Detroit,
Oct. 5. -- As a result of a petition file in the Probate Court
in Pontiac, Mich., Thursday, it was discovered that Mrs. Hannah
E. Brown, aged 70, has been married six times, has four living
husbands, and has not secured a divorce from any of them.
The
petition was filed by Francis Chaffee, the latest husband, who
married her just three weeks ago, and it asks that he be
appointed her guardian, and that she be declared incompetent.
Underlying
the petition is a desire on Chaffee's part to have set aside a
quit claim deed from his wife to her daughter, Mrs. Emily
Sherman, of a house and lot in Pontiac, that was given with the
understanding that the mother retain a life interest in it.
Mrs.
Sherman, the daughter, says she believes her mother is the most
married woman in the United States.
She was
first married when she was 15 years of age, and her daughter
says she kept up the habit until three weeks ago, when she
married her last husband.
According
to the daughter her mother has had the following husbands:
--
Josiah Brown, Norfolk County, Ontario;
Samuel Allen, Toronto, Ont.;
Robert Pick, Middleton Township, Ont.;
John Horning, Otterville, Norwich County, Ont.;
Adam Crysler, Pontiac, Mich., and
Francis Chaffee, Pontiac, Mich.
According
to the mother's story she was once the wife of a wealthy man.
The fact of many previous marriages caused the step-children to
break their father's will, and to put her out penniless.
"Anything
representing wealth seems to attract mother," says the
daughter, Mrs. Sherman, "and as each adventure disclosed
the men she married were poor, they were spurned until they
deserted her.
"Nothing
daunted, she immediately set her cap, and soon another father
for me was forthcoming.
"They
came so rapidly that I could hardly keep track of my new
names."
Mrs.
Chaffee does not deny that she married the six men her daughter
says, and she admits that she has never secured a divorce from
any of them.
