Part 2: 7: Domestic Abuse

7. Domestic abuse was not uncommon.

Johanna Salen was found unconscious in her home, covered in bruises and wounds in a pool of blood. Frank Salen her husband, claimed to have found her in that condition when he returned home for lunch from work at the sugar refinery across from his home. She died after being transferred to the local hospital.Neighbors and their nine-year old son told police that a drunken fight the previous Saturday continued into the street, with Salen kicking her as she went. Examination or her battered body, including a cut that extended almost its full length led to the accusation of murder against her husband. (1)

Peter Yankowitz had been living with, but not married to Weronika Slamen on Market for two years before they separated. “Mrs Slamen stated that her husband had been dead ten years and that she was a lone widow with children which is why she took Yankowitz in.” Yankowitz admitted that he had a wife “in the old country,” who had married another man and bore him children so he felt justified in finding another woman for himself. Yankowitz, however, said “ he was tired of Weronika. She drinks, he says. She spends his money on fancy dresses and toilet accessories, he charges, and he states that although he sometimes gives her $22 a week she is never able to keep a cent.” He returned from North Chicago long enough to beat her “all over,” steal her money and cart away her furniture. The local magistrate ordered him to restore the furniture. (2)

Satnis Scarlowski came home drunk one Sunday evening and beat his wife when she refused “in an unseemly manner” to feed him. She fled to neighbors with their baby, and he was arrested and fines $20. “He paid and went home. He regarded the whole matter as a joke, in spite of the stern reprimand to behave in the future.” It is not noted if Mrs Scarlowski saw much humor in the incident (3).

William Hudson of 211 Market was given an unusually harsh sentence of 30 days in the county jail for blackening the eye of his wife with his fist. According to his wife, “He is a good man when he’s sober, which ain’t very often. Every time he gets drunk, he fights. He went to ‘de colored club’ at 10 o’clock last night and when he returned home he was beastly drunk. Then he wanted to “love me.” He wanted to kiss me, but I wouldn’t let any drunken man kiss me. He got sore and struck me a blow in the eye with his fist, den I had him pinched,” said the colored woman.” The “colored club” in question was apparently one run by Ike Franklin on nearby North Sheridan road. (4)

[A year later, Mr. Hudson was subpoenaed as a hostile witness in prosecution of Ike Franklin for illegal liquor sales. Franklin was apparently a somewhat flamboyant figure, who boasted of being “Ike the immune,” enjoying the protection of State’s Attorney Ralph Dady. In the primary election in the fall of 1916, Dady’s opponent, James Welch, quoted Franklin admitting as much.When Welch asked Franklin for his support, and his influence with the black community in Waukegan, Franklin is alleged to have replied: ““I have nothing against you, but you know the business I am in and for several years Mr. Dady has protected me. I’m going to work and vote for him, the man who has stood for me. I am for Mr. Dady for state’s attorney.” (5) Dady had been State’s Attorney for 8 years in 1916, to some persistent controversy, and never denied Welch’s charges regarding his protection of Franklin. (52 4/8) . Franklin took a public stand in support of Dady--”“worked his head off for Dady”--including orating on the corner of Genesee and Washington in the heart of downtown, or driving around town with his car festooned with Dady signs. in a decisive victory, Welch beat Dady by 970 votes. By the following spring, as the new reform state’s attorney, Welch had Franklin arrested for selling liquor without a license from his club on Sheridan road. The local press accounts seemed amused that “Ike the immune” was apparently immune no longer.(6) William Hudson reluctantly testified that he had purchased drinks at Franklin’s club, though before the anti-saloon measure was passed. (7) Franklin was duly convicted.and sentenced to a $300 fine and forty days in jail, a harsh sentence “so it would prove a lesson to him and others” according to the judge. (8, 9) Whether the lesson was learned is in doubt. Franklin was arrested again in 1923, and blind pigs and bootlegging continued in Waukegan throughout the prohibition era.]

[WWI brought further troubles to William Hudson, starting in February of 1918..”Warmoth Hudson, colored, aged 29, residing at 211 Market street was arrested by Waukegan police Friday afternoon about 4 o’clock on the charge of disorderly conduct. Back of his arrest lies the veiled charge that he may be a draft evader, as the police assert the fellow claimed exemption from serving in the national army on the ground that he has a wife and two children. Hudson, who gave his first name as “Walter” when he registered for the draft is said by the police to have admitted he is not married to the woman with whom he has been living. When he was arraigned before  police magistrate Taylor this morning he insisted he was married….”The woman he calls his wife is now in the general hospital where she had an operation performed. There are two little children at home. Hudson expected them to get along three weeks on $4 he gave them. There was no fuel in the house and the children were in a pitiful condition.” assistant police chief Tyrrell asserted” (10) By March, Hudson was under arrest again, having failed to report to Camp Grant as instructed by the draft board. (11) In June he had somehow slipped away and was arrested in Milwaukee as a deserter and brought back to Waukegan and forwarded on to Fort Sheridan. (12)]

The wife of Frank Oblak first told police that the bruises on her body and the holes of four shots through her bedroom door at 507 Market street were the resulted of a struggle with burglars. Frank said that the shots were fired at tramps menacing the house. Neighbors convinced the police that Frank was in fact responsible for his wife’s injuries, though he was given a reduced fine after his wife’s pleas for leniency. (13). The 1910 census, three years after this incident lists Frank as 43 and his wife Joanna as 39, with a daughter Antonia, 15 and a son Peter, 5.

