DWELT THREE YEARS WITH A COFFIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

DWELT THREE YEARS WITH A COFFIN.

REMARKABLE IDEA OF A REMARKABLE GEORGIA WOMAN.

There has just died in Milledgeville, Ga., the third and last husband of a woman whose life was a continuous

performance of romance, money making and idiosyncrasy. Joseph E. Bivins was the third choice, whose death has brought out the strange story. One of the peculiarities of the woman who became his wife was her action in causing the body of her second husband to be embalmed and placed in a coffin in her room, where every day for three years she gazed through the glass at the dead face. The woman before the War of the Rebellion conducted a modest millinery establishment in Atlanta. She was one day visited by an eccentric millionaire of the place, John Pitts by name. ' I have suddenly decided that I must be married,' said Mr Pitts.. 'I am well off. I am in a position to make any woman a good husband. Will you be that woman ?'

The marriage was celebrated a few hours later. They lived happily until the outbreak of the war, when Mr Pitts entered the service of the Confederacy and never came back. After a number of years spent by Mrs Pitts in watching and mourning she gave her husband up for dead and assumed control of the vast property. Mrs Pitts met in Atlanta, in 1869, a Dr. J. B. Marvin, who, with his wife and son, had removed to the Southern capital from St. Louis. Dr. Marvin was attracted by Mrs Pitts and a strong friendship was the result. This friendship was abruptly terminated when the Doctor's family removed to Cincinnati.

Two years later Dr. Marvin again appeared in Atlanta. This time he was alone, explaining that he was a widower. The acquaintance with Mrs Pitts was. resumed, and the couple were seen so much together that the announcement of their marriage, which soon followed, came as a surprise to few persons. The Pitts possessions were ably handled by Dr. Marvin, who was a man of great business acumen. One of the Doctor's judicious investments was made at the little boom town of Cordele, to which he and his wife removed. Dr. Marvin soon became a power in the community and rose to be president of the First National Bank, and later Mayor of the town. He dealt shrewdly in real estate, and died in 1891, the richest man in that section. His young assistant, Joseph E. Bivins, became president of the bank. Mrs Marvin's grief at the death of her second husband took an unusual form. She had the most expert embalmer in the South prepare the body and place it in the handsomest .casket that money could buy, and for three years the widow lived alone in the mansion with the reminder of the Doctor ever before her.

It was not long after the assumption of the presidency of the bank by young Bivins, who was less than thirty years old, before there developed a decided friendship between him and the widow of his late chief. The disparity in tho ages of the two made the announcement of their engagement a sensation in the land. They were married, and when they started North on their wedding tour the coffin containing the remains of Dr. Marvin was taken along. At Macon, Ga., however, it was given over to an undertaker for burial.

Bivins, like Dr. Marvin, was an able manager. The property increased, and life was very pleasant until one day there came to the Bivins household a young man who claimed a portion of the estate. He said he was the son of Dr. Marvin, by his first wife; that his mother was dead, and that he was therefore heir to a part of his father's property. His claim was combated until his identity was thoroughly proved, and then he was given title to large holdings in Atlanta. In a few years Mrs Bivins died, and the young bank clerk came into possession of the enormous property. And now he is dead, and the last actor in a remarkable history has disappeared.