leath, edward_brewer, maud
Source: Iva Lewis Obituary Scrapbook
Hillsboro comes to the front this week with a fair sized sensation, and if all reports are true, Mr. Edward Leath is rather a bad sort of a fellow. It appears that Ed and Miss Maud Brewer went to a basket meeting near Cates last fall and remained away for a few days. On returning, they said they had been married at Danville and immediately went to house keeping. Ed is rather a shiftless chap, and did not look after the larder as it should be done, and his wife’s father saw that that the wolf was kept from the door. A short time ago be brought them a load of wood part of which he had cut proper size for the stove and the remainder was limbs. All went well as long as the wood that was cut lasted, but Ed did not feel disposed to cut the limbs, even after they had been hauled to him. His wife took the mumps and was far from well and a few days ago, the house being so cold, she went out to the side of the same, and sat down in the sun, as she told passersby to keep warm. They knowing that she was sick, notified her sister, who went after Mrs. Leath and took her to her home, where she has been bedfast until Thursday, when she was able to be up. There was a suspicion as to whether they had been married or not and parties in Hillsboro wrote to County Clerk Dale at Danville, making inquiries, to which he replied that no license had ever been issued to Edward Leath and Maud Brewer. The woman refuses to talk about the matter, stating that she has nothing to say, further than she will never live with him again. Leath called at her sisters house and requested to see her, but she refused to talk with him. The girl is 18 years of age and he is 16. He was with Alty Wilt the night Alty took the lap robes and other articles from the Avenue hitch rack in this city and for which is now in jail. Leath says he knows nothing about the theft as he was carrying too large a jag to know what Alty did. The good people of Hillsboro are rather loud in their condemnation of the fellow. – jlr