Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-23
PROVIDENCE is EXCITED
Family Has Figured in Many Very
Notable Incidents.
CAN0NCHET AND MR.. CONKLING
Young Bride a Great Favorite With
the Younger Set in Rhode
e.
-, Island City. V


PROVIDENCE, II. l.. June IA dis
closure that has caused great excitement
in this city's society is the news that Henry
w. Stiness. only son OF ex-Chief Justice
John HI. Stiness. and Miss Inez Sprasue.
daughter of Mrs. Avis Wheaton and grand
daughter OF ex-Gov. William Sprague. were
secretly married In St Stephens Episco-
pal Church last evening by the Rev Her
bert William Barker. the recently appointed
curate Of that parish
The greatest secrecy was maintained by
the young couple. They waited until the
city hall was closed for the day and then
procured their license at the house OF the
clerk. At dusk they went to st. Stephens
guild house, and there found the Rev. Mr.
Barker. having first applied to one of the
judges of the supreme court to tie the knot
and having been refused because of the init
mate relation between the two jurists.
A Brown Man.
Mr.. Stiness is a Brown University man.
He did not finish his course there but went
to the Chicago University to study law
Later he was admitted to the Rhode Island
par and year ago was made one OF the
clerks In the superior court. Mrs Stiness
comes from the Sprague- Weed family,
which has figured in some notable Incidents
She Is prominent in Narragansett Pier So
ciety. and within a year has taken a lead
ing part in local social events.
Gov William Sprague married Kate
Chase. the only daughter of Secretary Sal
mon T. Chase, at the time Sprague was a
United States senator. This was a mar
riage of ambition. Kate Chase aspired to
see her father President of the United
States and Looked nj
the then powerful manufacturing house OF
A & w. Sprague rated to be worth 500
100000, as highly desirable.
Sprague saw high social possibilities. The
panic of 1873 drove the Spragues into bank
ruptcy, and the only property saved out
Of the wreck was Canonchet, at the pier, a
big farmhouse, which Mrs. Sprague had
remodeled at an expense of nearly
100000
Gov. Sprague neld Canonchet against the
sheriff of Washington county, who had an
order from the supreme court to seize it.
by placing an armed force on guard at
every approach. the loaded repeating rifles
serving to cut off the officers. who knew
that there would be real shooting.
Conkling Driven Away.
Before the total collapse of the big firm
Gov. Sprague drove Senator Roscoe Conk-
ling from Canonchet at the muzzle Of q
loaded shotgun. This incident was due to
the attentions Conkling paid to Mrs
Sprague. Subsequently there was q divorce
and three years later Gov. Sprague went to
Virginia and married Miss Inez Weed.
Mrs. Sprague brought north her younger
sister, Avis Weed, and a year later one
June morning, Willie Sprague. only son of
the governor, and Avis slipped away from
Canonchet and were married by. the Bap-
fist minister at Little Rest" in South
Kingston.
The clippers returned home, were forgiven
and the father SON brother-in-law relation
ship was happily continued until a daugh-
ter was born to the young people. This
was IneZ, who was married last night
Then came dark cloud at Canonchet.
Willie Spyague left home and went to Den
yer, where the next winter he committed
suicide by shooting. Another year elapsed
and then the young widow married Ger
rift s. Wheaton, of the Standard Oil
magnates, and of whom the boy husband
had been jealous.
A Daughter Born.
A daughter. Lolita, was born of this mar
riage. Wheaton died suddenly at Washing
ton three or four years ago, due to ex-
haustion incident to a struggle to reach
home through a blizzard Mrs. Wheaton
was left with large property netting a
handsome income, and since then she has
entertained in great style at the Pier. 1t
Windpenny, son of a prominent Phiadel
phia family, having a villa at the Pier.
The engagement Of the young people was
and Miss Sprague visited the
Windpennys May 16, 1906. 1t was an
nounced upon the return of the Spragues
here that the engagement had been broken.
1t was next observed that Miss Sprague
and 'Dinah" Stiness, handsome blond,
were much together, and gossps declared
that there would he a match.
Gov. Sprague took house in town last
fall, and Miss Sprague entered society cir
cles and became a favorite with the
set She is twentt-one. and her
husband will be twentyseven years old
next Monday
Orestes A. Weed. an uncle of Inez and
but few years her senior. eloped from
Brookline January 3. 1903. with Catherine
R. de Roulhac, daughter of a wealthy New
Yorker. They were married at the Mar
Hotel Later children were born.
In 1905 Weed committed scicide In New
York by taking morphine.