The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-30
SENATOR GOFF,
n, WEEDS NURSE
HALF HIS AGE
Mystery Surrounds Sudden
Marriage of One Time
Secretary of Navy.
SURPRISE TO FRIENDS
Couple Left West Virginia
Home to Have Ceremony
Performed Here.
WIFE DIED IN JANUARY
Bride Has Attended Veteran
Statesman Since He Be-
came Ill.
SURPRISE TO FRIENDS
WIFE DIED IN JANUARY

Former Senator Nathan Goff of
Clarksburg, W. Va, Secretary of the
Navy in President Hayes's Cabinet,
thrice a member Of the House Of Rep
resentatives and later a United States
Senator and now II years old, married
his nurse, Miss Catherine Penny, in
this city Thursday. The former Sem
ator's wife is less than 40.
The news was received from Clarks-
burg last night. All efforts to learn
details met with failure. When the IL
cense was granted, where and by
whom the two were married and
where they went afterward are equally
mysterious facts. The marriage license
bureau was closed when dispatches
confirming the news were received
from West Virginia. Clerks could not
remember the former Senator. nor
did they recall Issuing a license to the
dignified veteran. At neither the Hol-
land House nor the Hotel Wolcott,
where Mr.. Con usually stops while in
New York, could he be traced. At botE
places 1t was said that he had not
been there for several months.
Inquiry at the clubs, where the former
Senator is accustomed to spend much
time while here met with no more sue
cess. From the tenor of the West Vir-
ginia despatcnes 1t is believed that Miss
Pennys consent was obtained suddenly.
The wedding caused Tremendous stir
IN the Goff family, and George Moore,
the Senator's private secretary, declared
i Nl.as Ia Naw.
prise.
Myss~vv fn License.
Mr.. Goff left Clarksburg on Wednes-
day morning. 1t is presumed that he
obtained the license after City Clerk
Scully had closed shop for the day. or
that he had obtained the necessary docu-
ment on a previous trip to New York.
Anyway. according to the dispatches,
the former Senator and Miss Penny were
married Thursday night.
Several of Mr.. Goff's friends in this
city were asked what they knew about
the wedding. The information almost
overwhelmed them. All declared they
found IL difficult to believe. Others in
sisted that there must have been some
error in the dispatches. At any rate
all began telephoning the information to
other triendS, of the ex-senator. and all
things considered, the news of the we'd
ding was almost as much of sensation
here as it appears to have been in
Clarksburg.
OF Miss Penny the kilograms say
rothing further than she has been Mr..
COTS nurse since he became ILL.,
Last January the former Senator 8
first wife, Laura Despard Goff, died. He
and she wers married in 1865. She, like
Mr.. Con-, was born in Clarksburg.
Ex-senator Gor's Career.
Mr.. Con is a graduate of George
| town University and of New York Uni
verslty. He left the latter institution in
| 1861 to become a private in the Third
| West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. A
| few days later he was commissioned a
Lieutenant He was mustered out OF
the service a Major.
He was elected TO the West Virginia
Legislature in 1857; was appointed
| United States District Attorney in 1875
! and retained that office until 1881, when
| he became Secretary of the Navy. II
| 1888 he was almost elected Governor OF
West Virginia and after another term
as United States District Attorney he
served three terms in Congress. He was
| appointed United States Circuit Court
| Judge in 1892 and served until 1912
when he was promoted to the United
| States Court of Appeals. In 1913 hi
was sent to the United states Senate by
the unanimous consent of both branches
| of the West Virginia Legislature. He
served one term.
Mr.. Con has two sons, DR.. W. p
| Con- of Clarksburg, and the other q
| lawyer Guy D. Goff of Milwaukee.