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| actual 1888 news clipping; (Cedar Rapids) Evening Gazette |
| The scheme was a simple and well-tried one in the business. It origins were in the courtship of little people Charles Stratton alias General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren whose lives have been well documented. The wedding of the two in 1863 was so highly advertised and anticipated that it eclipsed the coverage of the Civil War in the Nation's press. A huge bundle of money was made for the General and his commander-in-chief, Petey Barnum. Ever since, whenever a showman was looking to create new revenue, a "wedding" was organized and so it was with John Coffey. Coffey's twist on the dodge was to use his own wife of twelve years as his "bride". He would advertise for a wife, would sort through a mountain of proposals, pick one, advertise it all and get "married" to a throng of well-wishers, or to be more precise, paying museum patrons. The ruse worked but became so well-known that pieces like the item to the left made the press as well. John would simply telegraph his wife when it was time to come out and join him. At first Mary co-operated but eventually tired of it all. She never did have a desire to be in the show business. |
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| John's scheme, though it did generate extra income, had a deleterious effect. Many of the proposals he received were sincere. Spinsters were more than willing and ready to marry the well-regarded and financially successful artist. A married lady even followed him around for two weeks willing to forsake her spouse for the living skeleton. No doubt, Mary Evelyn got wind of all this. And then, it appears, John went too far. In 1889 he again announced to the press that he found a wife. But this time he even referred to her by name: Miss Lillian Ferguson, thirty years of age (J. W. was now 47). It appears John had taken a page out of the biograph of his famous predecessor I.W. Sprague. In 1883 Sprague announced his nuptials to Miss Minnie Johnson. There was only one problem. Sprague still had a wife "whose term of office has not yet expired." What is all just for fun and did Mary understand that? It's difficult to say. |