The wife of John Suekas claimed he beat her with a poker and drove her and her children out into the February cold one Wednesday night. He claimed she was at fault and had thrown the daughter’s clothes into the street and left their children hungry. His employer sided with him, but the case was dropped for “lack of evidence.”  (14)

Frank Polivits was arrested for beating his wife after feigning drunk in order to catch her with another man. He was dismissed with a warning not to drink or beat his wife, though it is unclear if these warnings were headed. (15)

Carl Gomwicz got help from his son Felix, age 19, in beating his wife after she returned home early one Sunday at 2 AM after being out all night. Though “heavily fined” they got off “light” in consideration of the other 2 children in the family. Gomwicz swore to divorce his “no good” wife. (16)

John Matinkus was fined $5 and costs for “patting” his wife on the shoulder blade with a broom stick, after she allegedly took $13 from his pocket while he was napping on his Market street porch. He “pushed her inside, and she ran at him with a kitchen knife. At this he picked up a broom handle and just lightly patted her on the back as a joke.” (17)

The wife of Frank Druba had a dishpan thrown at her when she served him cold soup, and their 18 year old daughter Mary received a bite on her arm when she tried to intervene. Police advised Mary the next day to have a doctor look at her “badly swollen arm,” but Mary assured them that she had “put peroxide on it.” Frank’s wife paid the $7.40 fine to free him from jail, after bashfully retrieving the bills from her stockings. Druba promised to eat cold soup thereafter. (18)

An unnamed woman, who resided at 809 Market street in 1907 was gathering scrap wood for firewood  near the Northwestern tracks at 4 am one July morning when she was “viciously attacked” and fought off her potential rapist, Joe Gorma, who had spotted her while working outside at the nearby sugar refinery. The woman, who had been in the country only a month and “ignorant of the fact that there are safe and sure laws to attend to the despoilers of womanhood,” accepted $7 from Gorma’s friends rather than pursue criminal charges against him, to the regret of the police. What became of her after is unknown. (19)

One un-named boarding house keeper started beating his wife whom he accused of undue intimacy with the “star boarder,” of the house, who attempted the come to her aid. Both men were fined  for disorderly conduct. (20)

Mrs. Anna Repp tried to break up a fight between Valentine Orgin and Andy Runyon and got hit in the head by Orgin for her efforts. He fled to the EJ&E yards, but was quickly captured by the police. “Orgin claims that in the old country men wanted by the police have a legal right to run and that he thought that the laws were the same in the United States. He was fined $25 and costs, but later the fine was reduced to $5 when his wife appeared in court and stated that she and her children would be forced to suffer want if the big fine was imposed.” (21)

Desertion was also not uncommon.

Joe Tamborino, 28, of 733 Market street is alleged to have deserted his “long-suffering little wife” and two small children four times. The last time he was found in Alton, Illinois where he had found work. Brought back to Waukegan he showed in court an “unexpected devotion” to his children; as “moisture gathered in her big brown intelligent eyes,” the wife “told of her efforts to retain her husband’s affection,” and how he had squandered their previous small fortune on his various trips. He claimed she refused to accompany him, but it is unclear why he left without her and their children. (22)

Mary Root managed to support herself after her husband John deserted her by running a soft drink parlor on Market street. Their contested divorce was over the fate of two market street properties at 611 and 733 which he had purchased, but she had maintained in his absence. (23)

The Root’s marital troubles seemed to continue even after their separation. In April of 1916, Mary celebrated her purchase of a saloon in Chicago at her “temperance place” on Market street, with music and refreshments for 70 of her friends. “Now John Root has not been living with his wife for years. In fact, they do not speak. Yet when John and his son learned that Mary was giving cigars and refreshments away they ran from their Tenths street home to Market street.” When John tried to give out cigars and drinks to his own friends, “Mary objected. “You don’t get these things and you can’t give them away,” she said to John.” A “free-for-all fight” ensued. John and his son were arrested. They charged that Mary had been selling liquor without a license, but those charges did not seem to be taken seriously. (24)

