The Minister Who Kept Running Away From His Wife And 10 Kids With Other Women

A century ago a clergyman kept trying to get married despite already having a wife and 10 children

There are right ways and wrong ways to handle unhappy marriages. Unfortunately, somebody you wouldn’t want to ask about how to properly navigate this was former minister W.W. (Wilson) Culp, who eloped with different women (including his brother’s wife) multiple times a century ago, running away from his wife and 10 children — before returning home each time to his family.

The April 5, 1925 issue of the Albuquerque Journal told the story of Culp, a 40-year-old former pastor from the South Bend, Indiana area. He had made headlines for multiple reasons. Not only did the married father of 10 elope with his brother’s 22-year-old wife, Dorothy Culp, it was the second time in as many years he had attempted to secretly marry another women.

The most recent bout of infidelity occurred when the pair each disappeared from their respective homes and didn’t return for a week. However, they were both welcomed back by their spouses after expressing remorse for their actions.

Two years before this incident, Reverend Culp made similar waves when it became known that he and his 18-year-old choir director absconded in the middle of the night. However, he soon thought better of his indiscretion and returned home, where his overwhelmed wife permitted him to come back.

It was a costly mistake for Culp, who faced legal consequences. Although the girl was released to her parent’s custody, the older man was fined $500 and court costs, along with being sentenced to a year in the Dayton workhouse. An error made in his sentencing paperwork led to him being released just a few days after his term started.

Culp explained that he decided to make a play for his sister-in-law after she and his brother visited the Culps. Just three weeks later, he and the young woman (who left two young children of her own behind) disappeared from their respective homes.

Not exactly smacking of romance, Culp indicated he became smitten with his brother’s wife because she reminded him so much of his former lover, the choir director. The couple met up and headed to Chicago with the intent of starting a new life.

They soon returned home, expressing appropriate sorrow for their misdeeds that allowed them to be taken back.

Culp was nonchalant in brushing off the severity of his actions. He told a reporter:

“There is nothing more to it. We have fixed everything up and I am home to stay. There will be no prosecution.”

The renewed harmony with the two marriages didn’t last long. Culp and Dorothy took off together again just a week later. This time, it seemed more serious, as each took their clothing and personal effects.

Although Culp had a warrant out for his arrest for wife and child desertion in South Bend, he resurfaced again in 1927. He was still with Dorothy, in Chicago, and the pair applied for a marriage license.

Dorothy’s children ended up being raised by her former husband’s parents. She and Culp apparently went on to settle down together, as they had three children of their own after their marriage. He passed away in 1948 when he was around 60, while she lived until the age of 67, dying in 1970.