100 years ago: After 27 years of marriage, local woman is fed up

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Oct. 14, 1914:

  • “After twenty-seven years of married life Mrs. Minnie A. Brown has decided that the bonds of matrimony shall be broken between herself and Chas. W. Brown if the courts see fit. They were married December 24, 1887, and have lived together since that time. Eight children were born to them and are all living. Mrs. Brown alleges that Mr. Brown had very little or no property at the time they were married and that he has done very little since to increase the property which she had. She further alleges that he is lazy and dilatory, often lying in bed until 10 o’clock in the morning. He says that there is no use to work and that he does not do enough to make the interest on the mortgage. She says that he always wants to move somewhere and will never stay in one place long enough to make any money. He is never contented with his situation. She alleges that he has been guilty of extreme cruelty having on different occasions struck her with his open hand and closed fist. In consideration of these things Mrs. Brown asks that the bonds of matrimony be severed and that the court grant her all of the real property.”
  • “Considering that a warning board would do much to lessen the chances of accident on certain crossings in town, Mayor Francisco this morning ordered that warning boards be placed at the corner of Ninth and Indiana, Eleventh and Tennessee, Ninth and Tennessee, and Ninth and Kentucky. The boards at the corners of Ninth and Tennessee and Kentucky are for warning against fast driving while passing the school buildings. The officers find that there is more danger in passing the Central School than any other because there are buildings on both sides of the street. The speed limit in the vicinity of the school buildings is the same as it is on the congested streets.”
  • “‘I should judge that about fifty per cent of the women have registered to vote,’ said E. B. Annadown, who has been going over the city registry, this morning in speaking of the registered vote of Lawrence. It does not seem that the women are very much interested in voting from the way they are coming to register. If the women’s vote is to have the control of the election it will be necessary for them to come to the office and register, he went on to say. There remains yet but nine days in which to register for the election and the interest does not seem to increase. Mr. Annadown has been working on the records for the past week and he says that there is an average of about ten people a day that come to the office to register, and they are divided equally between the men and women.”
  • “Henry Allen, who is making the most remarkable campaign for governor ever known in Kansas, will make a whirlwind trip through Douglas county tomorrow. The first meeting will be held at Eudora at 9:30 and the second one at Baldwin at noon and the third one in Lawrence at 3:30…. Mr. Allen is one of the great speakers of the country. He has a message and is delivering it to increasing numbers of people at every stop he makes. He has been out over the second district and the reception he has met leaves no doubt as to the popularity of the progressive movement in this district. Mr. Allen is an orator without peer in the Middle West…. He never lacks for words, never has unsympathetic audiences. He is a genial, wholesouled man who believes most heartily in the things he says and he finds a great response in the audiences he meets…. Everything points to the election of Henry Allen for governor this year and our people ought to see and hear him so as to know what manner of man he is.”