The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-03-02
STEALS NAME or
DEAD WOMAN AND
HOLDS A POSITION
Teacher In the Quaker City
Schools Masquerades Sue
~cessfully as Another.

philadelphia, Feb. 2S.-For four years
the board of education has been paying
a salary of a woman now believed to
be dead to a teacher who passed her.
self off as this woman, and who gained
admission to the schools through US
ing the qualifications of Miss Clara z.
Green, whom she impersonated and
who graduated in 1888.
h fact of the assumed personality
OF Mrs. Mary E. Irwin, a teacher at the
Martin school, only became known
through a family quarrel, which led her
~brotherinlaw to disclose the secret to
DR.. Matthew j.. Wilson, a membe OF
the board. who reported the matter
to the elementary schools committee.
Not Qualified Under Law.
A subcommittee was appointed to In
yestigate the woman's record and to
discover whether or not she was Miss
Clara Green before her marriage.
Records We're searched, inquiries made
and the members Of the COMMITTEES
convinced themselves that Mrs. Irwin
was IN impostor. They found that not
only was she not the person she pre-
tende to be, but that she had never
passed an examination emitting her to
teach, that she had never gone through
the high school and a never grad
uated.
HEARINGS WclG HSIa IN WlLliCSo-
es called to testify hat Mrs. Irwin was
not Miss Green. Members on the grad
uating class of 'SS did not hesitate to
say that they had never seen the Wom-
an who confronted them as their for
mer school friend and classmate. In
the face of this, Mrs. Irwin insisted
that she was the person she claimed
to be. and she even picked out her
picture from a photograph taken on
class day. more than 20 years ago
THAT proves conclusively that you are
not Clara Green" one of the womer.
who was present at the time declarea.
for that is not the picture of Clara
Green, but of another member OF the
class. Besides Clara Green was a bru.
net and you are a blonde"
Woman Holds to Story.
Members of the committee heard
enough to make them believe they had
peer victimized in an unusual way, but
they gave the teacher the benefit of the
doubt. and called another meeting. at
which she was represented by her at
torney, who, however, refused to let
her testify in her defense and asked for
postponement of the trial.
his. Avery d. Harrington, chairman
of the elementary schools committee,
refused to grant. He called Mrs. r.
win brotherinlaw. Harry Irwin, to tes-
tify that she had never gone to the
high school in this city, n that she
was married in Camden, in 1890, to his
brother, James G. Irwin, a Kensington
weaver. The marriage license was pro-
duced and it was found the woman's
nader name was written as Mary f.
Green. others among them, neighbors
and relatives of her husbands family.
declared that they had always known
Mrs. Irwin as Mary and that they had
had a tacit understanding that she
was holding her position under pecul.
lar circumstances.
Twice while she was being question:
ed by the investigating committee Mrs
Irwin tainted. She would not give up,
however, and with courage and tenacity
held to her story of being the former
Miss Green. The committee will advise
her dismissal.