WATERS, Edith Alice Scott

WATERS, Edith Alice Scott (1875-1935) was married three times and variously also known as Edith Walker, Edith Basford, and Edith Burritt, in addition to her stage name, Inez Deane. Edith was the adopted daughter of widow, Minnie Scott, whom Captain William G. Waters married in 1880. Edith lived on San Miguel Island from 1888 until four years after her mother's death in 1890. She was sixteen when her mother died.

Edith left San Miguel Island in 1894 seeking a life on the stage, and on June 30, 1894 she married John MacKay Walker in the city of Oakland. Shortly thereafter she gave birth to a daughter, Dorothy, was abandoned by her husband, and divorced in August of 1895. Edith placed Dorothy up for adoption and returned to her life in the theatre. In 1899 Edith sued Captain Waters for the $5000 legacy her mother left to her, and eventually settled with Captain Waters for $2000. In turn, Captain Waters cut Edith out of his will, leaving her but $1 to show that he recognized her.

Later when Waters died in 1917 leaving his estate to his 92 year old bachelor brother, Edith contested the terms of the will, and claimed that she had been held captive on San Miguel Island by Captain Waters. She testified that he forced her to live on San Miguel Island after her mother’s death so that “she could be watched.” She claimed she “lived a life of hard toil, lacking in every comfort, devoid of affection from the Captain,” and that she was not the “headstrong, willful girl, rebelling at every precaution taken to protect her.” Edith escaped from the island with a guano collector, Bob Ord. The jury ruled in favor of Edith.

In the meantime, her little daughter Dorothy, had been adopted by millionaire miner, Nicholas Creede. Creede died unexpectedly of a morphine overdose on July 12, 1897, leaving three-year-old Dorothy a very wealthy little heiress. Edith went to court and asserted a maternal claim to her daughter, and eventually she prevailed.

» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_C._Creede

• Edith Alice Scott Waters (1875-1935) = John Mackay Walker (c. 1874- )

1. Dorothy [Creede] (1895-1918)=[16 Nov. 1916] William Lloyd Ritchie (1878-1943)[SS#700-10-5943]

1. Edith Romer Ritchie (1917-1974) [SS#550-30-0904]

• Edith Alice Scott = Harold Roberts Basford (1873-1954) [SS#557-01-2308]

2. Bruce C. Basford (c. 1897-1920) dies in Alameda County Feb. 24

3. Garth X. Basford (1898-1971) [SS#565-09-7103] = Bertha

4. Hugh Pasmore Basford (1902-1978) [SS#559-07-3885] Merced County

• Edith Alice Scott = Lawrence H. Burritt

5. Roland L. Burritt (1909-1980) [SS#555-01-8382] AZ

Edith Alice Scott Waters Walker Basford Burritt died in British Columbia in 1935.

» Creede, Dorothy

In the News~

February 11, 1891 [SBI]: “Captain Waters and daughter, Miss Edith, arrived from San Miguel Island last evening on the Liberty, all safe and well. They remained on the boat and landed this morning.”

February 11, 1892 [LAT/SB]: “Captain W. G. Waters and Miss Edith Waters have left by steamer for Gaviota, from which place they sail in the sloop Liberty for San Miguel Island.”

July 23, 1892 [LAT/SB]: “Captain Waters and a party of young ladies leave here Monday for Gaviota where they will take passage on the sloop Liberty for San Miguel Island. The party will consist of the Misses Gertrude and Minnie Jordan, Miss Annie Cruces, Miss Bessie Gaskill, Miss Ada Gaty and Master Redding Bennett. Captain Waters’ daughter is now stopping on the island and the young ladies go to visit her.”

December 5, 1892 [LAT/SB]: “The sloop Liberty came in from San Miguel Island yesterday morning. Miss Edith, daughter of Captain Waters, was a passenger, she having been at the island all the past summer.”

June 7, 1895 [SBDI]: “Superior Court. Honorable W. B. Cope, Judge. In the case of Edith Alica Walker vs. William G. Waters et al; the motion of plaintiff for order of the court requiring the defendant to pay a certain sum to plaintiff now renders its decision and orders that said motion be denied. The plaintiff is given 30 days to file bill of exception.”

