The Bride Who Forgot Her First Husband
A Tacoma court voids a marriage after the groom discovers his new wife was already spoken for.
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.
Judge Shackleford of the superior court today annulled the marriage of Walter O. Hiteshue to Mattie Hiteshue. The Hiteshues have lived apart since a few days after their marriage, when the bridegroom discovered his bride was already married and had a second husband living in the East. Mrs. Hiteshue claimed that she believed her first husband had obtained a divorce from her. She will now regain her first name, Mrs. Dan Cummings.
“The bridegroom discovered his bride was already married and had a second husband living in the East.”
This case highlights the archaic and precarious nature of divorce and marriage records in the early 20th century. While we now have digitized, nationalized record-keeping, the legal entanglement of 'bigamy' often arose simply because of the sheer difficulty of verifying status across state lines in 1910.
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