On the 7th of September, 1883, a demand was made upon Mr. Sharon for
money for Miss Hill. He drove her emissary, Neilson, out of the hotel
where he had called upon him, and the latter appeared the next day in
the police court of San Francisco and made an affidavit charging
Mr. Sharon with the crime of adultery. A warrant was issued for the
latter's arrest, and he was held to bail in the sum of $5,000.
This charge was made for the avowed purpose of establishing the
manufactured contract of marriage already referred to, which bore date
three years before. A copy of this alleged contract was furnished to
the newspapers together with a letter having Sharon's name appended to
it, addressed at the top to "My Dear Wife," and at the bottom to "Miss
Hill." This pretended contract and letter Mr. Sharon denounced as
forgeries.
On the 3d of October, 1883, Mr. Sharon commenced suit in the United
States Circuit Court at San Francisco against Sarah Althea Hill,
setting forth in his complaint that he was a citizen of the State of
Nevada, and she a citizen of California;
"that he was, and had been for years, an unmarried man; that
formerly he was the husband of Maria Ann Sharon, who died in
May, 1875, and that he had never been the husband of any other
person; that there were two children living, the issue of that
marriage, and also grandchildren, the children of a deceased
daughter of the marriage; that he was possessed of a large
fortune in real and personal property; was extensively engaged
in business enterprises and ventures, and had a wide business
and social connection; that, as he was informed, the defendant
was an unmarried woman of about thirty years of age, for some
time a resident of San Francisco; that within two months then
past she had repeatedly and publicly claimed and represented
that she was his lawful wife; that she falsely and fraudulently
pretended that she was duly married to him on the twenty-fifth
day of August, 1880, at the city and county of San Francisco;
that on that day they had jointly made a declaration of
marriage showing the names, ages, and residences of the
parties, jointly doing the acts required by the Civil Code of
California to constitute a marriage between them, and that
thereby they became and were husband and wife according to the
law of that State.
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