The Mother Who Defended Her Daughter
A Seattle jury acquits a mother who shot the man who married her 14-year-old daughter against her will.
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.
Mrs. Anne Kohne was tried before Judge Hume for shooting James Haider in Justice Von Tobel's court several weeks ago, and was acquitted by the jury after only fifteen seconds' deliberation. Mrs. Kohne testified that she had not given her consent to Haider's marriage with her 14-year-old daughter, Hattie May Barnum, and was surprised when she heard of it; that her daughter wrote her a letter from the House of the Good Shepherd declaring that she wished to be separated from Haider. Mrs. Kohne testified that on the day of Haider's trial for perjury she carried a bulldog revolver, as she had heard that Haider made threats of injuring her. When Justice Von Tobel decided the case in favor of Haider, the latter seized his wife by the arm and raised her from her chair. Mrs. Kohne stated that Haider persisted in his attempts to take her daughter away despite her remonstrances, and that then her memory left her. Judge Hume ruled that an attempted marriage of a girl only 14 years of age was void unless contracted with the consent of her parents, and that the mother had a right to the custody of her daughter and could use necessary force to assert it.
“Mrs. Kohne’s counsel argued strenuously that she was within her rights in protecting her daughter from the threatened ruin to her character.”
This case highlights the archaic and often dangerous legal landscape regarding marriage age and parental rights in the 1890s. It serves as a reminder of how the definition of custody and protection has evolved since Seattle's territorial and early statehood days.
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