THE SEYMOUR WILL CASE acter when he married her; says she solemnly pledged that she would reform, but that during her stay in New Orleans in 1854 and 1855 he learned through the press and his correspondence that her conduct there was so infamous that he did not sup pose she would ever want to live with him again; that he himself, at that time, in dulged in some of the excesses charged against him; that afterwards, upon her over tures, they were reconciled and reunited as mutually forgiven, and lived together until within a few days before the suit. The defense was perfunctory, as appeared, and the judgment not only gave the plain tiff the divorce for which she prayed, but also furnished her with a certificate of char acter to which she added the letters we have already quoted from, making up a record which she seems to have cherished and pre served for the remaining forty years of her life. She returned to New Orleans in May, 1857, and it seems she then, for the first time, made use for public purposes of the name Fanny Sweet, though then and there after, for the purposes of any legitimate busi ness, she called herself Fannie Minerva Sey mour, widow, or divorced wife, of Abraham Miller Hinckley. In 1860, and later on at various dates, up to November, 1895, sne executed in New Orleans notarial acts of purchase and sale, and wills, in which she so described herself. In the summer of 1857, she went to the Quaker Bottom settlement in Laurence County, Ohio. The claimants recognized her as their sister, Rachel Fanny Brown, at once. The neighbors, men and women, with whom as children she had associated in her early years, promptly recognized her. The claimant brother and sister then owned the old home. She visited with them until she quarreled with her sister's husband, when she took up her temporary abode with a neighbor. In August, 1857, she caused the remains of her mother to be removed from the churchyard to the old home place, the
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claimant brother and sister having sold and conveyed such burial plot to her by deed dated isth September, 1857, in which she was described as Rachel Fanny Minerva Hinckley. This deed was duly recorded in October following, thus placing that name upon permanent record. As the result of the quarrel with her brother-in-law, she brought a criminal action against him in a justice court, and a civil action in the Court of Common Pleas. The criminal action was for libel based upon a letter alleged to have been written by the defendant, but signed "Judge Lynch." This case was, after hearing, dismissed at her cost. The civil case was never brought to trial. She returned to New Orleans in 1856, where she remained most of the time until July, 186 1, known, as has already been stated, as Mrs. Fannie M. Hinckley and as Fanny Sweet. In that year she left New Orleans with one W. G. Stevens, said to have had a commission to buy gunpowder for the Confederate government. He had associated with him a highly respected citizen of New Orleans. She was dressed as a man, and introduced as his nephew, "Freddy Stevens," and a partner in their enterprise. They traveled by land to Houston, Tex., where, to this gentleman's disgust, her sex, until then unknown to him, was discovered. A quarrel ensued, and he left the party. Stevens was taken suddenly ill, and died at Brownsville, Tex. Fannie then returned to New Orleans, and was accused of having murdered Stevens, but was never prosecuted. She sued his succes sion on certain drafts which she brought back with her, and in May, 1865, recovered over $3,000. From 1862 until the time of her death, she remained at New Orleans, using the name of Fanny Sweet for the purposes of the demi monde, and otherwise using the name of Fannie Minerva Seymour, widow or di vorced wife of A. M. Hinckley. From 1852 to 1896, at various times, to
