Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1912-05-08
like / !. EN \ ] ARDEN / ]
he WOULD NOT
STAY DEAD

How p. J.Thomson, Wanderer Ex-
traordinary, Returned to Sa-
vannah After Forty-seven
Years to Find His Wife With
New J Husband and New Chill
dren-Wants Only to Die
Where He Was Born.
ORN from the arms Of his young
s- wife and baby daughter by the
s5 fortunes Of war, exiled from
a Savannah by the order of
d '..7s General Sherman, whose army
had just completed its famous march
through Georgia to the Sea, P. J.
Thompson, recently Of Kentucky, wan
derer extraordinary has returned to,
his native state for the first time IN
47 years, only to find his wife hap
PLY married to another man and the
mother Of many children; his daugh-
ter. whom he left an infant, grown
to womanhood and nursing babies OF
her own, and his sister scarce8 able
to recognize him. & H u
j With the lines of the years SCARED
deeply into his weather-beaten face,
and his back bent with the burden
Of many days, the heart Of the Old
man cried for the red old hills that ne
had wandered over as barefoot boy,
and for news OF the little family from
whom he had parted In his youth. he
wished to rest his bones in the ground
that nourished him, and to feel for
the last time the breezes that the
'Gulf stream, that wandering summer
OF the sea, e brings to Georgia's shoes.
And so he turned his footsteps back.
toward the land OF his nativity. and az
"a consequence involves his wife in q
matrimonial tangle not yet unrav-
2elsd.
4 For after having spent the better
years OF long life as the wife of an
other man and the mother OF his chill.
dren, the old woman is inclined to
look askance at this husband OF her
early youth whom she can now re-
member only dimly, and whom she
has so long believed to be lying In an
unknown soldiers grave upon one of
the many battlefields with which the
bosom OF the south was Redeemed. She
is as shy as girl in the presence Of
her former husband, but she continues
to i've with her second husband.
A Mar, without a Home b
< Berry JONES' kindly eyed, white
whiskered, who wooed and won the
young Mrs. Thompson, after she had
given up her, husband for dead. is not
inclined to part at this late date with
his life companion. He looks upon
the advent OF Thompson as a rather
humorous incident that will break the
monotony of existence for his women
folks a little while, and then be for
gotten. He cannot conceive that there
may be q real interruption in the es-
tablished order Of things, and az to
his Wife's leaving, him-he accepts the
suggestion With a, laugh. These two
together have been the architects of
too many human lives to allow dead
man come to life to break the placid
,ityy of their conugal relations. Enoch
5Ardens are supposed to look through
windows upon happy 1resides and
then to disappear again. q.
The story Of the adventures Of
Thompson Il of intense interest.
Through all the years he has beensa
man without q home, awanderer. seek
ing always after the will o'-the-wisp of
q fortune that forever eluded him.
The one discordant note in the har-
.mony Is that he never made an at
tempt to return to his wife and home
after having been sent north by the
federal soldiers. {Is IN H
q Thompson's Early Life.
When the war broke out Thompson.
not yet Of age, enlisted for six months
On the expiration Of that period he
went into q cavalry troop and saw
much service in Virginia and Tennes-
see. The beginning Of the last year Of
tho war found him in hospital in
Savannah. Becoming conyalescent,
he obtained leave to visit his family
in Pembroke, where he learned for the
first time that he was father. and
for . brief and only period Of his life
held his baby in his arms. While he
was still at Pembroke Sherman and
his legions swept across the state.
Bidding his wife hasty goodby, the
Confederate soldier took refuge in the
iswamps. That was the last that Mrs.
Thompson now also Mrs. Jones and
the wife Of two men. ever saw Of her
husband. Is S;5
Driven from his hiding place by. hum
ger, Thompson made his way across
the Ogeechee river bridge and fell into
the hands Of a federal outpost. by
whom he was promptly dispatched into
Savannah, a prisoner OF war. He was
detained there and furnished with ra-
itions for q time, but an order finally
came that no more provisions were
Ito be served, and this. together with
Ian offer Of transportation north, left
Thompson and others in similar pre-
Idicament no alternative but to go into
the land Of the enemy as hostages Of
WAR. He was sent by a boat to New
York, where he remained until the
war closed, Z. 4 3
Escaped Death In Cyclone.
After the war Thompson wandered
into the west. Why he chose the west
instead OF the south and home has
never. been satisfactorily explained.
He lived for time in Cincinnati, but
driven by the unrest that was IN him,
he continued his wanderings over the
greater part of the western country,
pu,nc I'D III nm plAcEc