Man discovers 16-year-old daughter is dating bigamist

When 25-year-old Harry Fritz arrived in Warwick in May 1895, he planned to move into his brother’s house in the village of Hill’s Grove. Seven months of living together proved unsuccessful as the men did not get along and in December Harry left home and rented a room from Joseph Levi Straight, who also lived in Hill’s Grove.

Rumors had been swirling about Harry ever since he arrived in Rhode Island. Many whispered that he had abandoned the cruiser Columbia—which had been launched in the summer of 1892 and had participated in the intervention in Nicaragua in the summer of 1894—and defected from the Navy. Joseph didn’t know if the story was true, but the boarder had a job at the Rhode Island Malleable Iron Works and didn’t seem like the type to go looking for trouble. Little did Joseph know that Harry had quickly begun courting his daughter, Hattie, who had turned 16 on February 8, 1896.

In the second week of February, Joseph learned that Harry and Hattie had been married and was shown a marriage license that had been secured on January 2 and signed later that day by Providence Reverend Moses Homan Bixby. As Joseph rushed ahead to find out more about what was happening right under his nose, he discovered that Harry was already married and had left his wife in New Jersey.

Furious, Joseph immediately went to the police station and ordered the oath to be sworn in. The officers went directly to the Iron Works, where they found Harry hard at work, arrested him and informed him that he had been charged with bigamy. Joseph, the officer and Harry returned to the police station in the wagon. When they arrived, Harry jumped out of the wagon and ran at lightning speed towards the railway with both hands clenched in handcuffs. The officer jumped out and began to chase him, while Joseph maneuvered the wagon on an alternate route to the railway, hoping to cut Harry off.

When he reached the railroad, Harry ran across the iron bridge that spanned Apponaug Bay. He followed the shoreline as fast as his legs would carry him until he reached Shell Point. The water there was covered with a layer of ice, so he decided to take his chances and run across. The policeman was not so brave—nor stupid—and at that point he gave up pursuing Harry on foot, though not trying to arrest him again. All day long the search continued, and finally, at about 4:30 p.m., the police learned that the fugitive was in a barn on the Henry Budlong farm in Buttonwoods.

Because he had hidden so deep under the hay in the Budlong barn, Harry was not found for a long time. Finally, one of the officers, using a hay fork to spread the feed, discovered him. Harry knew he had lost the battle. “Shoot me if you want,” he told the officer. “If you run away again, I will,” the officer told him.

Harry’s wrists were terribly swollen and deeply cut, missing the handcuffs he had tried to violently rip off his body. When the police asked him where the handcuffs were, Harry told them that an Englishman who had been employed on the farm there – a 19-year-old named Walter Becket – had responded to his pleas for release and agreed to remove them.

Harry was transported without further incident to the town hall and locked in a cell in the basement. The next day he admitted that the marriage license and the vicar’s signature had been forged to please Hattie. He explained that he had fallen in love with the young girl and intended to file for divorce from his wife soon.

Since Harry and Hattie had never entered into any kind of marriage, the charge of bigamy could not be sustained. Joseph withdrew his complaint, and Harry was released. A legal wedding made Hattie his wife just a few weeks later – although she had married someone else.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island-based columnist, lecturer, and author.