Too Much Married - 1890

Too Much Married

Chenango Union, September 4, 1890

 

The Walton [Delaware Co., NY] correspondent of the Utica Herald writes, August 28:

 

The recent marriage of Lucius Huntington a well-to-do young farmer living near here, to Miss Sarah Wood, of Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY], has been speedily followed by the arrest of the bridegroom on a charge of bigamy, and by a civil action brought against him for divorce.  These proceedings were instituted in behalf of Miss Emma Christian, otherwise Mrs. Emma Huntington, who says that she is the young farmer's lawful wife.  About ten years ago, when Huntington was barely seventeen, he took Miss Christian out for a ride.  The young woman was eight years his senior.  It is alleged by the young farmer's friends that during the ride in question the pair stopped at a hotel in Hancock, and that, after her juvenile escort had become muddled by wine, she coaxed him into sending for a minister and marrying her then and there.  The newly wedded pair returned to the bride's home.  Next morning the groom deserted the bride, and has never since recognized her as his wife.  Miss Christian's friends tell another story.  They insist that the hasty marriage was reluctantly consented to by her in deference to Huntington's earnest pleadings, and that the pair would have got along happily together if it had not been for the influence over their son exerted by Huntington's parents, who opposed his marrying a girl without money.  It is said, also, that the deserted wife would  have continued to submit patiently to neglect by her husband if he had not married another.  Now she appeals to the courts to vindicate her rights as a lawful wedded wife.  The bigamy case will come before the grand jury at the September session, and the divorce case is on the calendar of the circuit court.