The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 29, 1895, Page 14

14 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, R, BROWN ACCUSES A The Noted Pastor Causes Mrs. Mary A. David- son’s Arrest. A SENSATIONAL CHARGE. She Tmplicates the Reverend Gentleman in a Story of Gross Misconduct. DISCREDITED BY THE POLICE. The Doctor Gives His Version of the Animus of the Attack—What the Woman Says. The details of an alleged plot to extort money from Rev. Dr. Charles 0. Brown of nal” Church were ight by the arrest of nd Whittaker. or five days ago Dr. Brown, accom- by one of the. deacons of his lled upon Captain Lees and in- m_that Mrs. Davidson, who has store at 225 Geary street, had ex- 00 from him on November 22 on \ain of disclosing to the public his alleged uct toward Miss Overman, a young v of Tacoma, whileshe wasa guestat his Brown made a statement to the captain, who detailed Detectives Sey- meur and Whittaker on the case. After Mrs. Davidson’s arrest Dr. Brown rs. Mary A. Davidson by Detectives Sey- | WOMAN OF EXTORTION | until I was absolutely sure that there were no such persons as “the lady” and her lodger in | existence. | ThenIwentto the young lady, who to that | hour I had supposed to be in Mrs. Davidson's (s1though it seemed to be a matter incredi- because she was constantly in Mrs. Davia- i company. Ifound thatthe young lady | knew absolutely nothing of Mrs. Davidson’s diabolical plot. When I told her of it she was overwhelmed with astonishment and indigna- tion and seid: “She shall face us this very evening.” rs. Davidson came to the interview greatly wondering, but unaware that the innocent young lady by her side knew the whole of her | infamy. As I proceeded with the story Mrs, yDavidson sat as one dumfounded, pale and agitated. but silent. Miss Overman listened in silence till ‘I reached the statement of Mrs. Davidson that Miss Overman would swear to her own infamy in order to get $14,000 from me, then Miss | Overman sprang to her feet and stood over Mrs. Davidson, saying: “You infamous woman, did you hat? I have trusted you, butI | will trust you no longer. Give back to this man the money of which yon have robbed him | in my name.” We demanded jointly that she take us in- stantly into the presence of the lady, Mrs. Baddin, that we might say to_her, “You are a liar and a slanderer.” Though at a late hour of night Overman packed her trunk and left Mrs. Davidson’s house. Miss Overman be- lieved that Mrs. Davidson would pay back the £500, and that was worth securing; so I waited until Monday noon, then laid the whole mat- ter before Deacon Morse and Deacon Dy and through Deacon Morse before W. F. Whit- tier, chairman of the building committee of | the trustees. Then we went immediately to Captain Lees of the detective force. The result is the arrest of which the public is aware. C. 0. BrowN. The receipt referred to as having been written in Dr. Brown’s study on November 22 by Mrs. Davidson at his dictation is as follows: SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 22, 1895. In consideration of the sum of five hundred doi- 1ars (8500) paid to me as agent for Jane Elizabeth | Baddin,at date,and of thirty-five dollars to be paid on each and every month beginning with January | 1, 1896, and continuing for the period of five years, went to police headquarters and made | ending January 1, 1901, 1 do hereby agree to pro- MRS. MARY A. DAVIDSON. [Sketched yesterday by a “ Call” staff artist.) the following statement of the case for publication: With reference to the arrest of Mrs. Mary A. Davidson on a warrant sworn to by myself be- fore Juage Campbell this afternoon I have at present only this to say. bolical plot to ruin my good name and destroy ,unless I would instantly yield to d fora very large sum of money, will be told at length in court with all the | wicked details It is perhaps due to the public that I should say now thatdown to November 21 I had not & suspicion against the Christian character of Mrs. Davidson. On that afternoon she came to my office and invited me to come to her store. 1 went, supposing she wanted to talk about joining the church, as that subject had been mentioned. Arrived at her store, she fastened the door, &nd then her manner underwent a complete change. Her face became rigid as marble and demoniacal in expression. She affirmed that a young lady who was stop- ping with her, and who hrd previously teen a guest in our home, together with a certain lodging-house keeper whom she refused to neme, and one of the lodgers in that house, were ready to swear to my infamy. She called my attention to the condition of the public mind on account of the North Beach expos- ures which were then in progress, and said, “The story that these persons will tell will be believed, and the public is in no condition to trifie with ome in your position, charged as you will be.” She referred to the en>mies I had made dur- ing the Herron discussion, someé of whom she said were in my own church, and all of whom she declared would be ready, to believe any story against me. *“Now, sir,” shie said, “these persons will be believed and you will go to in- famy; moreover, the young lady herself will swear that what the lodging-house keeper says is true.”