31 October 2017

A Joseph Hayes Acklin Scandal In D. C.



Source

The story as told in the Daily Alta California, 0 November 1886...:




Washington, October 31, 1885.— Fashionable circles at Washington...have been thrown into some excitement consequent upon the testimony recently given...by General Thomas L. Rosser, of Confederate cavalry fame, in the case of Benjamin Golly, indicted for perjury, charged with having falsely testified in the divorce suit brought by Mr. [Eugene] Belt, a wealthy and aged citizen of Baltimore, against his wife, formerly a widow named Mrs. [Mary Alice] Godfrey, who is the sister of Mrs. Benjamin A. Willis, of New York City, the wife of ex-Congressman Willis... .

A condensed version of the incident that involved Acklen, Mrs. Godfrey and General Rosser:

Mr. Acklen paid marked attention to Mrs. Godfrey, and, although her suitors were legion, rumor gave him the preference. ....[they] were seen everywhere together, and all went merry as a marriage bell, until the public were thrown into spasms by a well-authenticated story that General Tom Rosser and Joe Acklen had engaged in a serious altercation, late at night, at Welcker's, in which a lady was involved... .

[General Rosser] pre-supposiug that a lady was in distress, burst in the door and found Mr. Acklen and Mrs. Godfrey together in something of a disordered condition. Seizing Acklen by the collar, General Rosser ejected him... .

Everybody, however, expected nothing less than a duel, but no duel supervened, and the affair culminated by the disclosure that Mr. Acklen had subsequently offered marriage to Mrs. Godfrey, but which proffer Mrs. Godfrey indignantly declined.

These and other events culminated to drive Acklen out of the political arena, and he disappeared finally from Washington.

Some year or two since it supervened that a Mr. Belt, a well-known resident of Baltimore, had repudiated his wife and instituted proceedings of divorce against her. All Baltimore became agitated over this affair, and little wonder is it that Washington caught the infection when it was developed that Mrs. Godfrey, now Mrs. Belt, was the party.

Fortunately for the ends of Justice and her own reputation, she was enabled to prove the utter falsity of this testimony, and the trial resulted in not only a victory for the lady in the divorce proceedings, but culminated in the prosecution of the perjurers... .

Joseph Hayes Acklin was the son of Joseph A. S. Acklin and Adelicia (Hayes) Acklin and was a cousin.

Joseph A.S. Acklin, Adelicia's 2nd husband, was my first cousin 5 times removed.  His father, Samuel Black Acklin, and my 4th great-grandmother, Elizabeth (Acklin) Hinds, were siblings.




No comments: