The Bigamist of the Boise Mines
A woman leaves her second husband to run away with her first when he returns from the mines with a pocket full of gold.
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.
In a quiet place on the banks of the Walla Walla River, Miss Th— commonly known as 'Mrs. P—' lived with her husband and children. They enjoyed a happy life until they had a falling out; the husband went north, and Mrs. P— married another. This second union was also crowned with happiness until a few weeks ago, when husband No. 2 had occasion to be absent. In the meantime, husband No. 1—by mere accident—returned from the northern mines. His pockets full of Boise River’s chief product induced his not-forgotten consort to flee with him, and both absconded for parts unknown, leaving husband No. 2 to mourn his loss and burn her pictures.
“She leaned on the arm of another, who was once my love and my pride.”
This domestic drama highlights the precarity of marriage and the social stigma of divorce in the 1860s frontier. Financial instability often dictated the rise and fall of these domestic arrangements.
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