When you hear of a case of incest, you may wonder what on earth could have compelled the couple to go taboo. Unfortunately, there have been numerous cases of incest where the participants did not know that they were related. In the case below, the couple believed that they were merely cousins, and cousins would often marry back in the day. However, when they found out that they were actually half brother and half sister, they could not have been more devastated.
Unhappiest Father and Mother on Earth
The Young Man and Young Woman Unknowing Violate the Law of Man and God: “Thou Shalt Not Marry the Daughter of Thy Mother.”
Staff Special.
Cincinnati, O., April 24 — “I love him, no woman can tear from her heart her love for the father of her children, even though she knows such a love is a violation of the laws on earth and a sin against God!”
That is the outburst of a broken heart. The cry of a young woman, living as probably few have lived — in a literal hell on earth.
She is Helen Hoffman. This is her story:
“I never knew during all the days of my childhood, who my mother was. I lived with my father on his farm near Sheridan, O. When I was 18 I came here to the home of my mother, but who I was told was my aunt.
“There were five boys in the house, my cousins, I was told. The oldest, John, and I went to dances and parties together, and soon we were in love with each other. I loved him as sincerely as any girl can love a man. I love him now, more than I can ever love any other man.
“Then we were married, Oct.25, 1910, and lived as happily as a couple ever did. My husband was kind and good and thoughtful. He did everything he could for me and the babies, Buella and Burnetta.
“But somehow, the neighbors began talking. I heard some of it and went to Mrs. Ruch, whom I regarded as my aunt and mother-in-law. Here in her home, and where John and I first learned to love each other, she told the story that nearly broke our hearts.”
“Helen is your sister, John,” the grief stricken mother of both said.
The three of them went to Judge Lueders, who after hearing the confession of the mother, legally separated the young couple.
“Years ago,” Mrs. John Ruch, sr., said, “when I was a young girl on a farm near Sheridan, I met and was wooed by a man nearly twice my age. I loved him too well, better than he did me, I guess, for after wards he refused to make me, the mother of his child, his lawful wife.
“After my mistake, I was driven from home by the gossiping tongues of the countryside. I left behind, with the father, a baby girl. The baby grew into girlhood. I had come to Cincinnatti and married, and had five boys. But I never lost the longing for my first born, the only daughter. At last, when that longing became too great to resist, I sent for her.
“Helen came, and the better to guard the secret of her birth I showered upon her all the mother love she missed during the years she was from me.
“I was blind to the growing affection between my oldest son John and my daughter. One day Helen came to ma and told me just such a story as I was compelled to tell my parent 22 years ago. But the frightful horror of it came fully home to me when she told me who was responsible for her condition.
“‘John,’ she said.”
“I told them to marry, hoping that I might keep the secret. They were married. But not an hour has passed since then that I have not bowed under a great weight of sorrow. I have continually prayed God to forgive us all and point the way out.”
After the divorce was granted the father of the babies, to whom he is also uncle, embraced the little ones, kissed the woman, the daughter of his own mother, and who had been his wife and plunged into voluntary exile. He will support the young mother and his children; they will live with the parents of the divorced husband, but he will not see them.
Source: (1912, April 24). Unhappiest Father and Mother on Earth. The Day Book.
