by Laurel | July 15th, 2009
July 15, 1909, page 6
Widow is Duped — Finds Intended Husband is Half-Witted Man.
Answers Advertisement in Matrimonial Paper, Thinks Medford Man will Do, Comes From Holyoke, Mass., Is Jolted.
Medford, Ore., — “Wanted — A wife by a man holding a responsible position in a Western city. A widow with money will be preferred. Am well fixed financially and am known by everyone where I live. Correspondence solicited and photos exchanged. Address E. R., Medford, Or.”
After correspondence in answer to this advertisement in a matrimonial paper, Mrs. Addie Stowell, a widow about 40 years old, decided to take her chances, and, leaving her comfortable home in Holyoke, Mass., she arrived here last night.
After waiting about 20 minutes, Ed Root introduced himself as the man she was waiting for. The lady sized him up and then appeared to be on the verge of fainting. She talked with him for a few minutes and, hurrying away, looked up Chief of Police Shearer, to whom she related her story. Yesterday afternoon she took the train back to her home, a sadder and possibly a wiser woman.
“I saw the advertisement in a matrimonial paper,” said Mrs. Stowell, as she tried to keep back the tears, “and I wrote to the address more in a spirit of fun than anything else. I have been a widow for six years, and thought if the man who had the ad was a nice one, I would like to have company, for I am all alone. After corresponding for about six months, Mr. Root wrote me if I would come here he would me me at Ashland. We were then to go to Seattle and, after getting married, see the fair, and return to live in Medford. I had the photograph he sent me in return for the one I sent him. I looked all around the depot at Ashland, but failed to see any one who looked like the picture. I then came on to Medford to look him up. After I had waited about 20 minutes at the depot, a man I had seen at Ashland approached me and introduced himself.”
“What did you think then?” she was asked.
“For mercy’s sake, don’t ask me,” was her reply.
Root, dressed in his best suit of clothes was at the depot when her train pulled out, but the lady apparently failed to look out of the window. Mrs. Stowell also stated that she had got everything ready for the wedding and had two trunks full of things with her.
Root is a poor, half-witted fellow, who hands around own and does odd jobs. He is said to have a college education, but was carried up some distance by a tornado and had not been right mentally since.
Excerpted from The Oregonian.
[Note. — Addie L. Stowell , age 42, appears to be back living in Holyoke in 1910 and is listed on the Federal Census as living at 25 Main Street as a roomer with David and Mary Barney. Addie is not readily found in other Census returns, so I cannot establish her with a husband either before or after her adventure in Oregon without checking paper records. Let us know if you learn anything.]
