Brookings register. (Brookings, S.D.) 1890-1894, 1894-01-19
A JUST DECISION.
Hoke Smith Gives Mrs. Roche Her Right.
Roche Roasted.

will have warm spot in her heart for
Hokc Smith. secretary of the interior,
when she reads his decision i'm the
case of Margeret Roche VS.. Theodore
Roche, Of Rapid City. 1t is seldom
that the secretary of the interior has
occasion to step between husband and
wife and decide who is right and who
wrong in their domestic quarrelS. But
in this case the secretary does this
and he does it in a way to give the
average Judge of a divorce court sever
al pointers. The land in question
consists of 100 acres in the middle of
section II, township 4, range 6, east,
Black Hills meridian, in the Deadwood
land district, being just outside the
town of Rapid City.
Roche made homestead entry of the
land Jan. Is, 1887, and Jan. 10, 1891,
he gave notice of his intention to sub
NIT final proof. But his former wife,
who had been divorced from him while
they were living on the land contested
the entry. She showed that Roche
had abandoned the land and herself,
and that while she continued to live
on the land and to improve it, she had
been granted divorce from Roche on
account of desertion and abandon
ment.
While all the facts seemed to show
that in equity Mrs. Roche and not her
husband ought to have the homestead
the register and receiver decided the
case in favor of the husband. She
appealed to the commissioner of the
general land Office, and again was
turned down. 1t remained for Secre-
tary Hoke Smith to give her case the
attention it deserved and to reverse
the former decisions. The decision in
the case covers II pages and reviews
the testimony at length. The facts,
as Secretary Smith finds them, are:
"The land was settled upon by
claimant (Roche) and his wife soon
after entry; the improvements are
valued at about $500: Mrs. Roche has
continually lived on the land.
"Roche is by occupation 'gunsmith
machnist and general repairer:' he
had shop in Rapid City, short dis
tance from the land and worked there
about two years, but states every
week or so | used to go down there and
do all | could on the land About
June 9, 1889, he left the land. after
having difficulty with his wife, and
went to Tiuford, a few miles distant.
Mrs. Roche testified that he left her
and abandoned the place, his excuse
being that he did not have anything
to eat: that he furnished nothing for
two years, and when she failed to col
lect what was due her and had nothing
but potatoes without bread, he left:
that she never had an angry word
with him. She was nursing a Mrs.
Child just before he left and he order
ed her home with an oath. She went.
Then there was scene at the home.
Roche threw his wife's clothing out of
the house, broke her pictures and fin
ally choked her.
Roche subsequently brought a suit
for divorce, but the court turned the
tables upon him and gave the divorce
to Mrs. Roche. She also showed by
letters which Roche wrote to another
woman that he had abandoned not
only his home and his wife but that
he intended to sell the homestead as
soon as he proved up on it thus turn
ing her adrift on the world.
A curious fact in connection with
Roche's love affair was that the
woman of whom he was enamOred,
Sarah J. NanhOrtcn, turned over the
letters to his wife to make the case
against him and testified against him
also. 1t also developed that Mrs.
Roche when she married her gun
smith husband was worth in real
estate and other property about
$4,000, which she mortgaged and lost
to give him money. Roche claimed
he had slept in the granary after he
secured his divorce for fear that his
wife would kill him, but other parties
said he only pretended he was afraid
of his wife. With all these facts
against him Secretary Smith denounc-
es Roche in the strongest terms and
directs that she shall have the first
opportunity to enter the land in her