Matt Rauk “led one of the popular Austrian girls of Waukegan to the marriage altar. He married the young woman after she had caused his arrest on a serious charge. At the time of the marriage it was stated that he had married the girl rather than suffer a jail sentence or pay her $550. They were married by police magistrate Taylor at the city police station. Ten minutes after the wedding ceremony Rauk deserted his wife, according to her story.” One can speculate on the nature of the crime against the young woman that was mitigated by marriage. Matt was arrested at Frank Petkovesk’s tavern on Market street. Frank, “the king of the Waukegan Austrians” also paid his $1000 bail. (25)

Thomas Holland, formerly of 319 Market street was arrested in June, 1915 for abusing his wife, while intoxicated, and failing to support her. ” According to the police, Holland is an old offender and has been arrested several times for intoxication and creating a disturbance. This is the first time, however, that his wife personally made the complaint. He told the court that when he was intoxicated he was not responsible for what he did and asked the leniency of the court. Judge Taylor fined him $50 and costs and allowed the fine to stand in the event that he is ever arrested again. Holland then promised to take the pledge and was given his liberty. Arm in arm Mr and Mrs Holland left the station for their home.(26)

Apparently the pledge did not hold, since he was arrested again two years later, in Aug 1917 for allegedly abandoning his wife Mathilda and their three young children, two girls and a boy aged 14, 13 and 8. One of the girls was said to have tuberculosis. ”Since her husband’s alleged desertion Mrs Holland has been supporting her family by taking care of the bunk house at the Northwestern round house, for which she receives $40 a month. From this amount she is obliged to pay $10 a month” (27)

Women left men, as well as men left women.

Anton Sarello’s wife left him and his daughter in Indiana and fled to a new companion with her son to Market street. The husband, upset, seemed only to have the son returned to him, neither the daughter nor the wife. “Me divorce her. She bad,” he is quoted as saying. (28)

Notes

(1) Another Market street mystery Libbertyville independent, Sept 22, 1905 p1

(2) Alleges A Strange Condition, Lake County Independent and Waukegan weekly Sun, Nov 16, 1906, p.1   

(3) Fun cost him a fine of $20 Libertyville Independent, April 26, 1907 p8

(4) Wife beater is given a sentence of 30 days in Jail Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , Oct 5, 1916, p6

(5) Antioch New Newspaper, Antioch, Illinois Aug 24, 1916

(6) “Welch beats Dady by 970,” Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , Sept 14, 1916, p10

(7) Files charges against Franklin on liquor sales Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , Mar 1, 1917, p6

(8) Ike Franklin draws $300 fine and 40 days in jail Libertyville Independent, May 10, 1917, p1

(9) Ike Franklin draws $300 fine and 40 days in jail Libertyville Independent, May 10, 1917, p1

(10) Warmoth Hudson is under arrest; Libertyville independent Feb 7, 1918, P6

(11) Hudson arrested Libertyville independent Mar 14, 1918, P6

(12) Negro deserter is brought here from Milwaukee Libertyville independent June 27, 1918, P6

(13) Wife slugged by husband pleads for light fine, Libertyville Independent, Sept 20, 1907, p4

(14) Claims husband drove her out of house with poker Libertyville Independent, Waukegan, Feb 3 (1916?)

(15) Husband shams drunk Libertyville Independent, April 12, 1907, p3

(16) Husband and son beat up woman, Libbertyville independent, Feb 1, 1907, p 8

(17) Patted wife with poker, Libertyville Independent, June 25, 1908, P1

(18) Throws dishes at wife and bites his daughter in Arm, Libertyville Independent, Nov 2, 1016, p 6.

(19) Woman is Viciously assaulted,  Lake County Independent and Waukegan weekly Sun, July 5, 1907, p.14  

(20) Boarder Beats Landlord, Lake County Independent and Waukegan weekly Sun, Aug 10, 1906, p.8

(21) Captured after a long race with 2 city policemen Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, July 23, 1915, p7

(22) Deserts wife 4 times; bound over in large bonds Libbertyville independent, April 17, 1914, p7

(23) Two wives ask for divorces on the same grounds Libertyville Independent , Jan 14, 1916, p8

(24) Has Husband and son arrested; Libertyville Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , April 28, 1916, p11

(25) (Man who derted wife caught in local saloon  Waukegan Jan 27 (1916?)

(26) Must take pledge Libertyville Independent June 4, 1915, p9

(27) Deserted wife and children;  Is held to Gr Jury Libertyville Independent,  Aug 22, 1917

(28) Didn’t want girl left by wife; he wanted the boy, Libertyville Independent Oct 1, 1915, p7.

Appendix

(1) Another Market street mystery Libbertyville independent, Sept 22, 1905 p1

Another Market street mystery

Woman found dying in pool of her own blood and succumbs without making a statement

Held to grand jury

Last Thursday night coroner Taylor was called to Waukegan to hold a inquest over the body of Johanna Selen, a resident of market street in that city, to determine the cause of her death. It appears that she was found by persons called by her husband, Frank Selen, in the most pitiable condition. Lying insensible on the floor of her home, her body covered in bruises and wounds, with blood flowing from her body, she was picked up by her neighbors and placed in bed.

