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The Facts & Mysteries Behind Baby Doe’s Wedding To Horace Tabor
The Known Facts:
It’s well known that Horace arranged a bogus divorce from his first wife Augusta in Durango, Colorado through a judge he knew there in the summer of 1882, wanting desperately to marry Baby Doe whom he’d been having an affair with since at least 1880 - probably sooner. It’s also well
known that he and Baby Doe then sneaked off to St. Louis and got married by a Justice of the
Peace three months later in September of 1882.
But then, when the Durango “divorce” and St. Louis “marriage” were discovered by Augusta
during Tabor’s run for a Senate seat in late 1882, a new legitimate divorce was filed by Horace with plenty of intimidation behind it from Horace via his business partner Bill Bush. Fearful she’d lose everything, (and probably still hoping for a reconciliation later on), Augusta finally agreed to the divorce on January 2, 1883, and Horace was finally rid of his first wife.
Within a few months Horace then married Baby Doe in Washington, D.C., on March 1, 1883. However, the Denver divorce between Horace and Augusta was evaluated by a judge and several attorneys, and legal opinions seemed to have consensus that the divorce was invalid, (although Augusta eventually stopped challenging it). But it doesn’t end here... two days after Horace and Baby Doe had gotten “legally” married in Washington, D.C., at the Willard Hotel, the Catholic priest who married them later returned the $200 Horace had given him for performing the ceremony and even refused to make the marriage a part of St. Mary’s records. The newspapers had exposed the previous Horace/Augusta “divorce” in Durango, and the the quick Horace/Baby Doe “marriage” in St. Louis, and finally the questionable 1883 Denver divorce from Augusta. The priest had known nothing about any of this, nor had anyone bothered to tell him during the pre-marriage interviews. He was incensed that he’d married two divorced people - one even a Catholic - and he clearly believed he’d been deceived by everyone involved.
It was written later by Baby Doe’s sister that their father suffered miserably for his transgressions against the church and that he died within a few months after the wedding in Washington “from guilt of knowing he’d lied to the priest.”
The Mysteries:
First, if the facts, dates and legal proceedings don’t boggle your mind, here’s a synopsis of what went on:
1880– Baby Doe & Harvey Doe divorce
Summer 1882 - illegal divorce between Horace and Augusta filed in Durango
September, 1882 - illegal marriage of Horace & Baby Doe in St. Louis
January, 1883 - Augusta agrees to second divorce filed by Horace
March, 1883 - Horace & Baby Doe marriage in Washington, D. C.