Sallie Stringers Strange Story, Wheeling Sunday Register (Article, 1894)
Full Text
SALLIE STRINGER'S STRANGE STORY.
She Says She and Her Quondam Wife, Mary Brinkman, Havea Been Persecuted.
Special Telegram to the Sunday Register.
PARKERSBURG, W. VA., April 7.--For some time it has been rumored about town that two young people living together on Eleventh street as Miss Sallie Stringer and Miss Mary Brinkman were not what they pretended to be. Instead of being a woman, it was said that Sallie Stringer was a man, and that there was a sensational story there.
The women came here several months ago and secured situations with prominent families, but later on went to house-keeping on Eleventh street. They were always seen together, were cultivated and intelligent and had the respect of their acquaintances.
Some time since a telephone message called a city officer to their residence, when he was told the following strange story, which, for some reason, the officers kept to themselves. When Officer Starkey called one of the women told him the following story: She said that they were
AFRAID THEY WOULD BE KILLED,
as they had been threatened by Rev. Bauer, a Catholic priest of this city. She said that Rev. Bauer had threatened to have them stoned if they did not leave the community, and then she told the following story: Miss Brinkman was a nurse some time ago in St. Augustine's Convent at Columbus, O., and while there Miss Sallie Stringer, who was a music teacher of Toronto, O., was a patient. An operation on the head of Miss Stringer was performed which she claimed deprived her of her mental faculties. Meanwhile she was told that she was a man and that she had been intimate with Miss Brinkman and must marry her. Under hallucination she claims she was put out of the convent or hospital in company with the other woman and that a license was gotten and they were married by a justice, near Toronto, Ohio. After this queer marriage the women say they were driven away by threats of violence and went to Steubenville, where an uncle of Miss Stringer found them and took them back to her home in Toronto.
THEY WERE AGAIN DRIVEN OFF
and went from place to place but were hounded away. From Wheeling, W. Va., they went to Grafton, W. Va., where they say they were threatened and sought protection of the officers, but did not receive it. From they they came here, to meet with the same fate.
The motive for the alleged persecution was only inferred, the women alleging that they would tell all if further persecuted. They were not living here as man and wife, but as women.
The officers informed the correspondent [tonight] that the women had scarcely told their story before Rev. Bauer came to the Chief and some of the officers and wanted the women driven out of town. When asked for his reason they say that he said that the one claiming to be Miss Stringer was not a woman, but was a man.
CHIEF HEATON SENT FOR A PHYSICIAN
who went to the home of the women and satisfied himself that they were what they claimed to be. Upon this information the Chief told the priest that he had been mistaken and must let them alone.
When Marshal Baker, of Toronto, arrived he wanted only Miss Stringer, but she claimed to be too sick to travel. When Miss Brinkman learned of his presence both women became hysterical and expressed great fear of further persecution, but finally both agreed to go back with the officer, which they did this afternoon, leaving their household goods and property.
Before leaving, the women, who have been urged to tell the whole story, said that if they were hounded any more, as they claim to have been, they would tell a story which
WOULD SHOCK THE COMMUNITY.
The Ohio officer, I am informed by the police, says that the women were actually hounded away from Toronto by two priests. He also endorses the story of their queer marriage, and says he has seen the certificate.