. Iwas dumfounded end overwhelmed with the infamy of the plot, and demanded the right to face iy accusers and say, ‘“This is an infamous lie.”” But I knew too well that in the condition of the public mind which then existed it would not require the sworn testi- mony of three persons to condemn & minister of the gospel so charged. Mrs. Davidson went on with what she called her “business.” “The lady” (that is the lodg- ing-house keeper), she said, demanded $2000 on or before the next day at noon, and & writ- ten promise to pay $100 & month for ten years 10 come. 1saw no escape if the young lady whom I had known only to respect had proved so perfidious and was really in the plot, as she afirmed. By degreesshe lo:ered the de- mand to $300 cash down and $35 per month for five years. Instantly I saw daylight. I woula pay the $500 and then she would be obliged to disclose the name of the lodging- house keeper. 1knew full well that no promise of & blackmailer would be worth anything, but I demanded a written' document with the name of “the lady.” When she had written the paper. with the name which I demanded as a condition of the payment, I secured the document and then | opened the City directory. She had not antici- pated such a move; she turned as pale as desth and stammered, *Oh, you will not find hefname there. She has recently been mar- ried.”” “Well,” T said, “that does not hinder her husband’s name being there.” There wes no such name as she gave, either male or female, in the directory nor has there been for years. 1 still did not know but that some person had given a falsename. I followed the matter The story of her dia- | | tect the good name of C. O. Brown and to protect him from all personal demands in connection with | the above matter. MARY A. DAVIDSON, | Detective Seymour, on calling at 225 | Geary street, aiter the case was given into his hands, ascertained that Mrs. Davidson left the place last Sunday afternoon with- out saying anything to thelandlady. A | man had called upon Mrs. Davidson that afternoon, and when he left the landlady found her in tears. The landlady re- marked to Seymour that she thought Mrs, Davidson would commit suicide. Seymour went to the place day after day without obtaining any news of Mrs. Davidson, but yesterday morning he was informed that she had returned. Dr. Brown was communicated with, and yesterday afternoon he swore to a com- | plaint before Judge Campbell, charging "‘MrsA Davidson with extortion. Seymour | took the warrant to 225 Geary street, and told Mrs. Davidson wbo he was and that he had a warrant for her arrest.. Mrs. Frank French, 1617 Jackson street, and Mrs. Mason, 1127 Broadway, were with Mrs. Davidson at the time. “What am I arrested for?” asked Mrs. Davidson. “For blackmailing Dr. Brown out of $500,” replied Seymour, “Did the doctor give you $500?" ! “Yes,” replied Mrs. Davidson. “Is that your handwriting?”’ asked Sey- mour, showing her receipt for the $500. I wrote it at Dr. Brown's dictation in his study.” “What have you done with the money ?"’ “Assoon as I received it I gave it to Mrs. Baddin.” “Who is Mrs. Baddin?” “She is a lady who came to my store and bought a pair of corsets. In the course of conversation with her she men- tioned the name of Dr. Brown. I said I attended Dr. Brown's church and had a | Sunday-school class there. Mrs. Baddin | said: *Well, I keep a lodging-house at 8ixth and Bryant streets, and we lodging- house keepers have a chance to see more | of ministers than you.” Mrs. Badain then | related to me the circumstance of seeing | Dr. Brown taking a girl to her lodging- | bonse, and I found afterward she was the young lady stopping at Dr. Brown’s house. The reason I got the money from | Dr. Brown was to keep the matter quiet.” | “Where 1s Mrs. Baddin now?” asked | Seymour. | “Idon’t know,” replied Mrs. Davidson. | “I believe she has left the City. I sup- | pose she left after she got the money.” | Dr. Brown said that Miss Overman was a | member of the church in Tacoma. She came here on a visit to him and his family, and as she was in need of rest Mrs. Brown begged of her to stay with them as long as she could and she would take her to the park and seaside and make her strong. Miss Overman wrote to her parents for permission to prolong her visit and it was granted. Mrs. Davidson became acquainted with the young lady, and after she had returned to Tacoma Mrs. Davidson wrote to her and asked her to come back here and she REV. DR. C, [From a ph 0. BROWN. otograph.] would get a good position for her. When | Miss Overman returned to the City Mrs. Davidson told her that the position was | not ready for her. She said she intended | to enlarge her store and to employ Miss Overman as her typewriter and she would pay for her instruction. Miss Overman stayed with her till the expose last Thurs- v night, since when she has been a guest in Dr. Brown's house. Mrs. Davidson is a widow, 60 years of age. She first made ner apvoearance in | this City during the Midwinter Fair. She | came from Boston and had a stand at the fair, where she displayed the corsets for which she is agent. After the fair she had a stand in the mil- hinery-store of P. F. Butler, 803 Market