The 'Mercer Girl' Divorce Case
A seventy-two-year-old pioneer sues his wife of twenty-two years for divorce, complaining of her 'slipshod housekeeping' and a lack of clean bedding.
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.
The conjugal differences between Charles Benson and his wife, Lucy S., which have been aired in the newspapers numerous times during the past year, were all related before Judge Hanford in chambers yesterday, in the famous divorce suit to which the 'better half' is plaintiff. Mr. Benson is 72 years of age and his wife is 57. She was one of the 'Mercer girls' brought to Washington territory in 1867. Benson met her soon after her arrival and married her an hour afterward. If his story as told yesterday is to be believed, he 'married in haste' and has been repenting for twenty-two years. He says that Mrs. Benson is a termagant, that she failed to keep house in a respectable manner, and that she made life a burden to him. One of the specific acts he charges against his recreant spouse is that she made him sleep in one bed for twenty years without ever changing or washing the blankets. He said during the twenty-two years he had lived with her she had never put a single stitch in his clothes. 'Why, she cut up my first wife's beds and made pillows of 'em,' said the old man smiling malevolently across the table at Mrs. Benson. 'and then made me sleep without a pillow all these years.' This statement appeared to amuse Mrs. Benson very much, which caused her liege to point at her with the scornful remark that she 'slept in a dog's nest.' Mrs. Benson claims that she has better reason to regret the matrimonial misfit than her husband. She accuses him of habitual drunkenness, cruelty and failure to provide for her wants. The case was a very spicy one and occupied the attention of the court until late in the evening.
“If his story as told yesterday is to be believed, he 'married in haste' and has been repenting for twenty-two years.”
This 1889 domestic dispute offers a window into the 'Mercer Girls,' the group of young women brought to Seattle to balance the city's gender ratio. The petty grievances aired in court—ranging from unwashed blankets to accusations of 'termagant' behavior—reflect the era's legal fixation on domestic performance as a metric for marriage viability, a stark contrast to the modern no-fault divorce system.
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