Butts-Troup County GaArchives News.....A WAR ROMANCE October 25 1894 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 June 26, 2004, 10:38 am Middle Ga. Argus – Week of October 25, 1894 Nelson Holden of Troup county, Georgia, joined the first regiment from the state when the war broke out. He left behind a young and very beautiful wife, having been married only a few months. Holden was a good soldier, and only once during the war did he obtain a furlough and visit his wife. He was at home a short time during the summer of 1863 and soon after he returned was taken prisoner. Before Holden had an opportunity of writing to his wife after his capture, he was taken ill with a slow malarial fever. When captured , Holden had become separated from his company, and his comrades thought he had been killed in battle. Mrs. Holden’s first notice of the supposed death of her husband was contained in some resolutions passed by his company, a copy of which was forwarded to the family. Without making any investigation Mrs. Holden mourned her husband as dead, while he was lingering between life and death in a northern prison. It was many months before he fully recovered from the effects of the terrible fever. Holden was not released until after the close of the war, and weak from his long illness and penniless, he started to make his way to the little home in Georgia. He was compelled to seek employment several times to earn money to continue his journey, and it was late in the Autumn of 1865 when Holden came in sight of his little home. He was a wreck of his former self, and fully realized that it would be difficult for his own wife to recognize him. Arriving at his home he had left more than two years before, Holden found it occupied by strangers. Without disclosing his identity he asked where Mrs. Holden was. O, she married Chris Jones and moved away last spring, was answer received. Holden was prostrated by the shock of this startling intelligence, but, without giving his name, he turned and walked slowly from the little home where the happiest hours of his life had been passed. He made no effort to find his wife but continued his journey to Clay County, Alabama. Holden worked a while as a farm laborer and finally saved enough money to purchase a small farm of his own. In time old love was forgotten and he married again. Holden prospered, and after a few years owned one of the best farms in the county. Several children were born, and it was not long until his first marriage seemed like a dream. Four years ago, Mrs. Holden No. 2 died, leaving five children. About a year after the death of his wife Mr. Holden sold a portion of his farm to a man named Jones from Georgia. Mr. Jones built a house and moved his family to Alabama. Soon the two farmers became good friends, but Mr. Holden had never been to the house of his neighbor, and had never seen his wife. Less than a year ago Mr. Jones died. His neighbor, Mr. Holden, of course, attended the funeral, and caused no little excitement by going off in a dead faint when introduced to the weeping widow of the dead man. This was not the time and place for explanations, and the next day after the funeral, Mr. Holden called on his former wife, and this time the recognition was mutual. Mrs. Jones period of mourning will expire in a few days, and then she will be quietly married again to the husband of her youth. She is still a beautiful woman, and has three children living and Mr. Holden has five. Only a few of their most intimate friends know the secret of their former marriage, File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/butts/newspapers/gnw160awarroma.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb