The Bismarck tribune., 1924-01-29
WOMAN FAILS
TO WIN CHILD
IN LONG FIGHT
Former Golden Valley County
Woman Loses Out in Los
Angeles
HER STORY is TOLD

tnucr Il Los Angeles date Sta1t
writer tells story linked with North
Oak ota and showing that the statute
of limitations can run counter to I:
mothers love us well as against the
law.
"Uniquc in the history of Amcri-
pondent. twas the decision ordered
entered yesterday in the records of
Los Angeles county by Superior
Court Judge Edwin +. Hahn.
With the decision. Mrs. Lura Liver
morc-Johnson is unsuccessful in her
determined legal battle to obtain Gus
tody of 13-ycar-old Dorothy Liver
throb drama of the Dakota plains.
"Thirteen years ago near the then
little settlement of Beach, N. D., a
young and unmarried woman was
Travelling in pain. Her mother and
Il country doctor were the only watch
crs at her side. The man responsible
for her condition was not there.
Told Baby Was Dead
THE young woman, Lura Liver
more. was unconscious when the baby,
4 girl, was born. When she regaincd
consciousness at sunrise the follow
ing morning and felt for her child her
mother indicated out the window. In
the yard was freshly piled mound
marking Il tiny grave,
But what the grandmother meant
TO tell by inference-that the child
was dcad-was not true. A number
of miles away across the wind-swept
prairie, Carlson Aagard, a bachelor
farmer, was stirring himself to begin
his chores at the break Of day. AS he
cooked his meager breakfast he
heard plaintive wailing and traced
it to his front door. Here he found,
closely bundled, newborn baby.
''In his perpleXity Aagard took the
child to his nearest neighbor, Mrs.
Ella Holmbcrg. Mrs. Holmberg had
four daughters of her own and while
she would have welcomed boy, she
did not want another girl.
Strange is the working of destiny.
While Mrs. Holmberg and Aagard de-
bated the problem a passing farmer
brought letter to Mrs. Holmberg. 1t
was from Beach, n. d., and told that
her sister, Mrs. George w. Richard
son, the wife of a justice of the peace,
WAS not expected to live. She had Civ
en- birth to Il baby, it had died \bat
Mrs. Richardson was unconscious and
did not know of this.
"Whcn Mrs. Richardson regaincd
consciousness Il few days later and
! asked to see her baby a dimplcd,
rosy-chcekcd girl was put on her arm
Sister Takes Child
"As years passed, Mrs. Richards on
! was her own. Another sister, Mrs f.
NJ. Taylor, brought the child to Cali
fornia
"Meanwhile Lura Livermore had
been keeping green the grass and
flowers on the grave she thought hello
the body of her love child. In her de-
! clining years the grandmother con
| fess ed the deception to the mother.
"To the simple home where Mrs
Taylor had since lived at Pomona
Calf, there appeared one day mys
tcrous woman who embraced Ittlt
Dorothy and left her presents. Later
on her birthday, and at Christina:
fgifts would come from the same mys
terious woman. She was Lura Liver
more
"Strangely again did destiny work
Divorce proceedings disrupted tn,
Taylor household. Here in the rea
mother, now an assistant in the offic,
of Il Los Angeles dentist, began
court action to obtain custody of Dor
iothy. Affidavits which she filed
| proved the parentage.
Judge Denies Mother Her Child
The legal aspects of the case wcr
clear, the Judge said as he listened t
the testimony Of the contending par
ties.
"There is human law to be con
sidered here said the judge. Turn
ing to little Dorothy he asked, whol
do you really love?"
"Mrs. Taylor" replied Doroth
tearfully.
Turning then to the real mothe
Judge Hahn said:
Il am sorry madame, but tn
statute of limitation has run agains
your mother love. Dorothy must re
main where she is.'