June 8, 1895 [SFCall]: “Santa Barbara, June 7. Edith Walker loses a point in the suit against her father. The case of Edith Alice Walker vs. William G. Waters et al. Came up in the Superior Court today on a motion for an order of the court to compel the payment of a certain sum. The plaintiff’s motion was denied. This is the first decision in the sensational suit brought by Captain Waters’ adopted daughter to enforce the payment of a certain sum conditionally bequeathed to her by the late Mrs. Waters.”

July 6, 1895 [LAT]: “San Francisco. Edith Waters Walker, 20 years old, the adopted daughter of a millionaire, a successful actress, once a prisoner on San Miguel Island and finally the wife of the impoverished son of a man who was John W. Mackay’s partner in the bonanza days, has commenced two suits that will disclose a strange story of vicissitude. She is suing her husband for a divorce, and her stepfather, Captain Waters of Santa Barbara, for $5000, which she alleges was left by her mother for her use. Mrs. Walker was left an orphan at an early age, and was adopted by Mrs. Scott, a wealthy woman of this city. Mrs. Scott married Captain Waters, who owned San Miguel Island, one of the Santa Barbara chain. The island was used as a cattle ranch, and Captain Waters, with his wife and Edith, lived there. Mrs. Waters died, leaving property valued at $500,000 and $5,000 in cash to her husband, the money to be used at his discretion for Edith’s education. After her mother’s death, the girl lived on the island, being the only woman there with the exception of an Indian squaw. There she says she herded cattle until she grew weary of life on the island, which had become a prison to her. One day she persuaded the captain [Robert Ord] of a sealing schooner that called at the island to take her away, and she sailed for San Diego. She came to San Francisco and went on the stage, where she made a success. While here she met John MacKay Walker, son of John B. Walker, who several years ago was a Bonanza millionaire. She married young Walker, who earned money as a car conductor while she acted. Finally she went to South America with a dramatic company, where they were burned out and lost all their dramatic effects. She returned to San Francisco, and now wishes to cultivate her voice. She will give up the stage and devote herself to the care of her three-year-old baby. She has sued her husband, who is in Los Angeles, for a divorce, and she has brought suit for the $5000, which she says her mother left her.”

July 7, 1895 [SBMP]: “Information has been received in this city to the effect that Mrs. Edith Waters Walker has commenced suit for a divorce against her husband, John M. Walker who is residing in Los Angeles… Her lawyer, Roger Johnson of San Francisco, is engaged on her other suit for $5000 against her step-father, Captain Waters…”

July 24, 1895 [LAT]: Edith Waters’ baby. She left it here in charge of an aged friend. The fact has just leaked out that Mrs. John M. Walker, whose stage name is Edith Waters, gave birth to a child in the County Hospital, while stranded here about four months ago. After she was able to travel again, she left her baby in charge of Mrs. M. S. Chisolm of No. 809 South Spring Street and went to San Francisco. Mrs. Chisolm, although a poor woman, has the baby on her hands and is caring for it the beast she can, neither of the parents having as yet done anything for the little one—the mother perhaps because she is too poor, and the father because he doesn’t want to. Young Walker separated from his wife before the child was born. He was employed until recently by the Los Angeles Gas Saving Association, and is thought to have gone hence to San Bernardino. The romantic history of Mrs. Walker (Edith Waters) has of late occupied considerable space in the daily papers. She is the step-daughter of Captain Waters, proprietor of San Miguel Island who, because the lonely life she had to lead after the death of her foster mother, surreptitiously left the island on a sealing schooner and went on the stage in San Francisco, where she married John Mackay Walker, the son of an ex-millionaire who was formerly John W. Mackay’s boon companion. Young Walker had nothing but love to give his wife, and this soon waned, so she has been compelled to stick to the stage and hoe her own row. The baby’s father has never been to see it, and probably never will. Mrs. Walker has written Mrs. Chisolm to try to get some young married couple to adopt the infant, which is a girl and not very well at present. Mrs. Walker appeared as ‘Inez Dean’ in the Tar and Tartar in this city last November.”

