This image of Emma (Gardner) Pyle as a young woman with a guinea pig as a companion was found online as a public posting by dknott75 to the genealogical web site Ancestry.com.
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Emma J. Pyle, self-proclaimed mistress of Lucas County Attorney Will B. Barger, was under arrest at the end of yesterday's post, accused of attempted murder after firing a pistol into her lover's head on the evening of March 17, 1900, inflicting what turned out to be a relatively minor flesh wound. The story turned into something of a media sensation after The Ottumwa Courier, which published the initial report the next morning, March 18, wired details to newspapers nationwide. See Barger vs. Pyle Part 1: He said. She said. Say what? for additional details.
Mr. Barger soon was up and about with no lasting damage apparent and on Monday, March 26, Mrs. Pyle was arraigned and released on bond. The Chariton Democrat of March 30 reported as follows:
"On Monday afternoon Mrs. Emma Pyle, who had been arrested on the charge of assaulting W. B. Barger with intent to kill, was arraigned before Justice Manning. The defendant waived examination and was bound over to await the action of the grand jury at the next term of court. The bond was fixed at $500 and was immediately signed by her brother, Mr. Gardner, and by Isaac Graves of Newbern and L.P. Smith of Marion county. Mrs. Pyle was released at once and left the same night on No. 1 for Greeley, Colorado, where her her sister resides."
Mrs. Pyle's former husband, George Pyle, a harness maker who seems to have been an initial suspect in the shooting, apparently left town shortly after Emma did but "in very delicate health." The Chariton Herald, in its March 22 report of the Barger shooting, noted that before arresting Mrs. Pyle, officers had gone "at once to the rooms of George Pyle but found him asleep and his revolver had not been shot off that evening as it had all the loads in it and was clean."
George's final appearance in Chariton newspapers came more than a year later, during June of 1901, when he was reported to be a resident of St. Joseph, Missouri, and doing well. What became of him after that, I cannot say.
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Chariton newspapers did their best to be objective in reporting what must have been a sensitive case, but that was not the case elsewhere. Reports of Emma's arraignment in Ottumwa and Des Moines newspapers contained speculation that the case against Mrs. Pyle would disappear if she remained in Colorado, presumably forfeiting bond.
That would not be the case at all, however. Emma was back in Chariton during early May to face a Grand Jury that indicted her on the assault charge but allowed her to return to Colorado while awaiting trial. She was back in Chariton for trial during December, but the case was continued into the new year.
Barger served out his term as county attorney, but had not sought another term during November 1900. So he was succeeded on Jan. 1, 1901, by E.W. Drake. During February, Mr. Drake filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against Mrs. Pyle and she returned to Greeley to make her home free and clear. No explanation for the dismissal was given in newspaper reports.
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Three months later, during mid-May 1901, Chariton newspapers picked up and republished from The Greeley, Colorado, Tribune of May 1, a report of Emma's second marriage --- to the Weld County, Colorado, clerk and recorder, a gentleman named Sharon Atkinson who was some 30 years her senior. Here's the report as published in The Chariton Democrat of May 16:
"Sharon Atkinson, county clerk and recorder, and Mrs. Emma Pyle of Chariton, Iowa, were united in marriage in Denver today.
"Mr. Atkinson is one of the original settlers of the Union colony, coming to this community from Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1870, where he has resided ever since. For years he managed a large farm at Bracewell known as the Bracewell place. He sold the place to the Bracewells in 1885 and came to Greeley, where he became a member of the firm of Huffsmith & Atkinson. He remained in this business until 1899, when he was elected clerk and recorder. He is high in the Masonic order and was eminent commander of the order here for six years. He also held other high offices. He met Mrs. Pyle in Greeley about four years ago.
Mrs. Pyle is a handsome woman and is a sister of Miss Etta Gardner and Perry Gardner of this city and has a large number of friends here. The couple returned to Greeley this evening. They will take a tour to Salt Lake in June."
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Sadly, this does not seem to have been a match made in heaven. The Fort Collins, Colorado, Review, carried the following report in its edition of Wednesday, Aug. 21, 1901:
"More matrimonial infelicity --- Sharon Atkinson, clerk and recorder of Weld county, wants the bonds of matrimony dissolved between him and the woman he married only a little more than three months ago, charging cruelty and diverse other shortcomings against the woman he so recently led to the altar. The wife has brought countercharges. Let the bands be severed and the oppressed go free."
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At some point after that divorce, Emma relocated to Denver and pursued the career in hospitality that she had been planning when contemplating her move from Iowa to Colorado back in 1900 --- before she decided to shoot Mr. Barger instead.
From 1905 until 1907, Denver city directories list her as proprietor of the Hotel Lemington on Sixteenth Street, "in the heart of the shopping district and close to principal theatres. Newly furnished throughout. Modern appointments. Special attention to guests from out of town. Rates reasonable."
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At some point prior to 1910, Emma gave marriage another try, probably while living in Denver, selecting this time a young man named Claude E. Adams, 18 years her junior. Young Claude had been 10 years old and living with his mother in Trinidad, Colorado, during 1900 when Emma, then 27, was facing attempted murder charges in Chariton.
By 1910, the couple had relocated to Los Angeles and the 1910 federal census of that city stated that they had been married four years at the time. If that were the case, Claude would have been 16 when the marriage occurred. I've been unable to find a record of it, however.
As unlikely as it may seem on the surface, this marriage endured for more than 40 years.
When Claude registered for the World War I draft, he gave his birth date as April 21, 1890, and was described as tall and slender with blue eyes and brown hair. Described as a lineman for an electric company in the 1910 census, his occupation when registering for the draft was given as motorman for the Pacific Electric Railway Co.
By 1940, when Claude registered for potential World War II service at the age of 52, he and Emma were prospering as owners and operators of the Adams Feed & Supply Co., 8707 Compton Avenue, in Los Angeles. If Emma had further adventures after relocating to California, they did not attract media attention. Chariton newspapers noted her occasional visits to relatives in Lucas County over the years and she was, of course, listed as a survivor as the years passed and siblings died.
Emma passed to her final reward in Los Angeles on Oct. 5, 1956, just short of her 84th birthday. Claude outlived her by nearly 30 years, passing on Dec. 2, 1984, at the age of 94.
And so it would appear that despite considerable drama as a young woman, Emma achieved a happy end. The same cannot be said for Will B. Barger, but that's a story for another time.
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