Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1898 — The Circuit Court [ARTICLE]

The Circuit Court

The •‘twin divorce cases’" from Remington, came up for trial today. Mrs. Alice and Hattie Meyer, two sisters, were the respective plaintiffs, and Gustave and George Meyer, two brothers, are the respective defendants. Both suits were filed the same day and both were tried the same day. Both ladies charged their husbands with beating, striking and kicking them, with failure to support, and with being habitual drunkards. The case of Mrs. Alice Meyer came up first. The plaintiff introduced evidence to prove the truth of her allegations, and her husband made no appearance in court; and she was given her divorce. They were married June Ist, 1885 and separated Mar. 29th 1898. They have no children. The Meyer divorce case nuhiber two, was tried Friday afternoon. Mrs. Hattie Meyer is the plaintiff and Geo. D. Meyer the defendant. They were married Dec. 20, 1879 and separated May 3, 1898. She sued for divorce, charging pounding, beating etc., failure to provide, ana habitual drunkenness. Mr. Meyer opposed the divorce; the motive for so doing being SIOOO worth of property which was in his wife’s name. It appeared in the evidence that lie was willing to let her have her divorce if she would consent to deed half of the .property to their child, a girl 17 years old.

The evidence in the case was much of it of a nature not to be too specifically described. On the part of the plaintiff it was shown that the defendant was a pretty constant drinker aud frequently intoxicated. Also that he had on some occasions struck the plaintiff. In the case of the one big scrap which was mostly in evidence, and which occurred after the separation, it appears that both sides put up a pretty good fight iu which the woman may have been hurt most but the man hollered loudest. The woman was well fixed for weapons on that occasion, including during the different stages of the fracas, a beer bottle, a stick of wood and a stove poker. She also was several points ahead, in the matter of abusive language. The defendant also sought to turn the point of drunkenness against his wife, but only two real thorough cases of drunk were proven against her, and on one of these the claim was made on her part, that she just got drunk to show him how bad it looked for people to get drunk. There seems to have been a pretty steady consumption of beer in the family however, without any special reformatory object in view. The defendant introduced evidence that he was the best tempered man in the community when sober, and just the same only more so, when drunk. The defense also attacked the wife’s moral character pretty strongly by the evidence of neighbors and others, including her own daughter. The judge took the case under advisement until the next term. Lost a yellow shepherd dog, much white about the head. About 7or 8 months old. Finder will be paid for trouble of returning or notifying me at Francesville. L. B. Johserand.