Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-02-11
TRUE TO HER LOVE
OF .e5 YEARS AGO
Aged Woman Remembers First Beau
With Greetings on Anniversary
Buquy Ride They Took

With Greetings on Anniversary
Buggy Ride They Took.
San Francisco, Cal.-The saying that
"the constancy of a woman runs but
three years and day. has again been
refuted, for out of the past there has
flickered message from Ohio to Cal
ifornia that tells how an effection once
planted in womans heart never
ceases to burn, though the winter of
life weaves the frost halo in her hair
and though vast mountains and num-
erous miles are thrust between the
young emotion and the old.
On summer day in 1S49 Stephen T.
Gage, is years of age, took Mary Ste-
vens, 16, for a ride along the beech
and maple uplands of Ashtabula, Ohio,
and hoy and girl together they picnick-
ed by leaf-embowered stream. There
was a spark that went with the glances
of the two, but Fate swung their lives
far apart.
A strapping, six-foot-three youth. he
Joined the pilgrimage to the west,
while she remained in the comparative
quietude of the old Ohio home.
He went into freighting over the big
Sierra divide from Hangtown (Placer
WILEY into Nevada, and in 1856 was
sent as an assemblyman on the Know
Nothing ticket to represent his coun-
try. then the Empire county of the
state in the Legislature-the legisla-
tive session of which he is now the
sole survivor.
In his freighting he charged "all the
traffic would bear" and he grew in in
fluence and confidence in the trans
portation game. When 1t came time to
organize the building of the great
transcontinental railroad, young Gage
was factor to be reckoned with, and
he joined the Crockers, Stanford, Col.
ton, Huntington, Hopkins and Judah
In carrying the project to it's conclu.
sion.
Then he became commanding g
figure in the politics of California and
Nevada-the confidant and right hand
of Stanford in carrying forward the
railroads manifold policies. He made
governors and judges, assessors, secre
taries and controllers with a nod and
unmade them with wink. Men fawn
ed for his favor and scurried from his
frown.
He married, but not the girl OF the
picnic Of Ashtdtrla in The far din
Ohio Of his youth. Death made him
a widower-twice. Age came, and with
time the companions of his youth, his
mature manhood and his achievement:
went their way. But that age left hin
ruddy and rugged-quick of eye, firm
OF step, patriarchal as to beard, bu
still such figure that has made hin
called the handsomest man in Califor
MO"
But all these years in the far-awa!
Ohio aswoman remembered that picnic
out of Ashtabuia beneath the beeche
and the naples, remembered CLEAN
in his eye, recalled the pressure of hi
hand.
Three years ago Stephen T. Gag
went back to Ohio and there he tool
Mary Stevens for a ride and picni
over the same old road out of Ashta
bula-a ride under the beech an,
maple shade, picnic by the same leaf
emhowered stream.
On the anniversary of that first rid
In 1S49 there came to Stephen 7. Gage
SO years old and resident Of thi
city, from Mary Il. Stevens, aged 81,
telegraphed message reading:
ITO my first and only beau"
Happy returns Of the day." wire
Stephen T. Gage in reply. and he hun
med an old love tune.