April 2, 2025
FOUND MARRIAGE LICENSE
BEHIND PICTURE FRAME.
Now Wife No. 2 and Wife No. 1
Console Each Other While Hus-
band Is in Jail.
J. C. Kirk, a carpenter, was arrested Wednesday afternoon on a charge of bigamy preferred against him by Mrs. Emma Kirk, who says she is wife No. 1, after she was informed of her husband's second marriage by wife No. 2. While Kirk was sleeping on a steel cot in the city holdover, his two alleged wives were becoming friends in his cosy home at 2131 Summit street.
Nearly two years ago Kirk came to Kansas City and married Miss Maud Houser. When she began the spring housecleaning a month ago she removed a picture from a frame, and says a marriage certificate fell to the floor. After reading it she realized that her husband was a bigamist.
Wife No. 2 then prepared fro the downfall of Kirk by writing to wife No. 1 who was living with her parents at Burr Oak, Kas. She came to Kansas City and visited Mrs. Kirk No. 2. She said she was married to Kirk nine years ago at Siloam Springs, Ark., but that he had sent her home two years ago.
Although wife No. 2 does not intend to prosecute Kirk she will not aid him, and is befriending Mrs. Emma Kirk, wife No. 1. The two women are the best of friends and are living together at the Summit street house. Mrs. Emma Kirk is a daughter of G. O. Copeland, a Methodist minister of Burr Oak. She will prosecute her husband.
Labels: bigamy, jail, Summit street
