The Charity Case Who Came Back a Brutal Husband
Port Blakely mill hands passed the hat for a crippled co-worker and sent him home to Kentucky. He came back married — and the town's justice of the peace had to take his wife away from him by night.
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.
PORT BLAKELY, June 24, 1884.
To the Post-Intelligencer:
Some of the readers of the Post-Intelligencer will remember that on or about the middle of February a man had his leg fractured while working in Port Blakely mill. He claimed to be in destitute circumstances, and not desiring to go to the hospital, the employees of the mill raised a snug sum of money by subscription and sent him home to Kentucky. On arriving at Minneapolis, where he had some acquaintances, he married a woman who has proved herself to be a lady in all respects.
Some time ago this man returned to Port Blakely with his wife. Soon after their arrival here the woman learned, to her sorrow, that she had married a brute instead of a man. He first attempted to starve her, but the kind people of the town always gave her food when she was hungry. Last Saturday night, after treating and abusing the woman, he threatened to kill her. Some of the neighbors hearing her cries, gave the alarm to George Burchill, Justice of the Peace, who went to her assistance and took her to a place of safety. There was considerable talk about tar and feathers, when the brutal husband made his escape, and has not shown up since.
HONEST JOHN.
“Some of the neighbors hearing her cries, gave the alarm to George Burchill, Justice of the Peace, who went to her assistance and took her to a place of safety.”
There was no police department in a mill town like Port Blakely and no shelter for a woman in danger — the response was neighbours waking a justice of the peace at night and hiding her. The detail that lands hardest is the first one: the mill crew's charity for an injured co-worker is what brought the man back to the Sound with a wife. An injury without compensation, a company town with no safety net for the people inside it, and a woman a long way from home remain a recognisable chain.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.