The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-08-30
Seventeen Year Old Divorced
Wife Makes Sensational Charges
Says ParentsAttempted to Force
Her Into Second Marriage.
HAD MAN PICKED OUT
He Paid the Expenses of Court
Proceedings.
When She Demurred Parents
Turned Her Out.

/ In one of the most sensational affi-
! davits ever filed in Shawnee county
! court 17-year-old Anna Peterson to-
day charged that her mother. Mrs
Margaret Stevens, compelled her to
bring suit against her boy-husband for
divorce, persuaded her to testify false
ly at the trial and accepted money
from the girls former admlrer with
which to prosecute the case When
the girl received divorce, her mother
urged her to marry the former lover.
. She refused and the heartless mother
drove her from the home in Oakland
to q life of shame
It was in April this year when the
girl was married to Albert Peterson, a
boy of 10 years. Two months later,
through her mother as next friend, the
girl fled suit for divorce. In her petit
ton she alleged that Peterson had won
her love through misrepresent
She said the boy lover had told her he
owned a bungalow in the fashionable
West end. that he would buy her
new piano and that she should nave
everything that money might buy when
she became his bride. Both the girl
and her mother testified to these state
ments at the trial of the case in Judge
Dana's court The girl received de-
cree, but not until after the court had
severely criticised the mother for her
encourag cement of infant matrimony.
Then things began to happen, Young
Peterson filed spicy petition in the
district court in which he declared
and asked that the divorce be annulI-
ed He stated that the mother had
conspired to we'd her young daughter
to Clarence johnson, former TOpeka
Peterson also urged that he loved his
wife and that she loved him. He also
said the mother would not permit her
daughter to see him.
There was no change in the juvenile
love affair until today, when Peter
sons former wife went to the office or
Ed AIcKeever. attorney for Peterson
and told a story that is almost without
precedent in Shawnee county court
annals.
Because she refused to accede to the
mothers wishes. the girl said. her
mother had driven her from the home
refused to give her so much as her
own clothing and advised her to earn
her living by immoral practice. Mon
day night the girl slept on the lawn of
the stevens home with nothing out
from the cold night air. Last night
she sought shelter in neighbor's coal
she'd She was without money and de-
clared that she ate only such food as
was brought her by girl friend.
Files sensational Affidavit.
Accompanied by her former hus-
band. a girl friend and Attorney Nc
keever, the girl today went TO the
court house, where she SUBSCRIBED 10
an affidavit, which reads in part as
follows:
.aThat sometime after the marriage.
her mother. Margaret A. Stevens, be-
gan to insist that she get a divorce
and that she should marry Clarence
Johnson. of New Mexico, with whom
this affiant was not even acquainted, !
but whom he had known in her in |
fancy; that her mother continually
insisted and harassed her to compel
her to become divorced and marry
Johnson. That finally, in collision |
with Johnson. they started suit for |
divorce and the said Johnson sent |
from New Mexico the sum of $50 to |
pay the attorney fees and expense or
said suit and did pay the same; that |
at the hearing OF said cause, Mar |
garet A. Stevens compelled this af-
faint to testify falsely that said de-
PENDANT had deceived her as to his
wealth and possessions for the pur-
pose of inducing her to marry him
and had fraudulently contracted said
marriage, whereas said affiant we'll
knew at the time that she married
said defendant he had no wealth or
no job and no earthly possessions and
that atlantis mother, Margaret A.
Stevens, knew the same. That this
affiant only testified as she did at the
trial because OF her mothers insist
ent demands that she do so; that
since said divorce her mother has in
sisted that she marry Johnson and
to come to Topeka in September,
1911, for the purpose of marrying
this affiant as she believes and is