Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-11-06
WIFE DISAPPOINTED
IN ARMY CAPTAIN
Mrs Ethyl Fletcher Ceilings
Claims Husband Greatly Mis-.
represented His Financial and
Social Condition and Could
Not Legally Marry

r. Ethyl Fletcher Ceilings, who Is nj
present living In oxford, Mass, has
entered q case in Chittenden county court
against Walter Ceilings. petitioning for
annulment of marriage, claiming that
Ceilings had a wife living at the time he
married her, and that the laws of Texas
where his first wife obtained n divorce,
would not allow Ceilings to legally marry
until n year from May 81. 1918. The mar
rage OF Ceilings and the petitioner took
place at FoN Ethan Allen october 16.
1918
According to the petition. the petitioner
came to reside at Fort Ethan Allen with
her father and mother. Lieut. and Mrs.
Robert S. Fletcher, April a. 1919. on April
20, the petitioner was introduced 10
Walter Ceilings, then captain IN the
army, and stationed at the fort. lie at
once began to pay marked marked atten-
ton to her, and soon proposed marriage.
At this time, according to the petition,
he set forth that he was a man Of high
ideals: that he had been married. but had
secured a divorce from his wife eight
years before because of her bad conduct;
that he had no children; that he was Of
fine family. his father owning n hat
factory in Connecticut, while his uncle
was at the head of the Victor Talking
Machine company and a man of wealth.
He also claimed to have a large bank
account and to own the best automobile
at the fort.
The petitioner had confidence in these
statements. so she says, and married
him, believing his statements to be true.
They lived together one day at the Post.
then he left for Fort Sill, Oklahoma, tell
ing her to join him at Camp jackson.
Later, he wrote that he had resigned his
commission in the army and taken a
position with the New York, New Haven
& Hartford railroad, at New Haven.
Conn He asked her to ship her goods
to New Haven, which she did, and then
met him at South Norwalk, as he had
directed. He had previously written her
that he had hired a house and that it
would be ready for her when she arrived.
She found no house ready the petition
states. and they went to live at the home
of his parents. She then discovered that
his father was not the owner of hat
factory, but a common laboring man.
and she also found that Ceilings himself
had no job.
The petitioner declares that she was
obliged to pay all of her own bills while
in Connecticut. and that she also paid
come of the bills contracted by Ceilings.
She soon became suspicious that
Ceilings had not told the truth about
being divorced from his first wife, and
Investigation brought out the facts that
the first wife. Mabel Ceilings had Sc
cused divorce from Ceilings because it
had been impossible to live with him, on
account of his extreme cruelty 1t was
also learned that Ceilings had one daugh-
ter by his first wife, and that this daugh-
ter Is still alive. also that Ceilings could
not legally marry at the time the mar
riage took place between him and the
petitioner.
Soon after learning these facts. the
petitioner left Ceilings and went to the
home Of her uncle, Charles /. Rawson, in
Oxford, Mass. where she has since re.
sided and has had nothing to with Col.
J 1ings.