Alameda County CA Archives Divorce.....Ashton, Mary S. (Coney) - Ashton, Frank E. 1903 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Steve Harrison raleighwood@juno.com February 25, 2010, 4:26 pm San Francisco Call, April 11, 1903 San Francisco Call, April 11, 1903 (Saturday), Page 1, headline. “IN BURNING EPISTLES FILLED WITH PASSION, ADMIRAL MERRY DECLARES UNDYING AFFECTION FOR WIFE OF FRANK ASHTON Amorous Letters to Figure in Divorce Suit Begun in Boston. Out of a maze of legal entanglements and processes arising from marital infelicities on both sides of the continent there have sprung into startling publicity revelations which involve the name of one of the highest officials of the navy. Letters breathing love from every line which were written by Admiral John F. Merry to Mrs. Mary Ashton while she was yet the wife of Frank Ashton, a real estate agent of this city, show that officer in the light of a Lothario which is scarcely compatible with his rank and age. Behind the exposure of the ardor of the aged admiral which was allowed to be made public yesterday by the former husband of the charmer who was its object there lies a tangled skein of circumstances which hinge upon these self-same letters. A bitter fight over the custody of their child, Atyla Leonie, now being waged between Frank Ashton and his divorced wife in the Oakland courts and divorce proceedings now pending between Admiral Merry and his wife in a Boston tribunal are the accessory factors in the disclosures just made public. The ardent letters, which are now in the hands of B. Woolner and E. M. Gibson, the attorneys for Frank Ashton, tell of clandestine bliss enjoyed by the aged admiral and his inamorata under the palms of the Hawaiian Islands, on the beach at Santa Cruz, at Del Monte and in San Francisco restaurants. They are redolent of kisses and burn with words of love poured from the withered heart of the lovelorn admiral. FIGHTS IN TWO COURTS. Unfortunately for the writer and the recipient of the burning epistles alike, they fell into the hands of Ashton while his wife was living away from him before the divorce proceedings were instituted. This was near the close of the year 1901. When Ashton and his wife were legally separated a few months ago a bitter fight for the custody of their 4-year-old daughter was immediately instituted in the Superior Court of Alameda County and there with many delays it has remained. Little Atyla was awarded to the care of her maternal grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Ashton. Seeking to recover her daughter, Mrs. Ashton petitioned the Oakland court to award the guardianship of the little one to Mrs. Mattie Holland of Berkeley, but Ashton threatened to publish the tell-tale letters if she persisted in pushing her claims in court. When the case came up before Judge Hall on Wednesday the little girl and her father had disappeared. Yesterday the letters were given out to the world. On the other side of the continent, a troubled pot is boiling with these same letters as the fuel to keep it hot. Applying to the courts of Massachusetts for a decree of separation while his wife was on a visit to South Carolina, Admiral Merry was granted a temporary decree which, according to the laws of that State, cannot be of effect until six months have passed. Now his wife has announced her intention of contesting the proceedings upon evidence received from Ashton of the existence of the incriminating epistles. The two aggrieved parties have joined forces and the bundle of passionate correspondence will be sent East to figure in the Massachusetts divorce court. Besides the words of love, Admiral Merry's letters throw light on the causes of the wedded infelicity which seemed to harass the homes of both the correspondents. He alludes to Mrs. Ashton's husband as a drunkard and a brute and condones with her for having to waste her life upon a man who he alleges is not worthy of her affection. In other letters he alludes to his own unhappy married life, claiming that all love is dead between himself and his wife. Extracts from some of the passionate epistles of the enamored admiral follow: HEART THROBS FOR HER. HONOLULU, Dec. 19. 1901. My Dear One: Yesterday I received your nice, loving letter by the Maru. I wish I had you in my arms. I feel as though it would do me good. It makes my heart throb and beat to think of it. Just think of the pretty pictures we used to make with your strong arms around me. I often think of it and wish for you again. I am glad you are so well, and that Clara is well. • • • Now don't get Jealous of that. Your ma is still away. Mrs. H. has not been very well of late. She has a half Chinese girl asleep in the house. • • there I go again, but really, I am very virtuous and am very happy. • • • Mrs. Bowman has been away a long time; left while I was at Samoa, and Mrs. Collier is away. They were my most intimate friends. I liked them but • • Both of them are lovely women. But you; you set me wild the first time I saw you. We met pretty quick; not much sparring there, was there? I shall be glad when I am away from here. • I had a card party here last eve, all ( — ) people. Mrs. Casey and her daughter are here. Mr. and Mrs. When, Mr. and Mrs. Rodman, the Ponds and Dr. and Mrs. Taylor. Please remember me to Athalie. I— I could love that little girl very much. She appealed to me in a way that makes me think of her very often. It may be that I pity her for not having a kind, loving father, the same as I would be were she mine. Well, my dear, it is getting dark. I must make ready for my dinner. My love is for you, lots and lots of it. Remember me to Clara. Your J. A. X. In another epistle the Admiral wonders that his queen can lavish her charms on an old fellow. He says: HONOLULU, Hawaii, December 27, 1901.