This is the last installment of Louisa’s Love Affair.

When news reached Louisa Barnes of the conservatorship her lawyer had established, she was furious and determined she would travel from California to Boston to refute the allegations and appeal the case in person.

“Mrs. Barnes denies the assertions respecting her ill-treatment in California. She says she has been treated with the greatest consideration,” the Boston Evening Transcript reported on May 28, 1903.

This doesn’t sound much like the dazed woman that earlier reports of Mrs. Barnes described. She sounds decisive and confident. Perhaps she felt she and her husband had defied the odds. They had been married over three years. Louisa said the conservatorship made no sense. She had made her property over to her husband but she retained a life interest in it.

But there were clues all was not well. Mrs. Barnes told the court her husband was in business in Los Angeles at a hospital, but she stayed at their home in Santa Monica. Her husband wrote kind letters to her every week or two.  Her in-laws still lived with her.

Mrs. Barnes was questioned about reports that she was neglected.  She admitted she became ill after her mother-in-law had gone away due to a death in the family. She had insisted her husband not be notified. She didn’t want him to be pulled away from the hospital; he was busy. However, when her health grew worse, Charles was notified and he hurried home. “Then she had everything done for her that was possible to be done.”

Three weeks later, the Boston Globe announced the case was dropped and the conservatorship was over.  Mrs. Barnes’ appearance in court had satisfied the judge that she didn’t require a conservatorship.

Six weeks later, Louisa Barnes sued for divorce, alleging cruel, abusive treatment and accusing her husband of infidelity. She named two girls as co-respondents, one of whom was 12 years old. “The petitioner declares that Dr. Barnes exercised a hypnotic influence over her and administered powerful drugs to her. She says he is a dangerous man,” the San Francisco Examiner reported.

A picture also ran in the paper, claiming to show the room in which Mrs. Barnes had been imprisoned in her Santa Monica home.

Though Dr. Charles Barnes did not contest the divorce, the case was heard by Judge de Courcey and embarrassing disclosures followed.  Dr. Barnes’ main confidant was his father and his letters to the elder Barnes illustrated his character. Once he wrote, “Kiss my dear baby for me.” Evidently this was a reference to his wife, which is only notable because it led to a very funny headline:

Most of the letters were more sinister. “I want a dozen pieces of paper signed by her,” he told his father, “with your witnessed signature so I can file them in accordance with the circumstances. Don’t let anyone see her or my folk.”

The letters exposed his true feelings about Louisa and his attempts to steal the hearts of other women. Charles admitted he “had a little of that sort of love for his wife which prompts a man to propose marriage.”  In another letter, he told his father, “I am going to call tonight on a minister’s beautiful daughter. She don’t know that I am married, and hopes to catch me. She may if she waits long enough… I’ve had an opportunity to be engaged to three women already.”  He reflected that “there is more money in wearing good clothes than there is in anything else.”

In February 1904, Louisa Barnes was granted a divorce and authorized to handle her own property. Very little of the once-great fortune was left. Though she still had her old home,  Louisa was ill and spent most of her remaining days living with friends.

When Louisa Barnes passed away in 1906, two wills were filed. One was dated Nov 29, 1900. It was in her father-in-law’s handwriting and left everything to her husband. The second will was dated Feb 1904 and it cut Charles out completely, which was a little like fixing the barn door after the horse is stolen.  What little Louisa had left was given to  friends.

I looked into Charles Barnes’ history and found that he married twice more after Louisa divorced him and had three children. He died in Oregon in 1948, over four decades after his first wife passed away.  He was never in the news again so he must have stayed out of trouble.  Charles didn’t face any consequences for how he treated Louisa but maybe his conscience bothered him.