The Lieutenant Who Left a Wife Behind
A Walla Walla officer’s engagement is shattered by a letter from Manila, revealing he may have married a Filipino woman while stationed there—and now she’s coming to claim him.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
OFFICER ABANDONS FAMILY.
Lieutenant Sidney Burbank Married a Native Woman at Manilla.
Has caused considerable comment in army circles.
It runs to the effect that Lieut. Sydney Burbank of the Sixth Infantry, now stationed at Fort Leavenworth, became engaged some months ago to Miss Mattie Stone, eldest daughter of State Senator James C. Stone, and their wedding day was fixed for some time within the next month.
Things went very well until a few weeks ago when a communication was received by the war department in Washington from a Filipino woman, saying that Burbank had married her at Manilla while serving in the islands; that she had borne him two children, but that since his transfer to the United States he had failed to contribute toward her support.
Lieut. Burbank denies strenuously that he ever married the girl, but meanwhile the marriage with Miss Stone has been postponed, pending an investigation. The lieutenant has been notified that forfeiture of his commission will follow if it should be found that he has deserted one wife in contemplation of taking another.
Additional interest is lent to the story by the statement that a Philippine girl with her two children has started for San Francisco, on her way to claim her husband at Fort Leavenworth.
This 1903 scandal highlights the complex and often tragic intersections of military life, colonialism, and interracial relationships during the Philippine-American War. While today we might frame this as a story about accountability and the rights of women across borders, the era’s press treated it with a mix of moral outrage and sensational curiosity, reflecting the rigid social hierarchies of the time.
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