The Park Superintendent's Divorce Turns Into a War of Affidavits
Edward O. Schwagerl's sensational charges against his wife and her uncle meet a counterattack: neighbors call her devoted, and she calls him jealous, unfaithful, and a theosophy crank.
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 the divorce case of Park Superintendent Edward O. Schwagerl vs. Ella B. Schwagerl, in which the husband alleges the most filthy and unnatural crimes between his wife and her uncle, S. B. Brierly, a number of affidavits were filed yesterday in behalf of the defense, mostly those of neighbors and old friends of the family, who say that the defendant is a kind, loving woman, devoted to her child, always attends to her own business, and is a hard-working, industrious woman, esteemed by all her neighbors; and that the plaintiff is a disagreeable man to get along with and is given to fits of ungovernable temper. Two women doctors testify to the physical condition of Mrs. Schwagerl. An affidavit by the defendant denies the allegations of her husband regarding her relations with her uncle, Brierly, and accuses him of extravagance, jealousy and cruel treatment and neglect, and alleges that at one time he confessed that he had been unfaithful to his marriage vows, and that he is a crank on the subject of theosophy. She alleges that her husband and the physician who examined her are in a conspiracy to blacken her character. The case is set for hearing September 19.
“He is a crank on the subject of theosophy.”
Divorce was a public spectacle in 1892, especially when a city official was involved; newspapers printed intimate allegations as moral theater. The case's competing affidavits—and the use of women physicians—show how private reputation was litigated in public long before modern media. It is a reminder that public officials' family lives have long been treated as civic news.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.