Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-12-27
Another Chapter Written in
Knoxville Marital TangIe
When Suit of Mrs, MayeS
Is Dismissed

KNOXVILLE, Tenn, Dee. %
When Enoch Arden returned home
after a long absence he saw his wife
was wed to another and he sadly
went away again. But not so the
modern Enoch Arden, known here
as Glen B. Mayes. former prominent
coal operator of the Tennessee-ken
lucky mining field. When Mayes re-
turned several days after his wife
had wed another, giving her appar-
emily the surprise Of her life, Mrs.
Mayes decided to seek a divorce
from Mayes.
. This week the divorce case was
called in chancery court and Mrs.
Mayes failing to appear to prosecute
the case, it was dismissed at COM
plainant's cost.
The story of Glen B. Mayes is
most unusual.
On the night of August &c, 1921,
there was fire at the Campbell
County Coal company, near Titus,
Tenn, in the Jellico district. The
small building in which Glen Mayes,
81 years old, president of the COM
pany, had his offices land where he
slept, staying there to supervise the
preliminary work on the 5000 acre
mining project, was destroyed.
Charred Remains Found
Mayes was supposed to be sleep
nc hof irrht i,,cT
was found what might have been
all that remained of Mayes. The man
was missing and the easy assump-
ton was that he had lost his life
in the flames.
In the charred ruins Of the building
was discovered bones. The head
could not be located. 1t became a
"headless mystery" Bloodhounds
were taken to the scene.
There were reports that Mayes
had been slain by a band of moon
sinners, owing to his advocacy of
ten rerance among his employees
Eleven arrests were made, but nine
turned loose at their preliminary
hearing for lack of evidence and the
OF Iers later acquitted.
A prominent Knoxville physician
was called on to examine the bones.
He expressed the opinion they were
the bones Of human.
Then a Knoxville undertaken got
the bones and put them in a costly
.casket. They were brought to Knox.
Vile and a funeral was held.
A leading Presbyterian minister
conducted the services, and well
known men served as pallbearers.
lnterment was in exclusive Green.
wood cemetery, one Of the most
beautiful in the country. Mrs
Mayes found a measure of solace in
providing at the same time for her
own ultimate resting place by his
side.
Fraud Is Suspected
Later, papers bearing the purport-
ed Endorsement of another man,
turned up, and were repudiated. The
man denied he signed them. Banks
from which the money had been OBJ
tanned employed private detectives
The detectives proceeded on the
theory that perhaps Mayes was still
alive. They learned from a miner
that Mayes had been seen in West
Virginia. The story of the search
IS long but interesting one. Brief
ly, Mayes eluded them several times,
but once he was caught, and es-
capped when given permission to go
In laundry for some things he had
left there. Afterwards he was ar
rested at Powellton, w. Va. and
taken back to Knoxville
Just few days before the return
Of Mayes, Mrs. Mayes had been mar
ried to w. l.. Gregg, of Bowling
Green, Ky. an Oil we'll contractor,
whom she and her husband had
known agreeably when they were
living at Winchester, Ky.
Mrs. Mayes said the news that her
husband was still alive came as a
shock to her, and that she had not
suspected it. Then she said she
would bring suit for divorce against
| Mayes, which she did.
When the case was called in chan.
Gerry court, Chancellor Charles
| Hayes Brown dismissed it, Mrs.
Mayes failing to appear as the pros
ecutor.
Thus closed a chapter in the in
teresting story of the modern Enoch
Arden.
Q Il n n