Divorce was still a big deal in 1899. I'm glad mine didn't make the papers!
Watertown Herald, Saturday April 1, 1899, pg 1
Jennie L. Kelly, of Syracuse, has been given a decree of divorce from her unfaithful spouse, George H. Kelly, who resides in Adams. This parties were married in Ellis village in August 1885 and have two children, Eva and Nina, whose custody has been awarded to the mother. Bert Hall and Henry Stevens, of Adams, gave the principle testimony for Mrs. Kelly.
The Sunday Herald, Syracuse, April 26, 1899, pg 21, col 5
There was another divorce case tried which had less color but more evidence. It was brought by Jennie L. Kelly, a careworn-looking woman, against George H. Kelly, who is said to be living with another woman in Adams, Jefferson county. The plaintiff now lives at No. 513 (313?) Croton street, this city. She testified that she had not forgiven her husband. There are two children in the case, aged 13 and 11, both of whom are with their mother.
"Bert" Hall a very young man and Henry Stephens, a very old man, furnished the realism. Stephens said that for seventy years he had been a policeman, Constable, Sheriff's officer, contractor and bus driver at Adams. He had seen considerable of Kelly's relations with "Lib" Smith who used to be "Lib" Wheeler, and it was his evidence that made Mrs. Kelly free, Justice Wright ordering a decree in her favor.
2 comments:
This is facinating, Apple! How did you find all of this? I am always amazed at the personal lives of people that came before me...funny, how they put all of the sorted info in the paper...imagine being branded as unfaithful for all the town to see! But I imagine it was even harder for the wives who had to now raise children on their own in that era!
Time changes, no doubt. If papers should write about divorces these days, well, they certainly had been volumnoius.
And sodetailed as here, broken privacy laws.
Thanks for sharing.
=^.^=
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