Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-15
iron MAYOR" IS
SILENT ABOUT
W|FE'S CHARGE
Spouse Declares ex-senator
Hinchliffe Threatened to
Take Her Life.
SAYS HE BROKE DOOR AND
SHE FLED In NIGHTG0WN
Seeking Divorce, She Ayers He
Accused Her of Causing
Daughters Death.
IFrom a star oorrespondent.l


PATERSON. N. j., July 15-Al-
though his fighting soubriquet is
1.-THE Iron Mayor" former State Sem
ator John Hinchliffe did not have any
comment to make today on his wife's
suit for divorce or on her charge that
he had threatened to kill her.
Mr.. Hinchliffe is ore of the most
picturesque characters in New Jer-
sey.
Three times mayor of Paterson,
from 1897 to 1902, he had to contend
with a $10000.000 fire in February,
1902. with the floods that followed 1t
in March and with great silk strike
and the so-called anarchist riots"
At the time of the fire he led the
rescuers and was on his feet for
forty-eight hours. When the an
archists were throwing bricks he de-
posed the chief of police, who re-
fused to go out, and took charge of
the police in person.
His reply, Paterson can take care
of it's own" to outside offers of help
after the fire made him nationally IA
nous He reorganized the city gov
ernment while the City Hall was
burning,
Made Fortune as Brewer.
Mr.. Hinchliffe was born in ls49. He
became Democratic State senator
from the Republican county of Pas
sale and served in the Legislature
until his election as mayor. He was
once arrested for slashing a train
conductor who tried to make him
pay his fare, although Hinchliffe had
Il pass. He has made large fortune
as brewer.
His wife Mrs. Mary A. F. Hinchliffe,
who is II 4, second wife of Mr.. Hinch-
life, alleges that she is without funds
except for what she earns herself.
She is now away from the city with
her 19-year-old son, a college stu
dent.
At St. Joseph's HosI ital 1t was said
today that Mrs. Hinchliffe had been
received there about March IA and
that she had remained about ten
days for treatment. There is no rec
ord that she complained of having
been assaulted by her husband.
Mrs Hinchliffe's petition was sent
to the Chancery Court at Trenton
yesterday by Cortlandt Parker, of the
law firm of Cortlandt and r. Wayne
Parker, of Newark. It's principal al
legation is that her husband tried to
kill her through a false impression
that she had been responsible for the
death of his daughter by his first
wife.
Followed Phone Message.
The incident happened on March IA,
last, at the Hinchliffe home in Pater-
son. 1t is said to have followed the
announcement to her husband over
the telephone that his daughter Julia
had died on Staten Island.
For a long time Mrs. Hinchliffe
had maintained a separate apartment
from her husband and constantly kept
her maid with her. she says, lest her
husband harm her On this occasion,
she said, her husband raved and
shouted outside the locked door of her
chamber,
"You have killed my little one, and,
SO help me God, I'll kill you
He climaxed his demonstration, she
says by putting his shoulder to the
door and forcing the bolt, whereupon,
she fled in her nightgown to the home
of friends across the street and from
there she went to st. Joseph's Hospi-
tai.
Mrs. Hinchliffe says that her hus
band has not lived with her as man
and wife for the past two years. Twen-
ty of their twenty-five years of mar
ried life have been unhappy for her,
she declares. She says her husband,
although he is reputed to have made
though he is reputed to have made
half a million dollars out of his
brewery in Paterson, quarreled over
petty household bills.
In her petition, Mrs. Hinchlife
says her husband has often tried to
get rid of her. 1t then goes on to set
forth:
Because of said defendant continu-
ously threatening to get rid of her and
the hatred shown by him toward petit !
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