For my readers in the United States, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I took some time off to catch up around the house. I sorted through some of my piles of paperwork - a chore I hate! I shredded and filed. By the time you read this, I should be thankful I’m done!
As I was sorting through my papers, I found the one I’ve been meaning to write about for a couple months, so that’s why it’s probably an odd topic for a holiday weekend. But, not all my readers are in the United States, so the timeliness (or lack of) isn’t applicable to everyone.
The Big D. Some will know that as divorce. As I’ve been reading back through newspapers from the 1800s, I’ve been struck by how often the papers mention divorce. So much so, that I included some of the articles in my readings I’ve started posting on The Creighton Cabin YouTube Channel as an experiment of sorts.
There was a hush-hush divorce in the early 1900s in my family. My great-grandmother was divorced from her first husband. They had a daughter from that marriage, and he raised her. My great-grandmother went on to marry my great-grandfather, and have two children. My great-grandfather passed away, and she went on to marry at least three other times. Each husband passed away.
I never met my great-grandmother. I don’t remember Grandma ever talking about her. I got the feeling that Grandpa was less than thrilled with his mother-in-law’s many marriages, but I don’t think that was ever expressed outright.
Grandma’s half-sister ran a shoe repair business in the local town. I can show you where it is today. Mom says she remembers Grandma stopping in the shop to see her half-sister, but it was a long time before Mom realized it was an actual relative.
The shoe repair business was in a small downtown building. Mom says it was always dark inside - he operated by only one lightbulb. The couple lived upstairs. They never had children.
Of course, as more and more documents came online, I went looking for any information I could find about the divorce. I finally succeeded a couple years ago finding the document scanned into familysearch.org. The names in the scanned probate books were not indexed, so I flipped page by page by page, electronically until I found their divorce case.
Here is what I learned.
Great-grandma, then named Odessa A. Powell filed for divorce from her husband, George W. Powell. The court hearing was August 11, 1912. They were married April 13, 1905, and at the time of their divorce, their daughter was five years old. Great-grandma filed for divorce, because, according to the complaint, George had “been guilty of habitual drunkenness for more than three years last past.” She also claimed that he had been guilty of “extreme cruelty, in this, that without cause, he [?]the 3rd day of July, 1911, accused Plaintiff of having been guilty of adultery with various other men other than her said husband, and had reported to others in the neighborhood, that Plaintiff had stayed all night with some man in Wheeling, WVa about May of the present year, and that she had been in the hay-mow with some man at night, during the last spring or summer, and that she had committed other acts of unchastity. Plaintiff says that about one year ago, Defendant whipped and beat her without cause, and that he has been guilty of other acts of extreme cruelty toward her, and that he on the __ day of June 1911, deserted her and left her and their said child, without money or means of support and has not returned or communicated with her, and that she does not know his present place of residence.”
The court document goes on to explain that because Great-Grandma didn’t know the residence, they were not able to give him the divorce papers. Therefore, they had to put a notice into the paper for six consecutive weeks notifying George of the impending divorce. He did not show up in court.
The judge ordered the divorce. She was given custody of the minor child. The “Plaintiff be decreed the custody, care, maintenance, education and control of the said minor child… and that she pay the costs of this proceeding.”
As I mentioned earlier, this court hearing was August 1912. Later in 1912 she married my great-grandfather. My grandma was born in March 1914.
I don’t know what happened, but even though in this decree she was given custody of her first daughter, to my knowledge, George raised her. In fact, in the 1920 census record, she is listed as living with George, his mother, brother, and sister. Maybe I’ll find another court record one day.
George died in 1953. I believe he was struck by a car when he was crossing the road while leaving a drinking establishment.
In most of the divorce records I’ve read from back then, three years seems to be the magic number. Many of the claims are about having been abandoned for three years.
The very next divorce listed in the court records were of a couple that would have lived just down the road from my great grandmother, based on census records. That woman even took back her maiden name.
Maybe divorce was harder to get back then, but it wasn’t impossible. Based on all the announcements I’ve seen in the papers, it was more common than I thought.
Thanks for pulling up a chair and joining me at The Creighton Cabin this week. If you think any of these ideas will spark conversations, please share the articles with friends and family.
Join me again at The Creighton Cabin as I slowly help rural Appalachian communities unlock their economic potential by challenging and changing the stories they tell themselves. I use local history and genealogy to help communities recognize their strengths and envision a brighter tomorrow. Think of it as community development powered by DNA, not just dollars.
Divorces were newsworthy - perhaps an element of schadenfreude ;) . They were expensive though got cheaper. The files are definitely a mine of information.