street, and then removed to 225 Geary street. She joined Dr. Brown’s church about a year ago. Dr. Brown questioned her as to her certificate from the church she pre- viously attended, and she repliea that she had been a member of a Baptist church | and did not have her certificate. She was | such a prefessed Christian woman that about six months ago she got a Bible class | to teach in the Sunday-school. | Frank French says that Mrs. | Davidson is a good Christian woman. Her husband was an officer on General Han- | cock’s staff during the war and her stories| of the war are intensely interesting. | Personally she did mot know about Mrs. Davidson’s past history, but she believed | that she was a good woman. She had told Mrs. Freuch of confessions made both by | Dr. Brown and Miss Overman to her and | had had a written statement prepared for | some time which she had read to Mrs. French. At the time of Dr. Brown’s trouble with Dr. Herron Mrs. Davidson, at the prayer meetings in the church, had prayed for Dr. Brown, that God might make him a greater and a nobler man, and she was one of his stanchest friends. She was a noble-looking woman and had been as a mother to Dr. Brown. Mrs. French said her husband had been engaged by M Davidson to defend her and he had advised her not to say any-! thing for publication. Dr. Brown and Detectives Seymour and Whittaker hunted for Mrs. Baddin, but could find no trace of such a person and were forced to the conviction that she only existed in Mrs, Davidson’s imagina- | tion. Dr. Brown had carefully looked over tke city directories and found that no one of that name, either of male or female, had been in the directory for years back. | Mrs. Mary A. Davidson is a iady past 60 | and shows in her face and carriage evi- dence of exceptional refinement. She is from Maine and has lived in the City two years, most of the time at 225 @Geary street. | She has been a regular attendant at Dr. | Brown’s church since her arrival and has been on terms of intimacy with him, to the extent of receiving his unlimited con- | fidence. She was a teacher in his Sabbath- school. She told her story freely after her attor- | ney, Walter Gallagher, had given his per- ission. i *Dr. Brown’s first confidence was given a year ago last October,” she says, when he told her he loved Miss Overman. “She has an education unsurpassed by that of any woman I ever knew,” he is quoted as saying. “Her intelligence and purity of character sre such as to make her a jewel of a woman,” Mrs. Davidson stated that she met Miss Overman at the meetings of Allen, the evangelist, where she was accompanied by Mrs, Tunnel, a lady residing on Tenth street, and a gentleman friend. Miss Overman told her she was Dr. Brown’s literary assistant, and was then engaged in assisting him in the prepara- tion of lectures he was soon to give at Ta- coma and Seattle. Shortly after, when Mrs. Davidson was dining at Dr. Brown’s home—[Here she in- terjected that Dr. Brown had always man- ifested kindliness toward her, as he stated, because her cousin, Theophilus Abbott, president of the Michigan Univer- sity, had employed him as sub-teacher and helped him generously in a time of need] Miss Overman had announced her intention of living with the Browns during the winter and perhaps perma- nently. Mrs. Daviason said she was much surprised when Miss Overman called on her soon after to make a farewell visit, and said that she was going because of Mrs. Brown'’s jealousy. “I shall get the best of her yet,” Miss Overman is alleged to have said. The following month, according to Mrs. Davidson's statement, Dr. Brown and Miss Overman went to Tacoma together. On his return Dr. Brown brought a note from Miss Overman, in which she said she would spend tbe winter in Tacoma, as her health was not good. From that time the two ladies exchanged letters on an average of twice a week. Mrs.' Davidson’s story continues: “Dr. Brown cabled again soon after- ward and took her fully into his confi- dence, as she thought. ‘I love Mattie Over- man,’ he said, over and over again. ‘I ad- vised him as a mother would a son,’ she said, ‘and told him he should see the dan- ger before it was too late. I called the af- fection an ‘unholy passion.’ He corrected me, by styling it ‘unlawful love.’ ¢ ‘Does she reciprocate your affection?’ I asked. He answered ‘Yes” He went on to accuse his wife of jealousy, but I told him she was right. ‘Your conduct is unbecoming a minister of the Gospel,’ I said. He saia: % “‘But I feel that it is like taking my life to be separated from her. She is the sun- snine of my home. Without her my hearthstone is desolate.’” “He told a story of an uncongenial mar- riage and children who were a curse rather than a blessing. ‘Mattie relieved and brightened my Iife as no other power could.”” At midnight Dr. Brown called on her again and said he wanted to send Mrs. Tunnel t> Miss Overman, for she needed a friend to look after her health. ‘“‘She was careless during the rainy season and might get her feet wet.”” Mrs. Davidson stated that at that time she did not know Miss Overman was with her parentsand twelve brothers and sisters, or she would have thougnt the precaution singular. He said he would need