Salen claimed that he returned home for water as was his custom to do daily, his house being directly across the street where he worked in the Sugar refinery, to find his wife lying insensible upon the floor in a pool of her own blood. He rushed for assistance, he said and after getting immediate aid

In the person of a neighbor’s wife he summoned a physician by telephone.

He claimed that on the day of his wife’s death he had had no trouble with her.

Had quarreled often

Neighbors testified that the domestic life of the selens was not the happiest and stated that to their knowledge a bitter quarrel had resulted from family differences the preceeding Saturday. A neighboring woman told of selen following his wife down the street and forcing her to return home when she had started away, kicking her as she went.

People working near had often, it is said, heard sounds of tumilt emanating from the selen home and quarrels have often marred their marital bliss.

Was drunk

Both selen and his nine-year old son testified that Mrs Selen was drunk at the time of the quarrel on Saturday, and selen admitted that from that time he had not spoken to the woman. On the day of her death he claimed that he had not spoken to her and for several days she had refused to share his room.

Taken to hospital

Upon the arrival of Dr Foley the woman was immediately removed to the hospital and there all the known means were applied in an effort to return her to consciousness but without avail and in a short time she succumbed.

Dr Taylorwas then notified and together with drs bellows, knight and foley, performed an autopsy to determine the immediate cause of her death

The autopsy

The post-mortom examination showed that her body was a mass of bruises and from appearences it was thought that the most injuries came from kicks and scratches. A cut extended almost the length of her body, beginning at the sternum while portions were bruised in a frightfull manner.

The various organs were examined to ascertain her general health and found to be as a rule in good condition. One kidney was found to be congested but a heavy bruise in the small of the back accounts for this.

The brain was removed as it was seen the side of her head was blackened and swollen and this revealed the fact that near the base of her brain there was a contusion and clot of blood the size of a walnut. This wound was supposed to…

At the inquest

Considerable excitement was caused at the inquest when attorney A K Stearns who appeared in defense of Selen who was placed under arrest immediately after the death of his wife and objected to the man testifying. States attorney Hanna and coroner Taylor however insisted on taking his evidence and under protest from Stearns swore him.

From the evidence gleaned, it was decided by the jury that the man should be detained the verdict being that the woman came to her death from external causes and recommending that her husband, Frank Selen be held to await the action of the grand jury without bail.

 Sept 22, 1905

(2) Alleges A Strange Condition, Lake County Independent and Waukegan weekly Sun, Nov 16, 1906, p.1   

Alleges A Strange Condition

Man accused for living with woman not his wife says practice is common

states he can show many like cases

“There are any in Waukegan who are living with women not their wives,” said Peter Yankowitz Saturday when he was taken before Magistrate Hope to answer the charge of having beaten one Weronika Slamen.

During the hearing Yankowitz confessed willingly enough that he had been living with the woman, although not married to her, for two years and it was to excuse himself that he made the remarkable statement which caused the police officials to gasp.

Yankowitz when pressed for further information said that one John Ischo of Thirteenth street also lived with a woman, the two making an agreement to remain as husband and wife, after the pattern of a common law marriage abolished by recent legislation.

Yankowitz has wife

The man also coyly stated that he had a real wife in the old country, but that she was living with another man, by whom she had children, so he thought himself justified in getting himself another wife.

Mrs Slamen stated that her husband had been dead ten years and that she was a lone widow with children which is why she took Yankowitz in.

Recently the couple separated and the woman alleges that Yankowitz went to live in North Chicago, while she stayed on Market street.

Came back to beat her

However, the man did not remain away. He came back, the woman said, to beat her “all over,” pound her head, to steal her money and to cart away her furniture.

On the other hand, Yankowitz says he was tired of Weronika. She drinks, he says. She spends his money on fancy dresses and toilet accessories, he charges, and he states that although he sometimes gives her $22 a week she is never able to keep a cent.

Magistrate Hope fined Yankowitz and ordered the restoration of the furniture.

The man’s story of wholesale wedlock is doubted, all the more because the woman who admitted being his unlawful wife accused him of being a regular Mormon and of having five wives.

Nov 16, 1906

 

(3) Fun cost him a fine of $20 Libertyville Independent, April 26, 1907 p8

Fun cost him a fine of $20

Stanis scarlowski got jovial and beat his wife; trial results in fine and costs

Satnis Scarlowski came home on Market Street intoxicated last Sunday night and demanded his supper of his wife. The good woman refused, the man claims in an unseemly manner, and to get even she says he beat her shamefully so that she ran for help to the neighbors carrying her babe and screaming all the way.

