The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-04-29
w. ]. Rikeard, in Divorce
Testimony, Said He Had
to Do So Because His Wife
Refused Such Work.
HE HAD NO TROUBLE
GETTING A DIVORCE
Mrs. Rikeard's Father-in-law
Called Her About Can
ming Fruit and She Left
Husbands Home.

When William George Rikeard
learned that he would have to wash
his only suit of shop clothes in the
river. as his wife. Mary Agnes. had
no inclination for such duties. he made
no serious objection. That was over
four years ago; 1t did not rankle as it
does now. for then he had been mar
ried but q short time and his faith in
his wife's affection was supreme. Now.
however. his love for her Is lost. and
he divorced her in the Wayne circuit
court Saturday, also receiving Gus
tody of the four-year-old child, Paul
Christian, an exceptionally beautiful
boy, whom the mother deserted when
he was scarcely fourteen months old.
The marital trouble was over the
washing; also canning and storing
away of fruit, and 1t was a father.in-
law, not mother-in-law, who played
the prominent part In this case. Faith
er-in-law Rikeard advised his sons
wife that she was In the wrong in re-
gard to the little trouble over the fruit
whereupon she flew up in ruff. jump
ed up from the dinner table and since
about the seventeenth day of Septem-
Der, 1907, has not been seen by the
husband. and only on one or two occa-
sions by the child, according to testi-
mony which was adduced in the trial
in the circuit court.
Married In. ohip.
Rikeard and his wife were married
in New Philadelphia, Ohio. In No
vember IL. 1905, and went to live on
a small farm, owned by his father.
which the latter allowed them to use
free of rent. The husband worked in
a mill and as the work was heavy he
perspired freely and particularly so
in the summer time. His shop clothes
would be wet with perspiration, he
testified, and 1t was his custom as soon
as he learned his wife would not wash
his dirty shop clothes. to take cake
of soap from the mill and jump in the
stream near by, lather his dripping
wet clothes well and then jump up and
down until they had been thoroughly
rinsed. He you'd then proceed to his
home and hang up his clothes to dry,
wearing them again. the next morning
During the two years they lived to.
gether, Mrs. Rikeard is alleged to
have deserted her husband twice. once
because of trouble in regard to filling
his dinner pail, but on both occasions
he induced her to return. When the
permanent separation occurred, they
were visiting his sister, Mrs. Thomp
son, who also testified. and his father
at his sisters home. Some little dis
pute arose between the husband and
| the wife as to her giving the fruit
away instead of preserving 1t. and
when her father-in-law said he believ
ed she was in the wrong, she settled
the dispute by taking French leave.
| Rikeard with his SON, has been liv
ing in Richmond for more than two
years. He has been employed at the
Hoosier Drill, Gaar. Scott & CO., and
at present on the improvement to the
National road The little boy was il
court and during the greater portion
of the trial sat on its aunt's lap, at
tracing a great deal of attention
from the attorneys and court attaches