The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1935-05-10

Will Cne STIPULATION that he publ1Sh
MS charges for eight consecutive weeks
IN the Kentucky Gazette. Instead of
oolng so, RobardS circulated the re-
port that he had divorced Rachel, and
When the Donelson's notified jackson
ne and Rachel we're married by a Cath
ollc priest at Springfield, Tenn, in Au-
gust, 1871. In December, 1893, after
Andrew and Rachel had been living
together for two years as man and
wife, John M. Overton, Andrews friend,
found in the Harrodsburg county supe-
rlor court records that Richards on the
previous Sept. 81 had divorced Rachel
on the ground that she was living in
adultery with Andrew Jackson. They
were both overcome with horror, but
Andrew hurried to do what he could to
remedy the situation. On Jan. 7, 1894,
ne advertised a reward of 81 900 to be
given to anyone who could furnish a
reason why he should not marry Rachel
ana when no one appeared they were
married again on Jan. II, 10 days later.
Huddled in his chair there in the
death chamber, Andrew Jackson bit
terly reproached himself for not max
ing sure of Robard's divorce before he
married Rachel. 1t was inexcusable in
him, a lawyer. even though he had re-
paired the damage as soon as he
learned of it.. That first marriage
which was no marriage at all-was the
reason why Rachel was always accused
as an adultresS. It was the reason
Jackson himself became insane with a
murderous anger every time he heard
Rachel or any other woman accused of
~unchastity. 1t was his obsession
through which his many enemies at
tackled him. It was his Achilles heel.
Not, the old warrior grimly realized,
that any man dared do it openly. In
1903 John N~olichucky jack Sewer,
idol of the border, governor of Tennes-
see. and General Jackson's political en-
envy. tainted him with taking a trip
to Natchez with another mans wife"
The general challenged and when Sc
vier refused to accept the challenge,
published him week after week in the
Nashville Gazette as a "poltroon and a
coward"
In 1905 Charles Dickinson, sports
man, duelist and crack shot and SON.
in-law of Capt. Joseph Erwin, one of
Jackson's best friends, made a slurring
remark about Rachel. Confronted, he
apologized, saying he was drunk. Later
he repeated the remark and the gen.
eral warned Erwin to stop his mouth.
Erwin stopped it, but a year later, when
a dispute arose over the payment of a
forfeit in a horse race, Andrew Jackson
challenged Dickinson. They fought at
Mills, KY, in a break in a
poplar woods on May 80, 1906. Jack
SON, realizing Dickinson's marksman-
ship and knowing his own was but in
different, allowed Dickinson to shoot
first. The bullet ploughed through his
chest an inch from his heart, but Jack
son didn't move. Instead, he aimed
slowly and carefully and shot Dickin-
son through the intestines. Dickinson
died that night, leaving his widow with
an unborn child.
No. No man dared do it openly. In
stead, they did as Adams and Clay had
done in the late campaign. They
spread the rumor so that it could not
be traced back to them. It was more
effective. It had killed Rachel.
The slow, murderous anger which had
been smoldering in him burst into
4Ad4AAC oA1O LAG VllACW LID D1d11hCV do40C
and walked over and put his hand
upon Rachel's cold n
"They have murdered you, Rachel,
dearest one, with their slanderous
tongues" he said, his voice trembling.
"And, by the eternal God, I will pay
them in kind! o, Lord" he prayed
with an Old Testament Christians
touching belief that God would be glad
to help out a man in a bloody feud,
deliver mine enemies into my hand"
That night, as he left the chamber
for the first time since Rachel's death,
he was handed a letter from Washing
ton and United States Senator John
Henry Eaton. Eaton was his campaign
manager, his first ~biographer, his
warmest friend and the brother-in-law
Of William B. Lewis, the man who had
made him president.
Dear General" Eaton had written,
II have taken your advice and asked
Major O,Neale for Pegs hand. We
will be married the first week In Janu-
airy. I am SUR that, as you have FORE
seen, the marriage will still the gossip
ing tongues that had wagged about Peg
and me, endangering Pegs reputation"
General jackson smiled bitterly. It
would, if the president of the United
States had any power. Peggy ONeale
Undertake, the beautiful back-haired,
blue-eyed, shapely and vivacious daugh-
ter of William O'Neale, once a major
in General Washington's army, and
now the keeper of a Washington board
ing house frequented by congressman,
was another Rachel. Like Rachel, she
was but 16 when she married John
Bowie Timberlake, a purser in the
U. S. navy in 1916. Like Rachel, her
first marriage had been unhappy, al
though she had borne a son, who had
died, and two daughters to Timberlake.
Undertake, a drunkard, had so gar
bled his accounts as purser of the u. s.
S. Shark that he could get no other
commission, but had finally secured one
aboard the U. S.. S. Constitution through
Eaton's influence. He had sailed aboard
her in 1924 after c%OnSigninP Peg and