(he) was good to me except that he would get on a spree occasionally

So once again bad luck hit Cecelia Young. And more to come. But at least Pfingstag was not entirely dishonorable. In many ways he was a good guy, which must have made it even harder for Cecelia Young to leave him....

No sir, I have never lived with Pfingstag a day after our separation. I did not see him more than a half dozen times after our separation. I had to go and see him as a witness in my pension claim, and another time I got him to go with my son to the asylum at Norristown because my boy would not go without him. He thought a great deal of my children and could manage the boy when I could not. Those two times are the only times I have been to his place since our separation about 12 or 14 years ago. I cannot tell the year of our separation.

This is the most amazing date memory lapse yet. She was on her deathbed, her priest tells her she's married bigamously, and she moves to Atlantic City to run a boarding house in that year. You'd think that would be one year she would remember! But then she does remember...

My daughter Annie died at Atlantic City in September 1888 and it was the May before that time that I left Pfingstag. Yes, I am sure of the date now. After my marriage to Pfingstag he started a barber shop at 64 Springhurst St. When we separated he sold his shop out for $150. and gave me one half of it and I went to Atlantic City and he remained there and worked for the man he sold to and has been with him ever since that time, so far as I know. Yes sir, Pfingstag was good to my children and gave us good support and was good to me except that he would get on a spree occasionally. I have no knowledge of his family now. No sir, he never gave me anything since our separation. He gave me all the furniture in our house where we lived in addition to the $75 cash that he got from the sale of his shop.

So in 1888 she broke up with her bigamous husband, moved to Atlantic City in May and her daughter Annie died in September.

In spite of his "sprees" Pfingstag was at least honorable, selling his barber shop to give Cecelia some money to try her luck somewhere else. I don't know why she quit the boarding house business after three years, although according to the Atlantic City map, Mississippi Avenue is about as far away from the boardwalk as you can get and still be in Atlantic City. I guess seventy-five bucks goes only so far, even in 1888. Next she is questioned by the special examiner...