In the later 1850s there was a short lived emigration group (along the lines of the orphan trains!) that promoted the movement of unemployed women from Ireland and New York to the West, where the women might find work or husbands. The facilitators of Women's Protective Emigration Society of course used the railroads that had recently been built to transport these women, and Bloomington was one of the stops that they made.
In February of 1858 a group of about 28 women was brought to Bloomington by one of the agents, Mrs. Rich. She met with prospective employers in a hotel and after an interview, would ask the employer to step into the next room to chose a housemaid or house keeper. On this occasion, a gentleman had come to choose a house maid to be a help to his wife. When introduced to the waiting young women, one woman stepped up and said "I will go with this gentleman, I have lived with him before. He's my husband!" He turned a rather ghastly shade of ash and she went on to say "My dear Thomas, what made you leave me five years ago, without saying goodby -- and why didn't you let me know you were living in such a beautiful place as Bloomington!" This story was recounted on the editorial page of the Pantagraph, possibly one of the pages that each reader of the paper would gravitate to each morning.
While the story rings of urban legend, one married man in Bloomington felt compelled to write a long letter to the Pantagraph, which was published in full, denying the rumors that HE was the man in the hotel who was found by his first wife. Turns out, the United States was not big enough for all men to avoid their past!