Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1906 — Judge Dissolves One Of His Own Marriages. [ARTICLE]

Judge Dissolves One Of His Own Marriages.

The first divorce of the present term of the circuit court was tried this Friday forenoon. The plaintiff was Martha M. Dorsten, and she wanted a divorce from Deidrich Dorsten. They were married April 21, 1903 and Separated Dec. 23, 1905. She charged cruelty in large and frequent quantities, naming specifically Nov. 16, 1905 and Aug. 20, 1905 as dates on which he struck, beat, choked and kicked her. She charged further that he spent all his earning in drink and on other persons, and further that he had done nothing for her support, and that he sold all her oats and corn and a team of mules, and then abandoned her. She seemed to have made out a pretty strong case but when her attorney brought out the fact that it was the Judge himself who had performed their marriage ceremony he balked somewhat on giving her a divorce as he always gives a sort of guarantee of permanence in all marriage ceremonies he performs. This was the first of his marriages he had ever been asked to dissolve, but he finally granted the decree she asked for.