— My Dear One: By yesterday's mail I received your nice, loving little note. I am aware that perhaps I have not written to you quite as often as you have to me, yet I think I have done pretty well for an old fellow. I have been very busy and shall be all next week and after on these law cases. We got rather the best of the Bishop estate, as we have only to pay $52,737.50 for what they claim $372,200 for. I note all you say about Frank and a divorce. I don't know what good such a man can be to you, and what is the use to waste your life on such a brute. The quicker you get rid of him the better for you. I also note what you say about being good. I don't see how you do it with • • • I wish I were with you to-night, my dear. I am wild with thinking. I am in better health than I was or have been two years ago and am looking forward to see you. I know • • • We can have a dinner at D - , where we found everything so nice. Your ma is still away. Mrs. Bowman is at S. F. and the doctor is at Hilo — will put up a shingle out there. Cotton went up to the coast on the last steamer. I hope she will come down. Mrs. C. Inman. I like her. She is very nice. I go about but very little. I am very quiet. I took Mrs. H. down to Mr. Enos' Christmas day. They gave a dinner to the Whites, the Ponds and myself and others. The Ponds will soon be returning home and so will I. I may stop several days at San Francisco. If I go early I may go down to Mexico. I wonder how the Mexican women are? I don't believe any of them can compare with you • • • How is little Athalie? I enclosed her a little calendar and was sorry afterward that I did not go out and buy her a good one. I did it on the spur of the moment, just before I closed my mail. I think her a lovely girl. Well, my dear one, the Peking is in and I will go to my bed, wishing that I could share a sweet, loving kiss with you. J. A. X. SAYS LOVE IS COLD. In a very frank, letter the aged lover condoles with Mrs. Ashton upon the back- slidings of her husband and throws a side light upon his own married life. The letter reads: HONOLULU, Jan. 19, 1902. I note what you say about your better half. It seems as though he is past redemption. If he cannot abstain from his habit a short time after making a promise to do so and when he has so much at stake, I think it will be a good riddance to you as you cannot take much comfort or have much pleasure with him, even if he did not get drunk. I know this, the love that I used to feel for a certain woman has fled and I doubt if it could ever be revived, should she comport herself ever so well. I believe it is difficult to rekindle love, when once it has died out. She sent me her picture the other day. It looks well for a woman of her age. She gets up to look young. She has a street costume on, trimmed with fur. It is of cloth, I should say, and has a fur muff in her hand, bearskin I should say. I must see Clara and see if she has any new stories to tell me. She looks well. I think I like her. I like all of your family and feel an interest in all. You, of course, more than any one [sic] else. When seen at her home at 1721 Grove street in Berkeley last night Mrs. Ashton declared hysterically that the letters which Ashton had published were not the ones sent her by Admiral Merry. She said: "I admit that I received letters from the admiral, but there were none of them which I would not have shown to my parents or children. These things which Ashton has published are false and I can prove them so. “Since he has done this I am determined now to institute proceedings in court on my own account for the custody of my little girl. I will not be cowed by that man any longer.” END [Portraits illustrating Mrs. Mary Ashton and Rear Admiral John F. Merry.] AND San Francisco Call, May 19, 1903 (Tuesday), Page 9, Column 7. “MERRY LETTERS USED AS CLUB Mrs. Ashton Says She Feared a Threatened Scandal. Judge Greene Awards Mother Custody of Child Held by Father. Oakland Office San Francisco Call, 1118 Broadway, May 18. After months of fighting Mrs. Frank Ashton was to-day awarded the custody of the child, Leonie Ashton, over which she and her husband, Frank Ashton, have been fighting in the courts. That is, she can have the child if she can find it. The father and the child disappeared on April 25 last, and since then nothing has been seen or heard of them in the county. Mrs. Ashton, however, believes lack of funds will force her husband to return here to seek financial aid and in the meantime she will watch and wait. The closing chapter in this now famous case took place before Judge Greene this morning. The connection of the name of Rear Admiral Merry with that of Mrs. Ashton, when the fight for the possession of the child was well under way, brought the story out prominently before the entire country. The admiral was well known wherever his duties as an officer in the United States navy happened to take him and this tidbit of scandal was pleasant to the gossips. In order to stave off his wife's legal proceedings, Ashton threatened that if she did not desist he would introduce certain letters in his possession in evidence before the court to show that she was not a proper person to have the custody of their child. He alleged that the letters in question were written by Rear Admiral Merry to Mrs. Ashton and that he had intercepted them. To this much of the story Mrs. Ashton gave corroborative testimony to-day. As her excuse for having given up the child to Ashton, Mrs. Ashton said that she had done so under fear of the notoriety the publication of the letters her husband claimed to have would bring upon her and her family. Mrs. Ashton, when she gave up the child, did it only for the purpose of changing her ground so that she could make the letters immaterial as evidence, and took up the fight again through another person. True to his threat, Ashton then made the letters he alleged were written by Merry public, and taking advantage of having the child in his possession, disappeared with it.” END Additional Comments: Note that there are two lengthy articles here. Frank and Mary first married in 1893, probably in California. Following their divorce 1903, they remarried on November 18, 1905, in Redwood City, San Mateo County, California. Frank had a tragic death shortly thereafter on February 17, 1906. 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