Weekly Shasta Courier Sat., April 22, 1893 REV. E. DELOS HOWELL A BIGAMIST The people of Adin as well as Surprise Valley will remember Rev. E. Delos Howells, and will be interested in the following from the Hood River (Or.) Glazier of March 4th. The Rev. Howells is also known in Shasta county, and the editor of the McCloud River Pioneer remembers him to the value of an overcoat loaned him at Bartle on the promise of being returned, but the garment, warm of the material of the sheeps clothing was never returned, so it is concluded in the light of recent developments, that it covered the back of a "wolf" and an object of mistaken accommodation. Says the report: "Hood River has a case calling for condemnation and pity. The former for a weak man, the latter for an injured woman. The Rev. Delos Howells is the man, his wife the woman. We knew of the matter five weeks ago, but refrained from giving it publicity, but since it has become common property we append a brief review of the matter, to put it in its proper light. The story Mr. Howells tells is this: He left a wife and family in Nebraska in 1886 and went to California. There he heard that his wife had secured a divorce from him. Believing this story, he proposed to a lady who has passed for his wife here, and was married to her in Cottonwood, Cal., in 1887. Last fall while in Ferndale, Washington, he met an old friend from Nebraska, and through his family writing to Mr. Howells' folks in Nebraska, he learned that his information concerning his wife having been divorced from him is false, and that in fact no divorce had been procured. In January of this year he first stated the subject to the woman he had so deeply wronged. To her it was as if a thunder-bolt had fallen, but she bravely did what duty required of her, separating from the man she had called husband. As we have said this is his story and his alone, and whether true or not, it is really so, in one particular that Mr. Howells had a wife living whose rights were prior to those of the brave little woman here who was so honestly and earnestly assisting him in building up a home. To her he had always represented that his first wife was dead, and the statement that she was not only alive, but still the legal wife of Mr. Howells, was the first indication Mrs. Howells had that the oft repeated death-bed scene invented by him was false. It is a blow to her from which she will never recover, and yet no shadow of blame can attach to her in the matter. Mrs. Howells has both the sympathy and respect of all who know her. Mr. Howells will probably not be seen here again, and his sphere of usefulness in the pulpit, has suddenly become very much circumscribed. Since the woman he has so deeply wronged can find words of palliation for his conduct, we refrain from expressing an opinion, that would certainly not be flattering to the subject of this article." Source: NORCAL-L@rootsweb.com Copied and submitted by Earline Wasser Historic The Dalles Days October 3-5, 2003 Contact: 541-296-2231 tdacc@gorge.net Member of Columbia Gorge Genealogical Society c/o The Dalles/Wasco County Public Library 722 Court Street The Dalles, Oregon 97058 http://community.oregonlive.com/cc/genealogy Browse http://historysavers.com/orwasco/ recently updated information regarding Wasco County - Links are at the bottom of page http://searches.rootsweb.com/ "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant." Robert Louis Stevenson _________________________________________________________________ Get McAfee virus scanning and cleaning of incoming attachments. Get Hotmail Extra Storage! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es