A Pawned Violin and a Hatchet
After fifteen years together, a violent domestic dispute over a pawned instrument ends with a court order to keep away.
After living fifteen years together as man and wife, James and Jennie McKay appeared in Justice Caldwell's court yesterday to settle a question relative to threats made by Mr. McKay against the life of Jennie. McKay first met the woman in Portland, Maine, where she was in a house of ill-repute. He took her and her little child with him and, after living in Baltimore, Chicago and San Francisco, they came here two years ago. One year ago they separated and since then Mrs. McKay has lived in a house near the courthouse, taking care of George Costen's children. Mr. McKay, a shipbuilder, confronted her about gossip and asked her to come back to him, warning: 'Jennie, you can't live with any other man than me. If you do we will be buried in the same grave.' Three days later, McKay returned to the house to retrieve his property, including a violin, a saw, and a rat trap. He found the saw and trap, but the violin had been pawned by Mrs. McKay under an assumed name. Enraged, McKay insulted her life in the house of ill-fame; Mrs. McKay picked up a hatchet, and McKay fled with his remaining tools. Justice Caldwell ordered McKay to stay away from the house for six months and held him under bonds.
“Jennie, you can't live with any other man than me. If you do we will be buried in the same grave.”
Domestic disputes reported in 1890s newspapers often used the language of 'morals' to deflect from the underlying reality of intimate partner violence. Today, we recognize these patterns of coercive control and threats to life as serious crimes, rather than 'family discord.'
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.