The Mallet in the Marriage: A King County Divorce
William Conway calls his absent wife a good woman, but a witness recalls an uncontrollable temper—and a mallet—as Judge Osborn grants the divorce.
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 Osborn yesterday granted a divorce to William E. Conway, a farmer residing in this county, from his wife, Jennie Conway, on the grounds of desertion. Mrs. Conway did not appear, and no defense was put in at all. Conway said that his wife was a good woman, and he did not wish to testify against her except to say that it was impossible for them to longer live together, their tempers being each so different that they could not get along. One of the witnesses swore that Mrs. Conway was a good woman, but that she had an uncontrollable temper. The witness said that at one time Mrs. Conway assaulted her husband with a mallet.
The couple were married in this county a few years ago, and their only child is now dead. Previous to the case being brought into court the couple had decided on an amicable division of the property, and Judge Osborn merely granted the prayer of the plaintiff and signed the decree of divorce.
“At one time Mrs. Conway assaulted her husband with a mallet.”
Domestic violence was rarely the stated ground for divorce in the 1890s; desertion and 'temper' carried the case into court while a husband's public praise of his wife softened the record. The item is a reminder that abuse often surfaced only obliquely in legal proceedings, and that a mallet could be the detail that survives.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.