by Tim Hartneck
Big Game Hunter Weds Rich Widow
San Francisco Call Nov 20, 1910
EXPLORER OF CONGO AND AMERICAN WIDOW MARRY
LONDON, Nov. 19 — Mrs. Sumner Clarke of Peoria, Ill. And Colonel J.J. Harrison, the explorer and discoverer of pygmies in Congo, were married at St. George’s in Hanover Square today. The bride was given away by William N. MacMlllan.
The above notice appeared in newspapers all across America. The Chicago Tribune and the Wichita Daily Eagle even devoted an entire page to the event.
Last month I wrote about Sumner Clarke being widowed when his died in 1877. In 1888, he married Mary Stetson, a native of Farmington, Ill., but then living in Iowa. At the time of the marriage, Clarke was 41 and Mary was two weeks shy of her 22nd birthday. During her marriage to Clarke, she was one of the leaders in the city’s social affairs. Mary enjoyed traveling and as time went by, she spent considerable time in France and England, where she made many friends.
According to newspaper accounts, when Sumner Clarke died in 1907 he left Mary $1,000,000. That is about $25,000,000 in today’s dollars. Mary spent even more time traveling, touring Europe, India and Africa. In 1909, while wintering at the ranch of her friends, the MacMillian’s, in Africa, she met Col. J. J. Harrison of Brandesburton Hall, York, a retired English army officer, explorer and big game hunter. Harrison was also a guest at the ranch. A relationship developed and they were engaged in September of 1910 and married on November 19, 1910.
Mary left Peoria and started a new life in the English countryside. Following Co. Harrison’s death in the 1920’s, Mary returned to the United States in 1930, settling in Pasadena, California, where she died in 1932.
Was this a story of true love and romance, or of another American fortune subsidizing a depleted English bank account? Who knows…