Dispatch, July 16, 1889

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Moral -- Other violent crimeAfrican-Americans -- ReligionProfessionals -- TeachersWeather -- Heat wave

Onancock, Va., July 12, 1889.

Arthur Coard, a middle-aged white man, living near Accomack Courthouse, has just had a remarkable experience in the matrimonial line. Arthur went to Baltimore about two weeks ago and returned home last Tuesday, bringing with him (to the surprise of all his kindred and friends) a bride and a mother-in-law. They landed here and proceeded to Arthur's home, where, according to his own account, he had told his bride and mother-in-law he owned a farm worth $65,000. Soon after arriving at home Arthur was invited by his mother-in-law to show her his big farm, but as he failed to do so the old lady took her daughter and left on the next boat for Baltimore. Coard will not tell where or when he first met the woman to whom he was married, but he gives a most remarkable account of the manner in which he was kept in custody for eight days prior to his marriage. He says his mother-in-law introduced him to a man pretending to be a Baltimore lawyer, who informed him that according to the laws of that city a man had to be confined for eight days in the same house with his betrothed before he could marry her. He submitted to the law, and was, according to his own statement, a prisoner of war for the above-named time, never going out of the house except in company with his prospective mother-in-law. It was during his confinement that he regaled the mother and her daughter with stories of his fabulous wealth in lands and oyster-beds on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Coard accompanied his wife and mother-in-law here on their return to Baltimore and did not seem to be at all disturbed because of their departure. He says he has gotten on in life this far as a bachelor, and he thinks he can finish the rest of the journey very well as a grass-widower.

Colored society here is excited and scandalized over a disgraceful knock-down-and-drag-out fight that occurred in the suburbs of this town last night between George Jackson and Margaret Gunter, two of the leaders in society and church matters among the colored people here. Jackson knocked the woman down and beat her about the face and neck with his fist in regular Sullivan style. Jackson is the organist in the colored Methodist church here, and the fight originated about his going into the colored Baptist church and playing on the new organ without permission. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Jackson, and the case will be tried before a justice of the peace here at an early day.

Professor E. Sumpter Smith, now of Bethel Academy, but formerly instructor in the Onancock Academy, is visiting in this town, where his friends are legion.

A large party of ladies and gentlemen from Onancock went over to Cedar Island this morning to spend the day on the beach.

The weather has been frightfully hot here for several days past.

Dispatch
Richmond, Va.
July 16, 1889