A Desperate Escape from Cruelty
A Seattle dressmaker seeks legal protection from her abusive husband after he breaks into her home to harass her.
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.
A suit for divorce was commenced yesterday by Mrs. Ricketson against her husband, James Ricketson, on the ground of cruelty. The two were married November 1892 in this country and have no children or community property. She accuses him of neglecting her and subjecting her to cruelties, finally driving her away. She asks for a divorce to resume her maiden name of May Willis. She also filed a motion for a restraining order to keep her husband from entering her rooms and subjecting her to annoyance. She occupies rooms on Second street, between Cherry and Columbia, where she carries on the business of dressmaking, having her little daughter living with her. Here her husband has persecuted her, making false charges against her and seeking to ruin her business. Last Saturday night, July 7, at 11 o'clock, when she was alone in her room, Ricketson came to the door and knocked. On her refusing to admit him, he broke the lock and glass panel of the door and forced himself in. She ran to the window and cried for help, and in the presence of a crowd Ricketson pretended to look about the room as if searching for someone. Judge Osborn signed the restraining order and set next Friday, the 13th, for the hearing.
“On her refusing to admit him he broke the lock and glass panel of the door and forced himself in.”
This 1894 incident of domestic violence and harassment highlights the precarious legal and physical safety of working women in early Seattle. While modern domestic violence laws are far more robust, the struggle for women to maintain independent businesses and housing in the face of intimate partner violence remains a central issue in the city's housing landscape.
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