July 26, 1895 [LAT/SB]: “William G. Waters, defendant in the case of Edith Alice Walker vs. William G. Waters, et al., is given until August 1 to file an amended answer to the plaintiff’s supplementary complaint.”

August 18, 1895 [LAT/SB]: “In the case of Edith Alice Walker vs. William G. Waters, the court has denied the motion of the plaintiff requiring the defendant to furnish an itemized account of all monies paid out as trustee of plaintiff.”

September 7, 1895 [SDU]: “Los Angeles, Sept. 6,— Dorothy Talbot Hill Walker, the 6-months-old child of Edith Scott, the actress, and John M. Walker, was today adopted by N. C. Crede, the Colorado millionaire. The child was born at the Sisters' Hospital in this city, after the desertion of the mother by her husband.”

September 7, 1895 [LAT]: “Baby Walker, the daughter of Edith Scott Waters has become Edith Dorothy Creede. The change of name was effected by order of Judge Van Dyke yesterday, he sitting in chambers at the time. The proper petition of N. C. Creede and wife was presented, accompanied by the written consent of the mother of the little one, and the necessary decree of adoption was thereupon rendered. Dorothy Talbot Hitt Walker thereby became Edith Dorothy Creede. Edith Scott Waters, the mother of the adopted baby, was herself adopted when quite young by a Mrs. Scott of San Francisco. Mrs. Scott, it will be remembered, married a Captain Waters, who was the owner of San Miguel Island and was an extensive sheep-raiser. The young woman whose name had changed with that of her adopted mother in time went to San Francisco, where she was trained for the stage. She afterward married John Walker, a son of Mr. Walker, who had been a warm friend of J. W. Mackay. John Walker was a streetcar conductor. In course of time the Walkers came to Los Angeles, where he found employment. Matters between the young couple did not move as smoothly as they might, and in time the two were divorced. The little girl whose name was by a decree of the court changed yesterday, was born about six months ago, her mother being in the County Hospital at the time. The baby for a time was cared for by a woman who had befriended the mother after her divorce. This woman became unable to care for the little one any longer, and, this fact becoming public, the attention of the Creedes was attracted to it.”

October 6, 1895 [LAT/SB]: “In the case of Edith Alice Walker, the actress, against her stepfather, Captain William G. Waters, to receive a certain sum which she alleges to be in his possession in trust for her, the court today granted her motion to strike out certain portions of the amended answer to the supplemental complaint. The defendant was given leave to file an amended answer and cross complaint to the supplemental complaint.”

October 11, 1895 [LAT/SB]: “Edith A. Walker’s foster-father, W. G. Waters of Los Angeles, has filed his answer to the suit begun by her to compel him to pay over $5000 left her in trust. Mrs. Walker described herself in the complaint as married, age 22. This, Waters says, he has no knowledge of, and he, therefore, denies it. But that is a mere technical denial, for everyone knows who reads the papers that she is the wife of John Mackay Walker, godson of ‘Bonanza’ Mackay, and son of Mackay’s old and unfortunate partner, Walker. The marriage has been unhappy, and they are parted, but she is Mrs. Walker all the same. She is the girl whose romantic adventures as a young pet of society in Southern California, prior to her foster mother’s death, as a shepherdess on a lonely Pacific island thereafter, as a young wife and mother, and as an actress have taken up considerable space in the newspapers. In her suit against Waters she alleged that Waters and his wife had legally adopted her in 1887 as their daughter, and that subsequently Mrs. Waters made a will, giving Waters $5000 in trust for the adopted daughter, to be paid by him under such conditions, and in such manner as he should see fit. Mrs. Waters died in 1890, and in her complaint, Mrs. Walker charged that trustee Waters was insolvent and had sold all the estate or otherwise alienated it, and unless restrained her legacy would be entirely lost. She said Waters had declared that he would never pay her a cent, and she affirmed that he was bitterly hostile to her and would not even see her. In his answer Waters says Mrs. Walker consented to every step taken in the settlement of the estate, and he denies her allegations. He says her husband has failed to provide for her suitably, and he declares that personally he is not insolvent any more than she is, as she has said she is in absolute need. He charges that she has made an illegal agreement with her lawyer, and he concludes by asking that the suit be dismissed, as similar actions are now pending between the parties in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties.”

