Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-05
FIRST DIVORCE
IN DUN KARD
SECT GRANTED
Church Sanctions the
Separation
Said to Be the only Case on Record
Where Members Of the Faith
Have Been Legally
Parted

BY order of Judge Conrey, in depart
ment of the superior court, yesterday
the first decree of divorce ever granted
Dunkards was given Mrs. Ruth Kate
Wolfe from her husband Charles
Abram Wolfe, the ground alleged be-
ing that of cruelty. The case is one of
the most remarkable in the history of
the divorce courts because of the fact
that both husband and wife were men,
bers of the church of the Dunkard
Brethren of Lordsburg, which bitterly
opposes the separation of husband and
wife,
The Dunkard faith is of a strict and
puritanic character, so much so that
the women are not permitted to wear
other than the plainest kind of clothes,
while, as a mark of their peculiar re-
ligious sect, they wear small black
scoop shovel bonnets.
Among them divorces have heretofore
been unknown.
In fact, a brother or sister of the
church might have been ostracised for
considering such thing as a divorce
after marriage " the church had once
been performed, but so exceptional was
the Wolfe case and so unusual the ac-
tions of the husband regarding the
ordinary department of a young Dunk
ard that the church stepped in and
sanctioned the divorce proceedings aft
er the minister had Investigated, and
yesterday when the case came up for
hearing the minister was one of the
star witnesses in behalf of the woman.
Had Many Sweethearts
The couple was married at Lords
n IO,,fI l.
Conner, for such was the young wo-
mans name at that time, had been
courted by several of the young breth-
rem.
Following the wedding, as became a
thrifty member of the faith, young
Wolfe took his wife to home he had
prepared for her and they settled down
to the humdrum of country life ex-
| istence.
But three months later there was
! trouble, trouble of such character as
| to lcause the little black bonnets at ev-
| cry corner to bob about in excitement.
| The young bride had been insulted by
her husband even before the honey
moon was over. He had taken her to
within three miles of her home and
had then put her out of his buggy and
had left her in a sluice while he drove
away, after telling her that he did not
care for her any more.
The young woman was heart-broken
and the minister of the church was
called in to settle the affair. He learned
that the husband had seen a letter
written his wife by one of her former
sweethearts. and in spite of her pro-
testations that it was simply de-
layed answer to a letter written the
young man before her marriage, the
husband had unloaded his wife in the
sluice and had told her to go to her
home and stay there.
Wife Granted Alimony
The trouble was patched up without
the law and the young people were rec
onciled. But since then, according to
the statements of the wife and of the
minister there has been a constant
round of trouble at the Wolfe home,
and on many occasions the husband
beat and kicked his wife until she ran
from the house to get away from him.
Such action was followed by a suit
for divorce filed by the husband, in
which he alleged cruelty, but he drew
down the petition when the wife filed
a cross complaint and the divorce was
granted Mrs. Wolfe upon her showing
in the cross-complaint.
She was also granted the exclusive
charge of her 3-year-old son and an
order was made compelling the husband
to contribute $40 a month for the baby's
support.