The Fugitive Bride of Ellensburg
After a coerced marriage and a secret divorce, a local real estate dealer’s legal nightmare ends in a mysterious chase across the state.
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.
The Lapointe case is exciting Ellensburgh. Last March L. M. Lapointe, a real estate dealer, was arrested for seducing Miss Minnie Foss. Lapointe settled the case by marrying the girl, although it was claimed that he was instrumental in producing an abortion. A short time afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Lapointe left Ellensburg, and at Port Townsend, Lapointe persuaded the girl into a divorce and placed her in a convent where her mother found her a short time ago. Action was then commenced against Lapointe, charging him with abortion, but when the sheriff went after the girl to produce her in court, she could not be found. The sheriff journeyed to the Sound and Victoria, following a false clue, but Mrs. Lapointe had been sent by private conveyance to North Yakima, stopping at the Quilland house overnight, and the next day going to Pendleton, from which place she was returned to Ellensburgh last Friday.
“The sheriff journeyed to the Sound and Victoria, following a false clue, but Mrs. Lapointe had been sent by private conveyance to North Yakima.”
This case highlights the extreme vulnerability of women in the 1890s legal system, where marriage was frequently used as a tool to evade statutory rape or criminal charges. The 'disappearing' bride reveals the era's reliance on private transport and secret boarding houses to facilitate domestic coercion.
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