to pay Mrs. Tunnel’s fare and $10 besides. He explained the bond between Mrs. Tunnel and Miss Overman as one of an intellectual and spiritual nature. At another call Brown tried to induce Mrs. Davidson to secure a room for Miss Overman at the Libby House, where she was then staying, and there was some con- versation about his getting possession of a key, but she refused to aid him. “Miss Overman returned early in‘the summer looking thin, pale and hollow- eved and ten years older than.when she left. She said she had been ill since she left San Francisco. She intended to try to study stenography, and began attending Heald’s College. “One day she said she had offerea to sell a story about a prominent man for $1000 to a morning paper; and, said Mrs. David- son, the editor to whom she applied would | so testify, but the girl found a better way | and that was to make the man pay $35 a month. “A few days later Dr. Brown told me he had made such an offer and would pay the money, which he did. “The keeper of a lodging-place on Bryant and Sixth streets, a customer at the corset factory, called one day and said she knew a minister who bad come to the house with a girl and spent the afternoon there. ““Miss Overman broke down when she heard this and said: ‘O, Dr. Brown was the man, and I the woman.” She then confessed to having had criminal recourse to a drug-which Dr. Brown had purchased, and mentioned November 24, 1894, as one of the dates when she met Dr. Brown at a Sixth-street lodging-house. She claimed he hypnotized her. ““Later a strange woman called and said she knew Brown’s accomplice and she UNDAY. DECEMBER 29, 1895. lived in my house. She demanded $10,000 for hush moaney.” Mrs. Davidson told the reverend gentle- man of the woman’s demands and he promised to pay $500 down and $35 a month until at least $5000 was discharged. He dictated a receipt which Mrs. David- son wrote and to which she attached the name of the woman, Mrs. Baadin. The money was paid by her to the woman, who «aid she wes going out of town, but would call each month for the money. Mrs. Davidson was summoned to the man’sstudy on Thursday, the 19th, whither she went at Miss Overman’s request, and found both very angry. Dr. Brown ac- knowledged that Mrs. Davidson had been kind, but Miss Overman said: “Don’t back down. We must fix her.” Mrs. Davidson was frightened, and feared they might take her life. Miss Overman left Mrs. Davidson, with whom she had Iived since her return, and went, Mrs. Davidson thinks, to Or. Brown’s home. The following day Dr. Brown called on Mrs.: Davidson and told her a warrant would be issued for her arrest. She pre- pared a full statement, of which she has given the gist to friends. “I then notified him by mail. He said that I would no longer keep his damnable secrets.” Brown told Mrs. Davidson he expected to go to Philadelphia as pastor of a Pres- byterian. or to Brooklyn as a Congrega- tional pastor soon, and that when he exchanged pulpits with Rev. Mr. Hoyt . of Sacramento tkat gentleman would read bis resignation. It will be re- membered that the exchange was made, but the resignation was not forthcoming. A late dispatch from Tacoma says that Miss Overman was a music teacher there, ana nothing is known against her char- acter. FBUTBALL@ WEDDED. Marriage of G. W. McMillan of the Reliance to Miss T. Mervy. The Ceremony Was Attended by the Butte Giants—Off to Montana for the Honeymoon. OAELAND OFFICE SAN FrRANCISCO Cu.n,} 908 Broadway, Dec. 28, Captain George W. McMillan of the Butte football team was married to-night to Miss Frances T. Mervy at the residence of her parents, 678 Seventeenth street. The home was prettily decorated and a string band played appropriate mtsic. Rev. Robert Ritchie, D.D., of 8t. Paul's Church, offi- ciated. The friends of the family and the mem- bers of the Butte football team were the only guests, who numbered about forty. The bride was given away by her father, Dr. A. J. Mervy. The bridesmaids were Miss Aimee Mervy and Ethel Renshaw. Messrs. Sher- rard and Hooper were the groomsmen. The bride wore an elegant dress of mous- seline de soie over white satin, and she carned a bouquet of Roman hyacinths. Tne bridesmaids were attired in white or- gandie and carried Duchess roses. A banquet was served after the cere- mony and Mr. and Mrs. McMillan left on the same train as the Butte team for Mon- tana, their future home. ‘The young couple was very well known in Oakland, Captain McMillan having been - captain of the Keliance team until a few weeks ago, and hundreds of their friends sent handsome presents. ——ee———— Owens’ Indictments Dismissed. Twenty-seven charges of embezzlement against J. K. Owens were dismissed in Judge Bahrs' court vesterday. It was decided that there was no chance for a conviction op any ot the charges, and so in despair of securing one the Assistant District Attorney, Mr. Hinkle, moved to dismiss them, Owens was indicted by the Grand Jury in 1890 for embezzling something over $100 from George W. Gibbs, by whom he was employed. It is understood that Owens made & settiement with Gibbs, and he was not indicted until after he had done so. el Albin’s Cottage Burned. 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