, 1889-02-14
PAGE VS.. PAGE
a Brief Summary of the Points in an
Interesting Divorce Case.

tdhFH, anu lle prominence DI IL
parties involved, Is worthy Of a bet
ter fate than to he tieled away in
| Pigeon-hole il the clerks office, t
/ I've forgotten by all save the prinri
pies The case Of Thomas p. Pagt
v. Francis Ellen Page Is referred to
/ Il brief sketch OF which is appended
for the edltication Of the East ore
I gouiaa's readers:
Thomas p. Page, the plaintiff. Is {
white man Of Irish descent, who ha.
long figured prominently in the his
tory Of Eastern Oregon. II fact
every one knows Tom Page" His
wife, the defendant, is Of mixed
white and Indian descent. and can
claim good blood from either ances-
try. Ii father was Joseph Gale,
one Of the first provisional Governs
or5 of Oregon and noted man in
his day. He was one of those early
explorers who emigrated from the
far East under the famous Capt.
Bonneville Mrs. Pages mother was
a Eneal descendant of the celebrated
Walla Walla chieftain, PeO-M Mox AIox
who was killed about twenty-five
years ago at the battle Of Walla
Nalla; SO it can be seen that the In
dian blood which flows in her veins
is of the very best.
BY virtue of her Indian descent,
Mrs. Page was entitled to take up
land on the reservation and did so,
and in 1856 she and her husband
We're living on the farm she had Sc
lected, fine piece of land about
three miles from Centerville. 1t
seems, however, that they We're not
living i'll the same house during their
residence there. There were two
residences, in one of which Mrs
Page lived alone. In the other house
her husband lived, having for his
companion another woman by the
name of Grace Darling, who seemed
to have captivated him completely
Although Mr.. and Mrs. Page did not
occupy the same house, Page man.
aged his wife's ranch and superin-
tended the farming operations.
In the latter part of the summer of
1886, the rUmor got abroad that Page
had eloped to Arizona with this
Grace Darling, who is described as
being a very handsome and facinat~
ing woman. About the time this
rumor became in circulation, Page
obtained possession of all the wheat
harvested from the ranch of his wife,
about 10000 bushels, and had it
stored at Adams, off the reservation
where it was outside the jurisdiction
of the Indian authorities. After dis
posing of the wheat, he turned his
attention t0 the stock, running all
the horses, to the number of about
eighty head, over into Washington
territory. He sold all his real es-
tate, which he owned in various por-
tons of the Inland Empire, and
moved himself and Grace Darling
and their personal belongings to
Centerville.
These circumstances gave credence
to the rumOr that there was an elope-
ment on foot, and the good people of
Centerville were not q little excited
over the episode.
When Mrs. Page got wind OF this
report and discovered that all her
property had been shipped from the
ranch, she made trip to Portland
and induced the officers of the United
States Court to take hand in the
proceedings. These officials seized
the wheat at Adams and took steps
toward bringing back the horses
which had been spirited away, inter-
fsring considerably with the suspect
ed elopement. An agreement or
compromise was then made between
Mr.. and Mrs. Page by which the
wheat was to be applied to the debts
of both parties, and the horses, cat
tie and other property We're to be di-
vided equally between the two.
This division of property was
made in September last. In the
meantime, Mr.. Page brought di-
vorce suit against his wife, charging
her with desertion, with interfering
with his business relations, with in
iuring his credit by seizing the
wheat, aud with cruel, inhuman and
personal indignitles which made his
life burdensome. These indignities
etc, are alleged to have been the
calling of him a scoundrel, ruffian
libertine, and the like by his wife.
The divorce suit was brought by
Cox & Minor. The defendant en-
ployed as her attorneys Col. William
Parsons and Ramsey & Wager. She
put in as defense to Mr.. Pages sui
for divorce the allegation that hel
desertion of the plaintiff consisted
simply in her refusal to allow him tc
keep the woman Grace Darling il
the house as a servant girl, when she
was II reality occupying a closer re
lation, and that as soon as Page ha(
removed the servant girl from tn
house to place her in another resi-
dence on the same ranch, the defend
ant returned to her home and re
mained there.
The hop buyers in the valley re
port nothing doing. There are yer.
few lots LETT in the valley now. Goot