The Ballard Merchant's Divorce War
A Ballard storekeeper and his wife trade accusations of cruelty, abandonment, and theft in a bitter divorce proceeding.
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.
Rose McCurray’s divorce suit against her husband, Henry, a Ballard carpenter and storekeeper, has brought the latter into court with an answer and cross-complaint of a novel nature. He takes up the very point used by his wife to prove his cruelty and enlarges upon it to prove her dishonesty. The cross-complaint also attempts to show that McCurray did not find his wife a very businesslike clerk, inasmuch as she pocketed the profits of the store whenever she was left in charge. The McCurrays were married back in Minnesota in 1879 but have been in Ballard several years. In her complaint, Rose charged her husband with cruel and inhuman treatment, alleging he constantly accused her of stealing money from the till. Henry denies this, claiming he has always treated his wife with respect, and that she abandoned him on October 4, taking with her the sewing machine and the clock from their community property. He asks the court for a divorce and to compel his wife to return the items, in which he claims a half-interest. There are no children in the family.
“The cross-complaint also attempts to show that McCurray did not find his wife a very businesslike clerk, inasmuch as she pocketed the profits of the store.”
Divorce proceedings from the 1890s often functioned as a public stage for domestic grievances, mirroring the way marital disputes still play out in the digital age, albeit through different channels. The mention of community property disputes remains a cornerstone of Washington family law today.
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