Scarlowski was fine $20 and costs by magistrate hope. He paid and went home. He regarded the whole matter as a joke, in spite of the stern reprimand to behave in the future.

April 26, 1907

(4) Wife beater is given a sentence of 30 days in Jail Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , Oct 5, 1916, p6

Wife beater is given a sentence of 30 days in Jail

Waukegan Sept 29

Because his wife refuses him a kiss at midnight William Hudson, a colored man living at 211 Market street discolored her right eye with a blow from his fist, and as a result he will serve 30 days in the county jail for the beating of his wife.

“He is a good man when he’s sober, which ain’t very often. Every time he gets drunk, he fights. He went to ‘de colored club’ at 10 o’clock last night and when he returned home he was beastly drunk. Then he wanted to “love me.” He wanted to kiss me, but I wouldn’t let any drunken man kiss me. He got sore and struck me a blow in the eye with his fist, den I had him pinched,” said the colored woman.

“I didn’t mean it,” wailed the colored boy.

“Well you can take it from me that I mean it when I say 30 days in the county jail for you,” said Walter Taylor, police magistrate.

Upon inquiry the police officials learned that Hudson got his booze at the “colored club,” a joint run by Ike Franklin on Sheridan road. Hudson claims to have a locker at the club. He says that Franklin is operating a locker club.

The police are conducting an investigation, and it is possible that other arrests will be made during the day.

“I ain’t been at de club since our child was born. I used to go there before that. They sold booze there then, but I don’t know how they serve it now, said Mrs. Hudson.

She claims that her husband has assaulted her on more than one occasion and she also alleges that her husband threw their child out of bed while under the influence of liquor.

The colored club is conducted by Ike Franklin, the colored man who figured prominently in a resent primary election. He works as a porter in a cigar store.

Oct 5, 1916

(5) Antioch New Newspaper, Antioch, Illinois Aug 24, 1916

“…I met Ike Franklin, a colored man who for several years has cinducted a blind pig on the west side of Sheridan road near Washington street in the city of Waukegan. I had already heard about how Ike Franklin stood on the state’s attorneyship.

I said to him, “How are you going to be for State’s attorney this fall? I have, durning my practice as a lawyer, defended a great many colored boys, some of them without compensation, and I think you ought to be with me.”

“He said to me: “I have nothing against you, but you know the business I am in and for several years Mr. Dady has protected me. I’m going to work and vote for him, the man who has stood for me. I am for Mr. Dady for state’s attorney.”

“In other words a colored blind-pig keeper has been selling whiskey, beer ad gin at a little bar in the back of the colored club rooms in the city of Waukegan, while five men have languished in the county jail who were found guilty of selling sweet cider.”

“Mr. Voter, do you not consider this condition of affairs a travesty of justice?”

Aug 24, 1916

(6) “Welch beats Dady by 970,” Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , Sept 14, 1916, p10

Welch beats Dady by 970

…One of the most conspicuous figures in the Dady campaign was none other than Ike Franklin, the colored blind-pigger. Franklin took up his stand at the corner of Washington and Genesee streets and throughout the day the big men of Waukegan, men if independent means, men of high standing, but not politicians, took delight in pointing out Franklin, the man whom Welch accused of operating a blind pig and admitting it and admitted that he supported Dady because Dady had protected him by permitting him to run it. Franklin, sitting in an auto and directing the Dady-bedecked car about town worked hard for Dady—but he didn’t even control the colored vote which he expected he did and which the Dady followers believed he did. But this man whose operation of a blind pig Dady never once denied after Welch had made the charge, “worked his head off for Dady” because he had said “Dady protected me and I stand by my friends.”

Sept 14, 1916

(7) Files charges against Franklin on liquor sales Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , Mar 1, 1917, p6

Files charges against Franklin on liquor sales

Waukegan Feb 23

It developed today when State’s Attorney Welch filed an information in county court against Ike Franklin, the colored man who during the campaign last fall told candidate Welch that he had to support Dady because Dady had always treated him “right,” that Franklin escaped but a few minutes from being indicted by the grand jury Wednesday.

The judge had ordered the grand jury to finish its work. The evidence against Franklin came in late in the afternoon, too late for the jury to return an indictment. However, planning to use the same evidence, state’s attorney Welch this afternoon filed information in county court by which he charges Franklin with having sold liquor without a license. The interesting thing about it is that the evidence pertains to sales made by him a year ago.

Remanded to Sheriff.

Waukegan Feb 24

Ike Franklin, “The Immune” is immune no longer, for at press time this afternoon the dusky proprietor of the Negro club on Sheridan road was behind bars in the county jail. Franklin was arrested this morning by sheriff Griffin on an information filed in county court by state’s attorney Welch. He is charged with selling intoxicating liquor without a license. There are sixteen counts against him in the information filed against him. The alleged offenses occurred during the month of January, 1917.

