The Borrowed Buggy and the Secret Flight to Sumner
A woman hires a horse and buggy for a short ride, but instead takes a man and a child on a 30-mile journey to Sumner, where they are arrested as supposed horse thieves.
Sheriff Van de Vanter received information last evening from Sumner that the horse and buggy hired by a woman Friday afternoon from M. M. Teater's stable in this city for an hour and a half had been found, and that the supposed horse thieves were under arrest. The sheriff will go to Sumner today to investigate the matter, for at present it is in a rather mixed up condition. The woman got the team on the statement that she wanted to take a little girl out riding for a brief time, but according to developments she also took a man with her and kept on driving until Sumner was reached. The sheriff learned that some household goods had been shipped by the railroad to Sumner care of Geo. Sozer, and it looked as if it was a connecting link in the case. The constable at that place was notified to look the matter up, and his message last evening was the result. Sheriff Van de Vanter said that the names of the people under arrest were Charles Wilmont and Mrs. Ziegland. Who they are he does not know.
“The woman got the team on the statement that she wanted to take a little girl out riding for a brief time, but according to developments she also took a man with her and kept on driving until Sumner was reached.”
This curious incident from 1895 reads like a Victorian melodrama: a woman hires a rig under false pretenses, absconds with a man and a child, and ships household goods ahead. It reminds us that domestic dramas and desperate escapes have always been part of city life, and that the press has long been fascinated by the private lives of ordinary people.
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