The Hidden Fortune of the Columbia Hotel
A local hotel proprietor finds his marriage and his finances in the crosshairs of a superior court divorce filing.
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.
Claiming that her husband, John Morken, proprietor of the Columbia hotel, has $6,000 in cash, notes and mortgages concealed in safety deposit box No. 504 in the First National bank under the name of his father, Henry Morken, Mrs. Jennie Morken filed suit in superior court for divorce. She demands her share of the community property and asks the court to restrain her husband from hiding assets. Mrs. Morken’s complaint states they were married in Marietta, Ohio, in 1906. She asserts her husband treated her cruelly and abandoned her on March 21. She further alleges that Morken has been guilty of 'joy-riding' and other improper conduct with other women. The Morkens are well known to White Bluffs residents, and the item has caused much surprise as their domestic relations were presumed to be of the best.
“Mrs. Morken asserts she had $2,400 at the time of her marriage to Morker, and that all the balance of their property is community property.”
Divorce filings in early 20th-century Washington often served as a public airing of private financial disputes, particularly involving the concealment of community property. The 'joy-riding' accusations reflect the cultural anxiety of the era regarding the newfound freedom the automobile provided for social behavior outside of marriage.
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