Case Name: CATHARINE CLARK v. JACOB CLARK
Court: Supreme Court of Ohio
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1833-04
Citations: 1 Wright 225
Docket Number: 
Parties: CATHARINE CLARK v. JACOB CLARK.
Judges: 
Reporter: Reports of cases at law and in chancery, decided by the Supreme court of Ohio, during the years 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834.
Volume: 1
Pages: 229–229

Head Matter:
CATHARINE CLARK v. JACOB CLARK.
Divorce — drunkenness—custody of children — alimony.
A divorce and alimony will be decreed against a man who leaves his wife, and continues absent for three years, drunk about the streets.
Divorce. Cause, wilful absence three years. It appeared that the parties were married in 1814, and lived together eight or ten years. They had five children. He was a painter, and for the first five or six years did well. He then took to drink, neglected his family, and became quarrelsome, and is now a complete vagabond. About four years ago they disagreed, and he left in the fall of 1828, or spring of 1829, and has since been mostly drunk about the streets. She lives by herself, supports the family respectably, and maintains a good reputation. In 1829 he stole away the little boy, his son, and said he meant to keep him, but did not intend he should live with the family again.

Opinion:
BY THE COURT.
A divorce is decreed — the children are given to the custody of the complainant, who may retain the property m her possession as her own. He is ordered to pay the costs and $100 alimony in 60 days, or be subject to execution.