the errlnt girl.
According 70 the story told by one who
knows the history OF the BulSley fam
! ily, the first they heard OF the woman
now dead was back as far as 1887. when
! Gen. Bukley received a telegram from
| New York. signed Graves, saying that
! Grace BUIkley, the generals daughter,
WAS sick and destitute in New York,
and that she could be found at a certain
| address. which was given in the telegram.
Cen Bul<ley turned the message over
to a friend in New York. but no trace
of the girl was found at the address
given, nor could anything be learned OF
the person Graves. who signed the mes
sage.
After that time Gen. sBulkley was con-
stantly receiving letters from Grace Bulk
/ ley, all pleading for recognition as his
daughter He paid no attention to any
/ Of them
/ Early in 1898 Nicholas Smith went to
| Hartford to see Gen. Bulkley. He said
that he had been living with his daugh-
ter Grace in apartments at West Sew
enty-ninth street, considering her his
wife in everything but name. He told
/ the general the story the woman had
made him believe, which was that she
| had been cast out and a cousin brought
| in to fiji her place in the family. Smith
said that his own father had refused 10
sanction his marriage with the woman
unless she could gain her fathers FOR
| giveness and be rehabilitated in the
| family.
| At that interview General Bulkley de-
MED emphaticalIy that he had any daugh-
| ter but the Grace Bulkiey, who was then
/ Mrs. David Van Schaick. and told Smith
Of the letters he had received from the
woman unknown 10 him. Following that
/ episode. General Bulkley came down "a
New York 20 see Nicholas M. Smith. sr.
Smiths father, who was staying at the
Colonial Club at the time. de had a