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ROCHESTER, INDIANamvisiedae.£e-ighof-te-okie-}heng;heffi-keeniadtil;h-kehecor;htlinhehemintoheE.toirsatferiot:o-asonatwysnsof2dtosonn-oeatysbes-boiis;s-iiebe11-tomasidiestQ-k).dt-s-h-sewaDty-jhleBrisrssrI.leB.tstsIS’sA WIFE FOR A WIFE-EVENTRADED PRATTS AND JUMPED THE BROOMSTICK POR KEEPS.Revival of the Story of an Old Time Wife Trade by the Death, of One of them Recently at North Manchester.“The North Manchester papers record the death of an old lady, well known in the northern part of this county,” says the Peru Republican. “She was known thirty yei.rs ago as Mrs. Mary Ann Adams. Her husband, Henry Adams, died in 1861 and two years later she married John Ball, and has lived most of the time since then at North Manchester. Her age was over 77 years. There is a romance in the early life of this lady that is very strange. Her first husband was named Ernsperger, to whom she bore three children, two girls and a boy. Henry Adams and wife were neighbors, and they had three children, two boys and a girl. They lived at that time in Ohio. One day the two men agreed to trade Wives,which was done, the mothers tak-*iog the daughters and the fathers taking the sons. About 1847 Adams moved to this county and a few years later Ernsperger moved to Fulton county. The two families maintained friendly relations as long as they lived. After the death of Mrs. Ernsperger, who had been Mrs. Adams, Miss Ernsperger, then a young ladyrtdtfnctibhEnIiibfiItu5rr6 ei¥wElbiwTblPlt;hitfcizsvmn'beaalClAprhitaliving with her mother, went back ^ home and kept house for her father. While there she took the typhoid fever. Her mother, Mrs. Adams, who had been the first Mrs. Ernsperger, went to Ernsperger’s and nursed “ her daughter until she died. Mrs. Adams was the mother of four children by her second husband, HenryAdams.”As the Ernsperger family is widely known in Fulton county, a Sentinel man started out to hunt up the i'acts or fancies of the story. The eldest member of the family here is Grand- he mother Julia Ernsperger, a resident of pr this city and nearly eighty-two years th old. Although quite feeble her intel- th lect and cultured conversational tal- Rlt; ents are still intact and she talked w( frankly of the story. wiThe Ernsperger referred to in the fu wife trade never lived in Fulton as County. lie was Jacob Ernsperger 1 and lived in Pulaski County many A] years, afterward moving to Marshall 10 where he died at Burr Oak several A\ years ago. However the wife trade cei occurred in Ohio in the vicinity tin where Grandma Ernsperger lived and wi she remembered the details very well. ' The children were not divided as re- cri ported but were kept together. Mr. bu Ernsperger keeping his and Adams of providing for his.Previous to the announcement of the trade of wives it was a general report that all was not right in the two ffamilies. Jake and Mrs. Adams were ap old lovers and the llame never fully est died down. They seemed happiest, his always, ia each others company and of Adams and Mrs. Hrnsperger were ma much alike in their general character- pelt; istics and seemed much out of place wi] with their life partners. So the story rec went that a proposition to trade was sel made and readily accepted by all four of and, to seal the contract, the broom flee stick was taken down and, with legen- dei dary solemnity, jumped the new- tin ly united couples when they each went Mi: their way. But friendly family rela- wit tions were maintained until the death nes of all concerned.The parties to the transaction were all respectable people and, excepting this one sensational transgression of ^ the marital law, they always lived for: lives of admirable uprightness. It is E®1 probably the most remarkable case in age the history of civilized matrimony. Fui/ Ru;
Newspaper Details
Rochester Sentinel
Rochester, Indiana, US
Fri, Mar 30, 1894
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Jerry E.
USA 22 Nov 2018
Other Publications Near Rochester, Indiana
Rochester Mercury
Rochester Independent
Rochester Daily Republican
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Rochester Indiana