For years Franklin has boasted of immunity. Others have been arrested for illegal sales, but Franklin serenely continued to do business at the old stand.

“Mr. Dady has done the right thing by me. I am going to work for him, rather than you,” state’s attorney Welch asserts that Franklin made this statement to him during the campaign.

The water in Franklin’s immunity bath has run out and he is no different than anyone else who is charged with a law violation.

The colored man was arraigned in county court this morning and entered to a plea of “not guilty.” His bond was fixed at $1,000. Franklin at once called up some of his personal friends and sought to induce them to sign his bond.

“Everything I’ve got is here in Waukegan. I’m not going to run away,” he told one man to whom he made a plea for assistance.

One man apparently said he would be at the court house at one-thirty o’clock to see about signing a bond.

No one appeared at the specified time and Franklin protestingly was placed in a cell in the county jail. At three o’clock no one had appeared to sign his bond. If the colored man is not able to secure a bondsman he will have to remain in jail until April when his case comes up for trial.

Mar 1, 1917

(8) Ike Franklin draws $300 fine and 40 days in jail Libertyville Independent, May 10, 1917, p1

“Ike, the immune,” immune no longer; is found guilty

Jury finds Ike Franklin guilty of selling liquor illegally on four counts

Jury out three hours

Witnesses told of having purchased liquor—state had to subpoena witness

“Ike the immune” is immune no longer, for a jury in county court late Tuesday afternoon returned a verdict finding him guilty on four counts of having sold intoxicating liquor without a license. This was the full number of counts asked by the state. The verdict was returned after a deliberation lasting nearly three hours.

For years Ike Franklin, proprietor of the club on south Sheridan road which is patronized exclusively by colored people, boasted of his immunity from prosecution.

When state’s attorney James G Welch was a candidate for the office he asked Franklin to give him what support he possessed among the colored people. Franklin replied that he could not as he was working for the re-election of R. J. Dady.

“Mr. Dady always has been a friend of mine,” Mr. Welch says Franklin told him.

Two months ago state’s attorney Welch filed an information against Franklin, charging him with selling liquor without a license. Franklin occupied a cell in the county jail for a number of hours through his inability to get a bondsman.

Without resorting to the expedient of hiring detectives to secure the evidence against Franklin the state’s attorney subpoenaed Dr. Johnson, a chiropodist, and Walter Hudson, both colored men. Against their will these two men, characterized by the state’s attorney as hostile witnesses, were compelled to take the witness stand against their friend Franklin.

Dr. Johnson said he had purchased ginger ale and whiskey at the place. “It was poor ginger ale and poor whiskey,” he testified. Later he endeavored to change his testimony to make it appear he had purchased mere ginger ale. Hudson testified to having purchased two drinks of liquor of Franklin but said it was before the saloons were voted out.

April 26, 1917

(9) Ike Franklin draws $300 fine and 40 days in jail Libertyville Independent, May 10, 1917, p1

Ike Franklin draws $300 fine and 40 days in jail

…Ike Franklin—convicted on four counts. Sentenced to pay a fine of $75 and costs on each count, a total of $300 and costs and to serve 10 days in jail on each count, a total of 40 days….

Ike Franklin was represented by attorney P L Jorgenson who urged the court not to impose a jail sentence, indicating that Franklin would not take an appeal if leniency were extended. He argued that from the evidence it was not absolutely clear that the violations took place since Waukegan became anti-saloon territory—in fact he said the evidence in the case was not conclusive.

Judge Persons said that if Franklin had come forward and pleaded guilty there would have been an inclination on the part of the court to extend clemency, but under the circumstances he said he felt he should make an example of the defendant so it would prove a lesson to him and others who might follow in his footsteps…

May 10, 1917

 

(10) Warmoth Hudson is under arrest; Libertyville independent Feb 7, 1918, P6

Warmoth Hudson is under arrest;

A draft evader?

Police say he claims exemption on charge he has wife and 2 children

Warmoth Hudson, colored, aged 29, residing at 211 Market street was arrested by Waukegan police Fridsay afternoon about 4 o’clock on the charge of disorderly conduct. Back of his arrest lies the veiled charge that he may be a draft evader, as the police assert the fellow claimed exemption from serving in the national army on the ground that he has a wife and two children.

Hudson, who gave his first name as “Walter” when he registered for the draft is said by the police to have admitted he is not married to the woman with whom he has been living. When he was arraigned before  police magistrate Taylor this morning he insisted he was married.

“I don’t believe he was married and I have taken the matter up with the draft board,” assistant police chief Tyrrell asserted this morning. “The woman he calls his wife is now in the general hospital where she had an operation performed. There are two little children at home. Hudson expected them to get along three weeks on $4 he gave them. There was no fuel in the house and the children were in a pitiful condition when supervisor Bairstow was called in. He is caring for them now.”

