Muscogee County GaArchives News.....W.N. PHELPS RETURNS AFTER FORTY-SIX YEAR ABSENCE March 1907 ************************************************ 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: Candace Gravelle http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00023.html#0005680 September 17, 2005, 2:49 pm The Roanoke Leader Newspaper, Roanoke, Randolph County, Alabama March 1907 From "The Roanoke Leader", Roanoke, Randolph County, Alabama NEWSPAPER Issue of Wednesday, March 13, 1907 FATHER REUNITED WITH DAUGHTER AFTER MANY LONG YEARS OF ABSENCE Columbus, Georgia March 5th Through the medium of a newspaper advertisement, W.N. Phelps, who for the past forty-one years has been a resident of Central America, has found his long lost daughter, who is now the wife of Capt. William D. Affleck, a prominent hotel proprietor of Columbus. Mr. Phelps had been under the impression that his daughter, if living, was in Alabama, and during the last few months he has advertised in the leading newspapers of the state. Forty-six years ago he kissed his little six year old daughter goodbye and marched forth to defend the Southland from the northern invaders. When next he saw his daughter she was herself a grandmother. The strange story rivals fiction and father and daughter can scarcely realize that they are reunited. Mrs. Affleck was firmly convinced that her father was slain on the bloody field of Gettysburg over forty years ago and when he entered the Hotel Affleck and she was informed that it was indeed her father, she felt as if someone had risen from the dead. When Mr. Phelps went to the front in 1861 he left his wife and little daughter at their Georgia home. He was desperately wounded at Gettysburg being shot through the head and left on the field for dead. The news came, verified by the "official reports" that he was among the slain of the battle. His own mother died, years later, believing that he had perished there. His wife, laboring under the same belief, left Georgia and went to live with relatives in Alabama. But Phelps was not killed. He revived enough to be carried to a federal hospital and there recovered. He afterward escaped but could not make his way to the South and boarded a vessel for Central America. He there took part in the construction of the first railroad built in Costa Rica. At the close of the war he endeavored to locate his family in Georgia but could not, owing partly to the general demoralization and confusion following the war. Hearing a rumor that they had gone to Alabama he continued his investigation and advertised in the newspapers of that state without success. He decided to locate permantly in Central America and for thirty-seven years was an engineer on a goverment railroad in Costa Rica. Recently retired on full pay for life, and not long ago, he came back to the United States locating temporarily in Alabama not far from Birmingham. He decided to further advertise once more for his daughter and inserted notices in Alabama newspapers and also one in a Columbus newspaper and to her it was like a voice from the grave. The next train carried Capt. Affleck to the Alabama village where he was stopping and he told the old man that his daughter was living. The joy of the aged father, now 74 years old, was almost pathetic to see. He left for Columbus with his new found son-in-law and at the Hotel Affleck a touching reunion took place. Mr. Phelps is temporarily visiting his daughter but may return to Central America where he has property interests. ---- File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/newspapers/wnphelps843gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 3.9 Kb