The $100,000 Heartbreak in Federal Court
A Port Townsend woman sues her former fiancé in a sensational trial involving alleged hotel scandals, religious ultimatums, and a dramatic cross-country journey.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A highly interesting breach of promise suit for $100,000 damages, brought by Mary E. Belanger against Robert H. Crasswell, occupied the time of Judge Hanford and a jury yesterday in the United States court. The plaintiff is a young woman of Port Townsend, and the defendant an aged man of great wealth, who lives at Bloomfield, Prince Edward's Island, Canada. Miss Belanger alleges that in 1884, he asked her to marry him, promising to settle $10,000 on her. By mutual consent, the marriage was put off until 1888, when Crosswell declined unless his intended would agree to give up her parents and relations. This she refused to do. In the spring of 1889, the lover returned, offering the same inducements. After persuasion, the girl broke off an engagement with another man to become re-engaged to Crasswell. When the time came for the wedding in Montreal in 1891, Crasswell allegedly entered her room and made improper proposals, declaring the ceremony would not happen unless she complied. She refused, and was subsequently ordered out of the hotel by the proprietor because Crasswell was found in her room. Crasswell denies the money settlement and the hotel allegations, claiming the breakup was due to religious disagreements—she being Catholic and he Protestant.
“She was ordered out of the house by the proprietor by reason of Crasswell being found in her room, and suffered greatly from the disgrace and humiliation.”
This trial highlights the immense legal and social vulnerability of women in the 1890s, who often relied on 'breach of promise' suits as their only recourse when a broken engagement left them socially ruined. While these lawsuits are a relic of the past, the intersection of public scandal and private betrayal remains a staple of our media landscape today.
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