A Wife Says Her Husband Tried to Shoot Her—Then Altered the Deed

Rachel McDonald yesterday commenced an action for divorce in the superior court against William Henry McDonald, to whom she was married March 14, 1871, at Ontario. For more than four years past, she says, her husband has treated her in an inhuman manner, and fits of temper and jealousy have repeatedly led to acts of cruelty and violence. She charges that at their home in Ravenna Springs, on March 17, McDonald threatened to kill her, at the same time going to the place where he kept his revolver. As he was in the act of drawing the weapon, he repeated, 'I will kill you,' when she, frantic for her life, fled. Earlier the same day, she charges, he violently shook her and brandished his clenched fist in her face. For a long time, she says, his entire course of conduct toward her, with rare intervals, has been uniformly brutal. She charges also that he has constantly applied profane epithets to her.

Mrs. McDonald says further that her husband, for the purpose of further harassing and annoying her, recorded a deed to their joint property, consisting of two lots in Ravenna Springs Park Supplemental, in the name of his brother, John C. McDonald, of Ontario, and then twitted and taunted her with his ability to cheat her out of her interest. Further, she acquired by her own labor lot 5, block [—], Ravenna Springs Park Supplemental, and had the deed so recorded; but subsequently her husband altered the original deed so as to make his own name appear as the grantee, by erasing 'Mrs.' and causing 'Mrs. William H. McDonald' to read 'Mr. William H. McDonald,' and also by changing 'her' to 'his' in several places. Taking the deed to be extended and marked recorded, it is alleged that he ignorantly endeavored to assert the property, and boasted of his ability to do so, all for the purpose of making her life miserable.

Owing to McDonald's threats, his wife says she has been obliged to leave her home and seek other shelter. All her clothes and possessions are in the house at Ravenna Springs, and she asks for a restraining order to prevent him from entering the house or molesting her.

The couple have acquired the following property: forty acres in section 13, township 27 north, range 5 east; the two lots at Ravenna Springs Park; and two lots in Cumberland addition. She asks for an equitable division of the above property, and for other proper relief.

Judge Osborn issued the restraining order prayed for.