March 15, 1896 [SFCall]: “A very delightful entertainment will be given at the Hotel St. Nicholas next Tuesday evening, March 17, when Mr. John T. Wenyon of London will give a dramatic recital. He will be assisted by Miss Helen Marshall Anderson, pianist, Edith Scott Waters and Mr. George McBride.”

March 15, 1896 [SFCall]: “John T. Wenyon of London, assisted by Miss Helen Marshall Anderson. Miss Florence Weyman, Miss Edith Scott Waters and George McBride, will give a dramatic recital at the St. Nicolas Hotel Tuesday evening. Mr. Wenyon is said to be a reader of unusual merit, who pleases all American as well as English audiences. The singers are all well known in local circles.”

April 12, 1896 [SFCall]: “Miss Edith Scott Waters and Miss Florence Wyman will be given a benefit concert in Maple Hall, Palace Hotel, on Thursday night. The following performers will assist: Alfred Wilkie, tenor; Bernard Mollenhauer, violinist; Fred Maurer, accompanist; the Euterpe Quartet and H. B. Pasmore's chorus.”

January 8, 1897 [LAT]: “…About four years ago, Edith Waters, the adopted daughter of Captain Waters, the wealthy sheep raiser who lives on San Miguel Island, tired of the lonely life to which she was condemned and ran away from home with the help of a fisherman. From Santa Barbara she went to San Francisco, where she appeared on the stage at one of the variety theaters. While engaged at the Tivoli, she married a worthless actor named Walker, whom she was obliged to support out of her earnings. Later the pair came to Los Angeles and played at the Burbank. While here Walker deserted his wife, leaving her in a delicate condition and unable to support herself. She was so reduced in circumstances that she was obliged to go to the County Hospital, where she gave birth to a daughter, who was given her mother’s name, Edith Walker. In order to support herself and child, Mrs. Walker returned to the stage in San Francisco, leaving her baby in the care of a widow, on Spring Street, with the promise that she would forward regular remittances for the child’s benefit. When the mother, for some cause, failed to provide for her child, it was found necessary to make some other arrangement for its care. Mr. Creede, heard of the case, and having no children of his own, was so taken with the beauty of the abandoned infant, that he resolved to legally adopt it. As a result, it was taken into the Creede household where it has received every conceivable care and attention.”

May 14, 1897 [SFCall]: “Grand Choral Concert by the Stanford University and Apollo choral societies, Metropolitan Temple, Saturday, May 15, 8 P.M., Tickets 50 cents; Reserved seats $1. Seats may be reserved at Sherman, Clay & Co's, May 14 and 15. Vocalists — Mrs. Frank Wratten, Mrs. Edith Scott Basford, Mr. W. S. Edgerton, Mr. Herbert K. Medley. Instrumentalists — Otto Hedix, Nat Landsberger. Accompanists — H. J. Stewart, Fred Maurer, piano.”

July 16, 1897 [LAT]: “Creede left a will. Little Dorothy will inherit bulk of the estate. Mother wants her child. Will fight Mrs. Creede’s claim to custody of the little girl to the bitter end. Story of Edith Waters. The remains of C. W. Creede, who died so suddenly from an overdose of morphine, were quietly deposited in Rosedale Cemetery Wednesday afternoon… Creede bequeathed the bulk of his property to little Dorothy, his adopted daughter… Little Dorothy’s own mother, once Mrs. Edith Waters Walker, but now Mrs. H. R. Basford…”

