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Judge Withrow, after hearing proof, this
forenoon granted an absolute divorce to Mr. Warren Beckwith from his
wife, Mrs. Jessie Lincoln Beckwith, the charges of desertion having been
proven up at the hearing, which was set for ten o’clock this morning.
The decree gives the two children into the custody and absolute control
of Mrs. Beckwith. The question of alimony and property interests were
not raised and each party to the suit holds their own property.
Mr. H. A. Ambler of this city appeared as attorney for Mr. Beckwith and
Judge Babb of Aurora, while not an attorney of record in the case,
appeared for Mrs. Beckwith’s Chicago legal adviser.
An answer to the petition of the plaintiff was filed in which the
defendant admitted the marriage and the birth of the two children, but
denied the other allegations of the petition, and demanded the custody
of the children.
Depositions from a Miss Emma Borgeson, the housekeeper, and the evidence
of Mr. Everett Beckwith and Mr. Warren Beckwith were heard by the court,
the defense offering no objections.
According to the evidence, after the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Beckwith
they lived in Chicago for a few months and then went out to Riverside,
where they lived until they broke up housekeeping two years ago. During
this time according to the evidence of the housekeeper, Mr. and Mrs.
Beckwith got along very pleasantly and that Mrs. Beckwith was a model
mother to her two children. She was in the habit of spending a good deal
of time with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lincoln and Mr. Beckwith
was also gone a good deal.
The rupture came New Year’s 1904, when Mrs. Beckwith went to make a
visit to her parents in Chicago, taking the two children. Mr. Beckwith
soon after left on a business trip to Indiana.
When he returned some weeks after he found the house vacant, and the
household goods gone. Mrs. Beckwith was with her parents and according
to the evidence of the housekeeper she had been ordered by Mrs. Beckwith
to pack up the household goods and ship them to Mt. Pleasant which was
done. Mr. Beckwith’s personal clothing etc. was packed separately and
shipped to his parents here. Mr. Beckwith claims that he has not seen or
heard from his wife since she left him that New Years night, although he
had written demanding an explanation.
Mr. Beckwith claimed that he had been a dutiful
husband and had provided liberally for his wife and that the parting was
totally unexpected. As he testified, the first he knew that he had been
abandoned was to find the home empty, and the next to learn that a dray
man had driven up to his father’s house and unceremoniously left his
clothes and personal effects there without explanation.
Mrs. Beckwith is with her mother at Augusta, Ga., and has two children
with her. They are two fine little ones, the girl being named Mary
Lincoln and the boy Warren, after Capt. Beckwith.
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Regarding the rumor that he was to marry an
Aurora girl as soon as he could get a divorce, Mr. Beckwith denies the
statement in toto and says that he will at once leave for the southwest
where he will engage in business on a sheep ranch.
(From “Mount Pleasant Daily News”,
Tuesday, February 12th, 1907, page 3)
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Resource provided by Henry County Heritage
Trust, Mount Pleasant, Iowa; transcription done by Nicholas Hohenbrink,
University of Northern Iowa Public History Field Experience Class,
Spring 2025; proofreading done by Mary Anne Bainbridge.
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