George Scoville's Sacrifice

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXI, Issue 8835, 15 July 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

George Scoville's Sacrifice

George Scoville, the man who defended Charles J. Guitean against the charge of murder when Guiteau was tried for the assassination of Garfield in the summer of 1881, has returned to life in the world, after living as a hermit for nearly a quarter of a century. Guiteau was the brother-in-law of Scoville, the favorite brother of his wife. When Garfield was assassinated, Mrs Scoville insisted that her husband should use his legal talents to defend Guiteau. Mr Scoville refused, on the ground that the accused man had no chance and that if he took any part in the case it would mean the inevitable loss of his legal business. Mrs ■ Scoville insisted, and her husband finally yielded to her insistence: he went into the trial alone and did his best to clear the assassin, but lost the case. Subsequent events bore out Mr Scoville's judgment; immediately after the execution of Guiteau, his friends, turned from him, clients ceased to come to him, and finally his own wife left him. She began divorce proceedings and alleged cruelty, citing her husband's failure to secure her brother's acquittal as a specific instance of ill-treatment. Mr Scoville did not contest the suit, and the divorce was granted. After forty years' successful law practice, he lost everything he had in the world, including the wife who held her brother first in her esteem. At the time of his loss, Mr Scoville was 60 years old. He was face to face with the necessity of beginning life all over again, for he knew that he could never practise the profession of law, go where he would. Broken in health and fortune, he determined to settle in Indiana, on the shore of Bass Lake. Starke county. In the meantime, he had engaged the affections of Miss Anthony, of Cleveland, whom he married shortly after the divorce was granted to his first wife. Mr and Mts Scovile were accompanied in their voluntary retirement froii the world by Phillip Anthony, brother of Mrs Scoville. The three recluses possessed about 6000 dollars, and this was used in the purchase of land on the lake and in the erection of a roomy frame house. Their home was called Lake Side FaTm, and heTe they were occasionally visited by such of their friends as remained loyal to them in spite of the opinion of the world. The visits of these friends had one bad effect, in that they served to 6pread the reputation of. Bass Lake as a pleasant place in which to spend the summer months. Those who came to see the Scoville6 were enthusiastic over the country and strangers began to drift in. Eventually the peaceful life of the Tecluses was disturbed by these summer visitors and Mr Scoville moved further away from the resorteTS. Still people continued to crowd him. Plots of ground were sold and summer residences were put up on them, until the entire lake shore was lined with little villas. As time wore I on, Mr Scoville's memories of his disappointments in 1881 and 1832 began to grow less vivid and ceased to torture him, and now, well pa6t the four-score mark, he is content to have his friends and neighbors visit him and his wife. His i children by his first wife come every year ' to pay him a visit of several days. They I remained loyal to their father, and are affectionately disposed toward the present Mrs Scoville. Now, in the evening of his life, Mr Scoville has entered upon more pleasant ways. He has lived down the bitter hatred that he roused twenty-five years ago by yielding to the desires of his first wife and taking up the defence of Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield. |