Domestic Strife in the Mining Town of Gilman
A divorce filing from the coal-mining town of Gilman reveals a history of abuse and a struggle over meager family assets.
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.
Another tale of domestic difficulty at the little mining town of Gilman was filed in the superior court yesterday morning in the shape of a divorce complaint. The trouble is in the Forgas family, and Elizabeth sues her husband, Stephen, for the divorce. Mrs. Forgas alleges that since she married her husband in Austria in 1887 she has been more or less unhappy in her relations with him. He has often beaten her, she says, and early in the present month at their home in Gilman he drew a big knife and threatened to take her life. These occurrences, she alleges, make her unhappy and life a burden, she complains, and hence the suit. The community property is a house at Gilman, valued with the furniture at $700. There are no children. She wants $25 per month temporary alimony out of the wages her husband earns as a coal miner. Judge Osborn granted yesterday a restraining order to prevent Forgas from meddling with his wife until the final determination of the suit.
“He has often beaten her, she says, and early in the present month at their home in Gilman he drew a big knife and threatened to take her life.”
Gilman, which later became Issaquah, was a rough-and-tumble company town defined by coal extraction. This report offers a rare, somber look at the private lives of immigrant workers in Washington's early industrial era, far removed from the boosterism that characterized the period's public discourse.
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