The Town Takes a Stand Against Domestic Abuse
Forty-three women in Olympia sign a resolution formally denouncing a local man for his history of violence against his wife and children.
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.
Of all cowards, he who would strike a defenseless woman is the worst; yet we have such a despicable craven in this vicinity if the story told by the wife of Glasgow is true. Popular indignation very nearly found vent in tar and feathers upon the appearance of the accused in town one day this week. The following resolutions, adopted at a meeting of the ladies of this vicinity, convened for the purpose of considering the matter on Saturday last, indicate the universal feeling on the subject. They were signed by forty-three ladies of this vicinity: Whereas, Mr. Glasgow has been for several years carrying on a system of inhuman torture towards his wife, Mrs. E. Glasgow, and her helpless children, and from which she has now escaped, throwing herself upon the protection of her numerous friends, we the ladies of Olympia, having met to consider the case, do hereby resolve that this is one of unparalleled cruelty on his part, demanding our most open and unreserved sympathy for her, while for him we find no excuse—no charity moved us—but on the contrary, feelings of abhorrence and contempt. We do resolve, that actuated as we are by a high sense of and equal justice to all, we will not shrink from expressing our supreme contempt for a monster who can thus basely and cowardly inflict such uncalled for treatment upon one holding to him the sacred relations of a wife, simply because she was a helpless object in his power. And lastly, we do resolve that a copy of these resolutions be sent to Mrs. Glasgow, and one to each the 'Standard' and 'Overland Press' office for publication, and also one to Mr. Glasgow, that he may be fully aware of the almost universal feeling entertained by the ladies of this town and vicinity in regard to his manhood.
“We will not shrink from expressing our supreme contempt for a monster who can thus basely and cowardly inflict such uncalled for treatment upon one holding to him the sacred relations of a wife.”
This 1862 account highlights how women in the mid-19th century—denied formal legal protections or consistent access to the ballot—utilized collective public shaming and community resolutions to police the private violence that the law ignored. It serves as a stark reminder that the fight for bodily autonomy and protection within domestic spaces is a foundation of civic life that long predates modern reporting.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.