FORMER SLAVES
JOIN FORTUNES
After Separation of Forty-
Five Years They Meet by
Chance at Fresno and Wed
BOTH MARRIED BEFORE
Each Had Lost a Loved One
and They Quickly Decide
to Finish Life Together
Special Dispatch to The Call.
FRESNO, July 22.---After a separa-
tion [separation] of forty-five years George Harris
and Mary J. Brooks, who were slaves
upon the same plantation, met in Fres-
no [Fresno] yesterday, and each having lost a
loved one they decided to finish life to-
gether [together], as they had once planned. They
had lived on an old plantation in the
State of Louisiana and were lovers
when, in 1859, Harris was sold to a
planter living in Tennessee.
They both married in after years.
Harris is the father of seventeen chil-
dren [children], while the woman is the proud
mother of fourteen. By chance they
met yesterday, and to-day went to Rev.
Father McCarty of St. John's Catholic
Church and were married. Mrs. Harris
has lived most of her life in Chicago,
coming to Fresno on a visit to rela-
tives [relatives]. Her old sweetheart is a pioneer
resident of this city.
Harris is 61 years old and she is 60.
The couple will finish their days in
Fresno County at Harris' home, north
of town, where the large family of
thirty-one will be raised in old planta-
tion [plantation] style.