Local Legal Troubles and a Broken Marriage
Superior Court handles a flurry of forgery, arson, and assault charges, while a divorce is granted for failure to provide.
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.
Considerable business in the superior court is being disposed of by court commissioners during the absence of Judge Brents, who is attending the Oregon state fair at Salem. Yesterday afternoon Mrs. Catherine Stahl was given judgment against Dunnigan Brothers for $301.75, due on a promissory note. In the divorce case of Fannie B. Lewis vs. Attorney William Abbott Lewis, Judge Kennan this morning granted a decree of divorce on default. The grounds for the decree are that for the past three years the defendant has failed to provide for his family, consisting of his wife and one daughter, although an able-bodied man and fully capable of doing so. Lewis is now in the penitentiary at Walla Walla. New informations in cases coming to trial include Fagan Scott, charged with assault with attempt to commit murder; Andy Lee, charged with arson; and John Lempson, forgery. The specific charge against Andy Lee is setting fire to and burning a building in the rear of the Hotel Dacres.
“The grounds for the decree are that for the past three years the defendant has failed to provide for his family.”
Divorce filings based on 'failure to provide' highlight the stark economic precarity of wives in 1903, a stark contrast to today's no-fault divorce laws. Meanwhile, the Hotel Dacres remains a central, albeit transformed, fixture of Walla Walla history.
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