Husdon’s case was continued for 10 days and his bond is fixed at $1,000. In the meantime the draft board will make inquiries.

Feb 7, 1918

(11) Hudson arrested Libertyville independent Mar 14, 1918, P6

Hudson arrested;

To be inducted into army at once

Colored draft evader was taken to Chicago Thursday;

Neveliar is back

Ready for examination

Changed mind after being held by authorities in Chicago

The Waukegan draft board has written “finis” afte the name Waklter Hudson, a negro registrant who has given much trouble. Similar disposition I sto be made of the case of Barney Neveliar, Ziopn city, non-combatant who refused to submit to physical examination because of
“religious conviction” against the promotion of the war.

Hudson was taken into custody…(?)…Thursday night and was lodged in jail. He had failed to leave for Camp Grant Thursday morning although so instructed by the draft board. He was taken to Chicago Thursday evening and the belief her is that he will be inducted into the army immediately.

Mar 14, 1918

(12) Negro deserter is brought here from Milwaukee Libertyville independent June 27, 1918, P6

Negro deserter is brought here from Milwaukee

Walter Hudson will be taken to Fort Sheridan where he will be given trial

Was called in the draft

Desertion apparently was willful for he had draft card in his pocket at time

Walter Hudson, colored and arrested in Milwaukee Monday as a draft deserter from Waukegan was brought into this city Monday evening and was locked up in the city jail. The plan was to take him to Fort Sheridan this afternoon and turn him over to the military authorities so that he can be court-martialed. Hudson was brought back to Waukegan by deputy sergeant Frank Tryon.

Hudson registered for the draft in Waukegan but claimed exemption on the ground of dependents. He claimed to have a wife and two children. On this contention he was placed in class four.

Later it developed that the woman with whom Hudson was living was his common law wife and as no legal marriage ever had been performed. The local board then placed the fellow in class one and he was called in a draft.

When the time for departure of the draft arrived Hudson was not on hand and could not be found. He was listed as a deserter. Two weeks ago the police here received a tip that he was in Milwaukee and although they went there and conducted a search were unable to find him. They were fortunate Monday.

This is the first case where it is has been found necessary to send a deserter from Lake County to Fort Sheridan.

June 27, 1918

 (13) Wife slugged by husband pleads for light fine, Libertyville Independent, Sept 20, 1907, p4

Wife slugged by husband pleads for light fine;

Stories of affair differ

Man alleged to have fired four shots into wife’s room says he was hooting at tramps

(from Wednesday’s sun)

A queer turn in the mysterious assault on a south side woman last night when her husband appeared and plead guilty. His plea ended one of the most remarkable criminal cases the city has ever had, one in which the most contradictory stories were told, all apparently true.

Frank Oblak was the man. At 3 Monday morning his wife was found weltering in her own blood, badly beaten while there were marks of four shots through the jam of her bed room door. Dr Kalowsky attended her and she will recover.

She told one party that burglars had fired the shots and that she was beaten resisting them.

She confessed to the police that he husband had done the deed, however, and his arrest and fine followed.

The climax was capped when the husband stated that he had fired the shots at tramps who have of late been annoying the vicinity of his house at 507 Market street, while gossiping with neighbors stated with a wealth of detail that the wife had attempted to kill her husband by firing the shots and that he had beaten her to escape.

He was hiding until last night.

A strange fact is that the shots are claimed to have been fired from the outside of the house in.

Oblak’s wife plead with the police to be lenient with him, which is why he received such a light fine.

 Sept 20, 1907

(14) Claims husband drove her out of house with poker Libertyville Independent, Waukegan, Feb 3 (1916?)

Claims husband drove her out of house with poker

Waukegan, Feb 3 (1916?)

“Lock me up. I would rather stay in jail than live with my wife. I wouldn’t eat the food she prepares. I wouldn’t live under the same roof with her. I will provide for my children, but I will never contribuite one cent to my wife’s support.”

This statement was made by John Suekas, an employee of the Reiss coal docks, following his arrest Wednesday on a charge of “wife beating.” He was arrested on the complaint of Mrs Suekas, who alleges that he beat her with a poker on Monday night and that he drove her and her children out intin the cold on Wendesday night.

“I did not drive my wife out of the house. She left my house and board and when I found her she was living with friends on Market street. She threw my daughter’s clothes out into the street. She took the food out of another’s daughter’s pockets so that she would go hungry while at school. I don’t want to live with her. Why, I would rather kill myself than live under the same roof with her.”

The case was dismissed for want of evidence. Suekas branded as false the statement of his wife. Neighbors claim that they will never agree and it is best that they should separate. Suekas claims he will retain a lawyer and bring suit for a divorce.