August 10, 1898 [LAT]: “Baby Dolly’s guardian. The court holds that the mother’s right revived. Mrs. Basford appointed guardian of Edith Dorothy… Little Edith Dorothy Creede is to return to the care and custody of her mother, Mrs. Basford, and the heart-burnings over the guardianship of the child are, for the present at all events, held in abeyance… When Mrs. Basford took her seat upon the witness stand yesterday, there was nothing in her appearance or manner to indicate that her previous life had been a checkered one, and one that the world would call romantic. Left an orphan at an early age, she was adopted by a lady in San Francisco, who afterward became the wife of Captain Waters, the owner of San Miguel Island, off the Santa Barbara Coast. Her mother by adoption finally died at Santa Barbara, and upon returning to the island the life was too dull and monotonous to the young girl, who had while at school in Oakland shown some talent. She longed to spread her wings and see the world, and with this end in view she took her departure from San Miguel on the first good opportunity that offered. She made her debut on the stage in San Francisco as Inez, in ‘The Tar and Tartar,’ and met with some success. A few months later she met John Mackay Walker, and the two were married at San Rafael in June 1894… Their life was not happy, and just before Edith Dorothy was born the husband deserted his wife, and was reported to be living in San Bernardino. The young wife was in a most unhappy situation when Mrs. M. S. Chisholm, a lady who had seen much better days, and was teaching languages as a means of livelihood, came to the rescue. She herself was poor, but she had known both Mr. and Mrs. Walker since childhood, and she did what she could to aid the deserted young wife, who was soon to become a mother. Edith Dorothy Creede, the three and a half-year old babe, for whose possession so many persons have been desirous, was born at the County Hospital. Through those troubled days Mrs. Chisholm nursed the young wife back to health and strength. So as soon as it could be moved, Mrs. Chisholm took the baby to her humble rooms, and the mother, after her discharge from the hospital saw the baby a few times and then left for San Francisco. She desired that Mrs. Chisholm fine some one, if she could, that would adopt the infant, and ere not long the eccentric old mining man, Nicholas C. Creede, adopted the little one and Mrs. Walker surrendered all right to her baby. Since then the child’s mother has remarried and became Mrs. Basford. She stated to the court yesterday that she had been married nearly three years and has two children as a result of the present union. Her husband is outdoor superintendent of some company, and while not earning a large salary, earns enough to sustain a modest flat on Turk Street… Mrs. Basford was then appointed guardian of Edith Dorothy Creede with a bond fixed at $1000.”

November 15, 1898 [LAT/SF]: “Mrs. Edith Alice Basford has made accusation of fraud against her foster father, Captain William G. Waters, a wealthy rancher who has large holdings on San Miguel Island in the Santa Barbara channel. Mrs. Basford avers that more than twenty-two years ago she was adopted by Mrs. Marantha Scott, who subsequently married Captain Waters; she says that after the marriage, in 1887, Captain and Mrs. Waters both adopted her in legal form. When Mrs. Waters died, she is alleged to have left a trust fund of $5000 for the present Mrs. Basford, which she charges has been encumbered by claims made by Waters, who, however, denies the allegations. The case is on trial before Judge Sewall.”

January 26, 1899 [LAT]: “San Miguel Island lands in controversy again. ‘Cap’ Waters and attorney Conroy carry a dispute into the courts. Dorothy Creede’s mother appears in background. There is at present being contested before Judge Trask a somewhat dry-as-dust case, wherein Attorney Jeremiah F. Conroy is seeking to recover from William Waters the sum of $6606. The entire amount is, in an indirect way, a claim for professional services, and would present little interest were it not for the fact that Edith Alice Walker Basford, the mother of Dorothy Creede, cuts some small figure in the case: that the defendant is the Captain Waters who was monarch of San Miguel Island… hostilities have been on the point of breaking out more than once… After Edith Alice Walker had been adopted by Captain and Mrs. Waters, they both became exceedingly fond of her, and when Mrs. Waters died, she left $5000 in trust to her adopted child…”

January 27, 1899 [LAT]: “The island contest. The trial of the suit brought by Attorney Conroy against Captain Waters of San Miguel Island fame, promises to be a long-drawn-out contest. Already the plaintiff has been upon the witness stand for three days and his examination has not yet been concluded… Conroy applied an epithet to Waters and the latter retorted in kind. And a lively spat was terminated by the intervention of Waters’ friends.”

