Mabel Makes a Fresh Start

      

Mabel Brown Stratton

Seven months after Mabel married Ira Stratton in November of 1895 their first child Edwin Perlia was born. How did they meet? Both families were farmers who lived about 7 miles apart in the neighboring towns of Sutton and Grafton. I have no pictures of a young Ira but from the picture I have of Mabel in her late 20’s she is quite beautiful. The sepia photo makes it impossible to see her auburn hair.(1) Oral history of Mary Bradley Maroney

Both Ira and Mabel came from well-established families. Ira’s father Samuel served in the Civil War and married into the well know Bigelow family who were shoemakers in Worcester County, MA. Mabel Ellen Brown descended from Chad Brown who founded Rhode Island with Roger Williams. Marriage Banns for the couple were posted in both Grafton and Sutton but the couple were married in Berlin, MA by the Baptist pastor in the Congregational Church.

The next four years must have passed in a blur. Each year brought an additional child. After Edwin came Lyman X who lived little more than a week. The next year brought Samuel Dewey and then on August 2, 1900 came our own Mary Elizabeth aka Nana Bradley. The family was living in Sutton, MA when Mary was born in August but by September of 1900 Mabel and the children were living in Providence with her parents Darling and Ellen Brown and Mabel had filed divorce papers.

Filing for divorce was radical for this time period as you can see from this Redbook article:

In the early 1900's to get a divorce you had to prove your significant other had committed adultery, abused, or abandoned you. In 1903, the Inter-Church Conference on Marriage and Divorce was held to encourage many churches to prohibit divorce and to call for stricter, nationwide divorce laws — laws that would allow divorce only if infidelity could be proven. But the Women's Conference in Seneca Falls in 1848 had made a huge and lasting impact: Feminism had been gaining ground for more than 50 years, and, with it, more women were deciding they weren't willing to stick around in abusive or unhappy relationships.

The threat of divorce even prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to give states with lax divorce laws a verbal bashing in his 1906 Sixth Annual Message, and he suggested divorce become a federal issue to avoid "scandals and abuses" due to statewide differences in law. In general, states in the West had more relaxed divorce laws — couples from the East Coast who could afford to travel would often go to places like Utah, Indiana, and South Dakota (states considered "divorce mills") where a quickie divorce could be obtained, and accommodations, restaurants, and even events were provided for couples traveling there to put an end to their marriages. Other states, like South Carolina, outright abolished divorce. ^{2 (}https://www.redbookmag.com/love-sex/relationships/g4275/divorce-throughout-history/?slide=1

  Above: Map of Sutton and Grafton, MA where Mabel and Ira live

                          

In Mabel's Own Words

 Translated from above: She was married to Ira E. Stratton twenty-first day of November 1896, and hath ever since on her part demeaned herself as a faithful wife- and performed all the obligations of marriage covenant; but that said- Ira E. Stratton that he hath  neglected and refused to provide necessaries for the subsistence of his wife for more than  one-year last past being of sufficient ability to do- and also he treated her with extreme cruelty-

"What has been the conduct of Ira E. Stratton as a married man since his marriage to you?

About three years ago my husband began to quarrel with me and to strike me and the last three months that he lived with me I had black and blue on me all the time from his blows and most of the times my eyes were black and blue from blows given me by my husbands fists, He would strike me two and three times a week. In September 1900 my husband deserted me and has not done anything to support me since he deserted me. My husband was strong and healthy and he was always able to support me well enough until about a month before he deserted me. There are three children born of this marriage, Edwin P. Stratton six years old, Samuel E. Stratton five years old and Mary E. Stratton two years old and I wish the custody of these children. I was a good wife to my husband and he had no excuse for his bad conduct."

Mabel E. Stratton

Above: The divorce is finalized on 13 November 1903. 

1. Diane Boumenot talks about divorce in Rhode Island in the 1800's in her blog: One Rhode Island Family

https://onerhodeislandfamily.com/2020/02/16/rhode-island-divorce/