The Serial Lives of a Christian Scientist
A lawyer exposes the matrimonial trail of a man who left a string of abandoned wives across the American West.
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.
The matrimonial history of A. Boulay Worthington, the Christian Scientist, was told in New York recently. A lawyer, John D. Townsend, revealed Worthington’s real name as Samuel O. Crawford. Townsend traced a career of deception: marrying Miss Moore in Philadelphia, then Miss Louise Groot in Albany, where he was arrested for fraud. After prison, he married Miss Gay Flanifield in Chicago, then May Barlow in Xenia, Ohio, posing as 'Major Eugene Bonner.' He eventually made his way to Salt Lake City and Washington Territory, becoming engaged to a girl in the latter before moving to Dakota to marry another, only to abandon her and their child. Worthington never visited a city without becoming engaged and never deserted a place without leaving one or more wives behind.
“Worthington never visited a city without becoming engaged and never deserted a place without leaving one or more wives behind.”
The 'con man' narrative was a staple of 19th-century reporting, often highlighting the vulnerability of women under laws that offered them little protection after being defrauded of their reputations and savings. It serves as a reminder of the lack of centralized identity tracking in the frontier era.
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