December 2, 1906 [LAT]: “Millions at stake, heiress disappears. Romance of little Dorothy Creede, who went from County Hospital as adopted daughter of rich miner fighting for fortune… Nicholas Creede has long been dead. The baby girl, Dorothy Edith Creede, has grown to be a sprightly girl of 13 years. And now, just as she is going into her teens, is to take place the contest that has been dragging through the courts for years, and which, if successful, will mean that Dorothy Creede will receive half of the $3,000,000, out of which it is claimed Creede was defrauded… Creede owned one-third of the mining town named after him… His life was lonely, however, for his wife and he separated. One day, however, a new element entered into it, for he found and adopted a wee girl baby who first saw the light in the County Hospital, but who quickly became the pet and plaything of the solitary old man, living amid all that wealth could obtain… But back of the child lies another story… Mrs. Walker signed away her rights to little Dorothy Edith; the child was adopted by the retired mining magnate. Three years later the old man died of morphine poisoning… Then began the litigation inseparable from a large estate. Creede’s widow endeavored to break the will, and failing in this sought to obtain possession of the child. The young mother, too, who had relinquished all claim, went into court claiming that with the death of the foster father her natural rights revived. And her claim was allowed and the young mother—then only 24—recovered possession of little Dorothy and was made guardian of the little one’s person and estate… Since then the mother and child have made their home in San Francisco… Just when it is essential that little Dorothy Edith Creede and her mother be on hand, they have apparently disappeared from all knowledge of their friends here…”

May 11, 1917 [SBDN]: “The bulk of the $50,000 estate of Captain William G. Waters is left to his brother, John A. Waters of Boston, under the terms of the will filed for probate yesterday by Attorney W. G. Griffith for the Santa Barbara Trust Company. Substantial bequests are made to the son, C. D. Waters, and to Mrs. C. D. Waters, Mrs. M. A. Cummings of this city and Lucy A. Fletcher of Los Angeles. John A. Waters, the principal beneficiary, is 92 years of age. He is in Santa Barbara in connection with the settlement of the estate. Mrs. Edith S. Burritt, an adopted daughter residing at Santa Monica, is bequeathed $1.”

October 2, 1917 [SBMP]: “This morning at 10:00 o'clock a jury of good and lawful men sitting in the Superior Court, there will be held a hearing on the petition for admitting the will of Captain William G. Waters, deceased, to probate, also the protest which has been filed against this action.”

October 3, 1917 [SBMP]: “Edith Scott Burritt, plaintiff and contestant in the matter of admitting the will of William G. Waters, deceased, to probate, was on the witness stand in Judge Crow's court at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon when court adjourned, and was relating her experiences and the treatment accorded her while for thirteen months she was employed by Captain Waters on San Miguel Island, doing cooking and housework for him.”

May 10, 1918 [LAT/SB]: “In an effort to break the will of the late Captain W. G. Waters, who left his $50,000 estate to his brother, John A. Waters, 92, of Boston, Mrs. Edith Burritt of Santa Monica, adopted daughter of the deceased, told an exciting story from the witness stand today of her escape from San Miguel Island in an open boat, mastered by Bob Ord, now a mining man of Mexico. She was a girl of 16 then, and had lived for four years on the desolate island, where her adopted father raised sheep and cattle. These years were punctuated by happy days when the girl visited the mainland, but they were few and far between. A wild sea was running when Bob Ord assisted the child into the small boat, and the hours of battling against the storm before the mainland was reached, though thrilling, had no terror for the frail girl. Dead in the sea was a better condition than alive on a desolate, windswept island. During the day many old-time sheep shearers, fishermen and water-front men testified to corroborate the contestant, as to island conditions and to the treatment of the girl by her adopted father. The testimony of the day was unusual its recital of the days of 1887 and of that period, the contestant seeking to show that Captain Waters was insane on the one subject of the adopted daughter and his son, Charles Waters. To the son he left the interest on $5000, and he stipulated in the will that if his brother John, or his sister Mrs. Maria Curtis, died before him that his wealth should go to building a soldiers’ monument here, and to the Cottage and St. Francis hospitals.”

