The Populist Editor, the Divorce, and the Cruelty Charge
Norah Morrow sues P. Frank Morrow of the Ballard Progress for divorce, alleging years of abuse and a refusal to support their three children.
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.
Mrs. Norah Morrow commenced a suit for divorce in the superior court yesterday against her husband, P. Frank Morrow, the Populist editor of the Ballard Progress, on the ground of brutality. The two were married in this city January 19, 1888, and have three children, two boys, 6 and 4 years, and one girl, 2 years old.
Mrs. Morrow alleges that about 1891 her husband began a systematic course of abuse and ill-treatment by beating her, slapping her in the face, striking, kicking and choking her, using profane language and heaping abuse and indignity on her until she could bear it no longer; that for more than two years he has refused to provide for his family even the common necessaries of life, although he is fully able to do so in a liberal manner, being the proprietor and editor of the Ballard Progress and other property valued at $5,000. The community property consists of a lot in Gilman Park. She also alleges that she is in indigent circumstances and unable to support herself and children. Two of her children are ill and all need care and attention.
She asks for a divorce, the custody of the children, that the house and lot at Ballard be decreed to her property, and that he be required to pay a per annum alimony and court costs.
Morrow gained statewide fame seven years ago by whipping a rival for the hand of the girl he afterward married.
“For more than two years he has refused to provide for his family even the common necessaries of life.”
Domestic violence was a recognized ground for divorce in 1894, but a woman’s ability to leave depended on property, alimony and custody—issues still at the center of family-court fights. The case also shows how a local editor’s private conduct became public news in the populist-press era. Ballard’s separate identity before annexation adds another layer to the property dispute.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.