Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1898 — The Circuit Court. [ARTICLE]

The Circuit Court.

The Thomas Divorce Case. v The Thomas divorce case was tried Friday. Morris Thomas, who now lives in Newton county, began suit in that county some time ago for a divorce from Mary A. Thomas, who lives in Rensselaer. He alleged abandonment by her as his grounds for divorce. They wore married June 9th, 1872, and separated April 15th, 1895. The court ordered Thomas to pay SSO for his wife to defend the suit, and by agreement of parties the case was veikued to this county. Mrs. Thomas filed a cross complaint asking that she be granted the divorce, on the grounds of desertion and failure to provide. The plaintiff took a change from Judge Thompson, and the casa was tried by Jesse E. Wilson, as special judge. He granted the divorce to Mrs. Thomas on hes cross complaint and also gave her the custody of the two mil) >;■ children. One of these, a boy 9 years old, had been in the possession of Mr. Thomas for some time. He and the boy lived together in a little cabin, where the boy was learning to smoke, chow and presuably to curse and swear, but was learning nothing good, as his father did not send him to school The grand jury turned in a big grist of indictments, mainly, so far as arrests have been made, for gambling, drunkenness, illegal sale of liquor &c. Quite a number of these have entered pleas of guilty and been fined. Others have plead not guilty and their trials are set for next week. Some of these people are men whom no one could expect to find engaged in such violations of the law, and for the sake of their families their names are not published. Others are old offenders and deserve all they get and more too. The grand jury adjourned Friday nigbt until Monday. One of their last acts was to indict the man who took Hordeman’s horse (hid buggy, and who was then under arrest at Dyer, and his identity not known. The indictment was under the much used name of John Doe.