May 14, 1918 [LAT/SB]: “Waters’s will declared void. The will of Captain W. G. Waters, owner of San Miguel Island, was broken tonight by a jury in the Superior Court. The jury returned a verdict holding that the time the will was drawn by the testator the latter was of unsound mind so far as his children—Mrs. Edith Scott Burritt of Santa Monica and Charled D. Waters of this city—were concerned. The verdict was reached on the second ballot and within ten minutes after Judge John L. Hudner gave he case to the jury. Immediately after the jury was discharged the jurers crowded about Mrs. Burritt, the contestant, and shook her hand. John A. Waters, 93, brother, to whom Waters left his $75,000 estate, also congratulated Mrs. Burritt. John Waters had come from Boston to defend the will, but stated that he really did not wish his dead brother’s estate. He himself is worth over $250,000. When Captain W. G. Waters, who died here last year, wrote into his will that his daughter, Edith Scott Waters-Burritt of Santa Monica, should inherit but $1 from his estate, laid the foundation for probably the most spectacular will contest the Santa Barbara courts have ever known. All the unusual incidents of Mrs. Burritt’s unusual girlhood were brought out in bold relief in the testimony. Four years spent on lonely San Miguel Island, thirty miles off the Santa Barbara coast, she termed as four years of prison. Her escape across the channel in a boat mastered by Bob Ord, now a Mexican mining man, was one of the most thrilling chapters. Captain Waters was divorced from his first wife inBoston forty years ago and, coming West, married a wealthy Mrs. Scott of San Francisco. With her wealth San Miguel Island, one of the Santa Barbara’ group, was bought, and there Captain Waters waxed rich, raising sheep, cattle and hogs. Mrs. Scott’s daughter, Edith, was adopted by him, and when the mother died her education in music, art and drama was brought to a close. ‘When we arrived at the island after mother’s death I was told that was to be my home.’ The captain took me into the kitchen. ‘There’s the stove, there’s the sink, there’s the utensils. Get us something to eat,’ he said. ‘I had never cooked in my life before, but I did the best I could. There was an old Mexican who taught me how to make bread. God bless his dear memory. He was so kind to a motherless, friendless girl.’ The witness paused, and then reverted to her mother’s funeral. ‘I asked the captain for money with which to buy suitable mourning. He told me to use my mother’s black skirt and I made a dress to wear at her funeral.’ The spectators leaned forward and one woman sobbed, while R. H. Cross, one of her lawyers, laid the emphasis on the statement with: ‘So you wore your mother’s dress to her funeral.’ On the island, for a time, was a woman companion, but she left and the girl found no means of companionship except with the sheep and cattle. Alone she would rove along the rocky island shore searching for shells. The herders would do what they could for her when the captain was not about. ‘Captain Waters would not let me continue my schooling for fear I might meet a boy; my music lessons had to be given up because my teacher had a young son, and I was dragged home from a church concert where I was to sing because the captain found that I had been placed near a man, a singer. He seemed insane on the subject of boys and me, and for that reason I was taken to the island.’ The girl had appealed to fishermen who occasionally stopped on the island to take her to the mainland, but for fear of the captain they refused. Then Bob Ord, hunting sea otters, established a camp on the east end of San Miguel, and when the girl appeared one night in his camp with the wild request for aid in escaping, he was so struck with her pathetic attitude that he volunteered. That morning, before light, he set out with the fleeing captive, and an angry ride, at times lulled by a dead calm, featured the escape. When Charles D. Waters was 13, he first saw his father after separation since infancy. Five years later, at Captain Waters’s insistence, the son came to Santa Barbara from St. Paul, Minnesota, to learn the cattle business on San Miguel Island. Suddenly, testified the son, his father’s affection for him fled, and they parted. The old ties were never wholly repaired.”