October
20, 1911 – After 13 years of separation, Mrs. Ida Stow of
Voltaire, N. D., today said she has found her husband in Hibbing, Minn. The
woman is positive the man is her husband, although according to eye witnesses
of the meeting, the man neither denied nor affirmed the relationship, acting
rather like a statue while Mrs. Stow accused him of being her missing husband
and the father of her four children.
Her oldest son is now 32-years-old and living in Voltaire. He was 18-years-old when
his father left to go visit relatives in Superior, Wis., and never came back.
Mrs. Stow said she is positive her son can also identify the man as his father.
The man accused of being Silas R. Stow, once a N. D. farmer, is now employed at
the office of the Oliver Mining Company and is known as R. S. Wots.
“Spell R. S. Wots backwards and it gives you S. R. Stow,” Mrs. Stow pointed
out.
Wots is regarded by the mining company as a first class
employee.
Mrs. Stow arrived in Hibbing a few days ago accompanied by a man who had helped
her locate the supposed Stow. She went to the office of the mining company and
asked to see Wots. When he saw his visitor, according to Mrs. Stow, he turned
pale and had nothing to say.
“Won’t you shake hands with me, husband?” Mrs. Stow asked Wots. He gave her a
limp hand, saying, according to her, “I don’t know you.”
She says, however, that she recognized him at once. After a few more questions
the woman left the office. She said today that she did not intend to bring
action against Wots, as she “was through with him forever.”
“I only want my oldest son to see him, and then I don’t intend to ever let him
see my face again,” she declared.
Mrs. Stow, after meeting with the man she says is her husband, told of the
trials and tribulations she has suffered since his departure. Left with four
children on a rented farm near Absaraka, N. D., she supported herself and
family for four years by taking in sewing, as she was almost immediately forced
to leave the farm.
During the 13 years her
husband had abandoned his family, Mrs. Stow says she kept her four children,
three boys and a girl, in school. She now owns three houses in Voltaire,
renting each.
The Minneapolis Morning Tribune;
“Asserts She Found Her Husband After 13 Years. Voltaire, N. D. Woman Meets Man
Whose Name Reversed Is That of Spouse. Alleged Mate in Hibbing Greets Her Coolly—Says
He Does Not Know Her.”; October 21, 1911; p. 1.
Photo taken by Pamela J. Erickson. Released
into the public domain Feb. 7, 2015,
as long as acknowledgement included.
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