The Unexplained Departure of Mrs. Frite
A husband’s public notice of his wife’s desertion sparks confusion in Port Townsend, as he vows to never take her back.
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.
July 9.—While A. J. Frite, a fall bit-rate man, was at work at the mill last Friday, his wife, Mrs. Frite, left their home with a Mr. S. A. with another man, and went away with their only child, a girl of four years. The facts, which were brought to light Sunday, are that Mrs. Frite left the city for Vancouver, B.C., with her lover. A. J. Frite has sent a notice out of our town of married life and says: 'She left me for a trick, and this is the result. I will never take her back, and am deeply hurt, and our child is also gone. Some say she is at Vancouver, and I fear my wife is away with another man. I shall return to Port Townsend.' There is rumors current on the street, and that she also took her wife away with her father, but this is late and obscure, and heartbreaking. He will hunt her.
“She left me for a trick, and this is the result. I will never take her back, and am deeply hurt.”
This 1888 domestic drama captures the stark social reality of the era, where the threat of ‘ruin’ and the permanence of marital desertion were often treated as public spectacles. Today, while we view such personal conflicts with more privacy and empathy, the echoes of this era’s rigid gender roles and the desperation of those seeking to escape their circumstances remain a haunting part of our local history.
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