The Wife Who Couldn't Bear the Badge of Shame
In 1903 Spokane, a woman secured a divorce from her husband not because he was abusive, but because his life sentence for murder made her social standing untenable.
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.
VANCE'S TROUBLES: In Prison for Life His Wife Gets Divorce.
Though she says he always treated her with consideration, Mrs. Edna Vance, wife of Alexander P. Vance, condemned to spend the remainder of his days behind prison walls, could not stand the disgrace of her husband or the fact that she was his wife, and she has secured a divorce in the Spokane courts.
Vance is doing a life sentence in the penitentiary for murder, being received at the big prison a few months ago after having a death sentence commuted to life imprisonment by Governor McBride. Vance and his wife were married in Pierce county seven years ago, and the complainant alleges that he always treated her with consideration.
That on October 24, 1901, the defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to be hanged, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and that he is now serving that sentence in the state penitentiary. Vance is now employed in the jute mill and is proving himself a model prisoner. He has hopes that in the course of a few years he will be able to obtain a pardon and this hope is buoying him up in the monotonous prison life, he is now enforced to endure as punishment for a moment's passion.
This 1903 divorce case highlights how social stigma once functioned as a legal ground for ending marriages, distinct from modern fault-based or no-fault divorces. It offers a stark look at the gender dynamics of the era, where a wife’s social survival often depended on her husband’s reputation, even if he was personally kind.
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