News Article - Wahlquist Sisters

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Submitter: Sandra Goble

Submitters Note:
This is from the Mammoth Spring Democrat, Mammoth Spring, Arkansas (owned by Wm. H.V.) dated Dec. 18, 1913. The first part is a reprint and you might be able to find the original. There is a picture of the two girls, Mrs. S.L. Mayberry; Mrs. Perry Woodruff (formerly Cora and Ethel Wahlquist, daughters of Charley W. Wahlquist). (no photo included on this page)


Two Sisters Meet for the First Time
Separated at Birth, Had Never Seen Each Other

Through a wedding item published in The Review, Mrs. Lillian Mayberry and Mrs. Ethel Woodruff, sisters who had never before seen each other, were united. Mrs. Mayberry lives at 995 Cerro Gordo Street and her sister, who now resides at West Salem has been visiting her.

In Febuary, 1897, Lillian Wahlquist was born and her mother died shortly after. The father had died two months before the birth of the child (incorrect!) The little orphan was given to Mr. and Mrs Frank Vest and was adopted by them. The child was named Lillian Vest.

It was not until she was married, sixteen years later, that the girl was informed of her real name. The marriage of Miss Lillian Wahlquist and S.L. Mayberry was duly reported through the columns of The Review, and thereby hangs a second tale, for another girl whose name was Ethel Woodruff, nee Ethel Wahlquist, read the item, and having heard hazy stories of a baby sister whom she had never seen and who existed to her as only a sort of fairy story, wrote to Decatur demanding to know whether or not her baby sister had stepped from the land of dreams and was a reality after all.

A note full of questions soon reached West Salem, confirming the hopes of the sister, who in fact, through all her life----she is little more than a year older than Mrs. Mayberry---had lived not more than twenty miles from this girl and whose paths must have crossed and interwoven with those of the latter many times, only to separate and branch farther and farther away.

A meeting was arranged through the numerous letters which passed back and forth between Decatur and West Salem, and the breathlessness of the occation when on Dec 3 the two were brought face to face at the home on West Cerro Gordo Street contained a dramatice element seldon found in fiction. The period between the wholesome fullness of Thanksgiving and the merry whirl of Christmas, was more than appropriate for the reunion of the two, and each declared that nothing she can receive at Christmas time will seem half as desirable to her as the newly found sister. Before her marriage on June 6, 1912, Ethel had lived with her grandmother in Maroa and Blue Mound.

Decatur, (Ill) Review The Democrat  The above are pictures of two of our nieces whom we have never seen. They are daughters of our youngest brother, Char. W. Wahlquist, now a resident of Binghamton, Tenn, box 57, being his address.

In the early part of 1895 Charley was married to an extremely pretty and exceptionally good girl named Andis, Cora Andis. The marriage took place in Mammoth Spring. Soon afterward the Andis family moved from here to Maroa, Ill., Charley and his wife accompanying. In due course of time a baby girl came to bless the union. In 1897 a second girl was born while yet the first was hardly walking. Cora died when the second child was but 12 hours old.

The grandmother agreed to rear the oldest child and a gentleman and lady named Vest, of Decatur, accepted the infant at the age of 3 weeks on the terms that it was not to be adopted and thus change its name; but when grown and about to be married she was to be told her real name. Charley, in turn, promised to never give Mr. and Mrs. Vest any trouble about retaining the girl. They both kept their promises; hence the surprise to the girls. 

Ethel Wahlquist was married June 6, last year, to Perry Woodruff of West Salem, Ill. To them was born in March of this year a boy, Forrest Holden Woodruff. Charley is therefore grandpa whether he feels it or not. Lillian Cora Wahlquist was wedded Feb. 18, this year, to S.L. Mayberry of Decatur. Just before the wedding Frank Vest and wife revealed to her her real name and told her the sad story of her infant life.

When the notice of this marriage appeared in the Decatur Review, Ethel Woodruff saw it and got busy to learn who this new Wahlquist girl was. After some time she found her to be a real sister and the two met in Decatur on the 3rd of this month.

In 1906 when Elmer Cooper went to Decatur to attend a Presbyterian synod we gave him a letter of introduction to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Vest, asking about Cora. She was named Cora after her mother. Elmer looked them up, delivered the message faithfully, saw and chatted with the child and made a report flatteringly favorable of Mr. Vest and wife. Cora was about 9 years old at the time. We are sure she remembers Mr. Cooper and will be sorry to know that he has since died. Mrs. Vest put our letter away and gave it to Cora a few days ago when she wrote us a lengthy beautiful and joyful letter. Ethel, writing from Blue Mound says she is visiting her grandparents a few days before moving closer to her sister. 

To Frank Vest and wife; to Mrs. Andis who 9 years ago became Mrs. Gordon; to Mr. Gordon whom Ethel writes has always been good and kind to her; and to the Decatur Review, the news item in which brought about this happy reunion and which paper kindly furnished to us the cut of the sisters appearing here, we extend our heartfelt thanks for ourself and their father.

Submitters note:
(One date that must be wrong is the 1895----in the obit of his father, Nelson Hawkins Wahlquist, dated August 1894, he is listed as living in Decatur)