His employers claim that he has never been known to take a drink of intoxicating liquors and that he is always at work. They claim that he is not a quarelsome man, and that his wife’s actions led to the trouble at the home Monday and Wednesday nights.

It was by the request of the employers that Suekas was released from custody by the police Thursday morning.

Feb 3 (1916?)

(15) Husband shams drunk Libertyville Independent, April 12, 1907, p3

Husband shams drunk

Frank Polivits lets wife’s alleged lover get him “intoxicated”

Revenges self on alleged destroyer with fists

Climax is capped when lover has husband arrested; is Lincoln street woman insane from abuse?

(from Wednesday’s SUN)

The arrest of Frank Polivits of market street for wife beating yesterday late in the afternoon caused the revelation of a queer domestic tangle this morning, the big feature of which was the detective work of a husband in feigning to be drunk that he might discover his wife’s unfaithfulness.

Polivits was arrested at the insistence of his wife, who claims that he beat her shamefully and in spite of repeated warnings, so that life with him finally became unbearable.

Different story comes out

However, when the case came to trial before justice Weiss a different story came to light.

It is the story of tangled heart strings in which the much abused husband did some clever work to discover his dishonor and defend his home.

Polivits claims that he has long suspected the alleged intimacy between his wife, who is the mother of a babe a few weeks old, and one of his boarders, Frank Yulattis.

He determined to watch Yullatis and for this purpose when yullatis invited him out to get a drink night before last he says he went.

He claims that Yulattis, suspected of being his wife’s lover, plied him with drink and that suspecting what was up he pretended to be drunk so that Yulattis almost had to carry him home.

In the market street home, he said, he saw things that led him to conclude that his wife was unfaithful with yulattis, the two cutting gay capers, he claims, under the impression that he was drunk and asleep.

Therefore he rose from the bed and assaulted yulattis with vigor and address, bundling him out of the house and forbidding him ever to return….

Justice Weiss dismissed him with the warning to leave drink alone and not to beat his wife, who is sickly. She carried the babe in court.

Tears coursed down polivits’s cheeks as he watched mother and babe and stil he trembled with rage as he thought of  the incidents of forty-eight hours ago that had disrupted his home.

April 12, 1907

 (16) Husband and son beat up woman, Libbertyville independent, Feb 1, 1907, p 8

Husband and son beat up woman

Agrees that wife and mother needs trouncing and they proceed to punish her—one kind of unanimity in family

Because he alleges that his wife has “another man,” that she loves the “other man” better than se does him, and that she went out Saturday and stayed away from the modest home that he had provided for her on Market street until 2 Sunday morning yesterday, Carl Gomwicz is alleged to have beaten the woman he took for better or for worse until she screamed for the police and had him arrested as soon as she could escape.

Gomwicz, the woman alleged before magistrate Hope this morning, was assisted in beating her by her oldest hopeful, aged about 19, Feliz Gomwicz.

The two were fined heavily and permitted to go after which the story of the cause of the beating developed.

“I no want him no more,” said Gomwicz through his son, referring to his wife.”My wife he no good, stay out too late, fight.”

It developed that Mrs Gomwicz proved herself handy on the defense in the conflict yesterday morning.

There are three children in the family and out of consideration for their future Magistrate Hope was “light” on the Gomwiczs.

Gomwicz declares that he will get a divorce.

Feb 1, 1907

(17) Patted wife with poker, Libertyville Independent,  June 25, 1908, P1

Patted wife with poker

John Matinkus was fined $5 and costs for patting his wife on the shoulder blade with a broom stick.

Matinkus says that while he was taking a nap Wednesday his wife picked his pockets of $13 and when he asked for the money she laughed at him. This was on the porch of the Market street residence. He says he pushed her inside the house and then she ran at him with a kitchen knife. At this he picked up a broom handle and just lightly patted her on the back as a joke. The court did not see the joke.

June 25, 1908

 

(18) Throws dishes at wife and bites his daughter in Arm, Libertyville Independent, Nov 2, 1016, p 6.

Throws dishes at wife and bites his daughter in Arm

Waukegan, Oct 30

Because his wife served him with cold soup for supper Sunday night, Frank Druba, a Lithuanian resident of Market street hurled a dish pan at her; and when the daughter sought to interfere, he bit a hole in the daughter’s right arm

He was arrested and fined $3 and costs.

Mary Druba, age 18 years, came to the police station this morning to testify against her father.

“Every time he gets drunk he abuses either mother or me,” she said. “Last night, when mother served him with cold soup he threw the dishpan at her and was about to throw the wine set in her face when I grappled with him. See, that’s what I got for interfering,” said the young lady as she exhibited a bite mark on her right arm.

The arm was badly swollen, and the police advised Miss Mary go at once to consult a doctor.

“Oh, I put peroxide on it,” said the girl.

Mamma paid the fine. When police magistrate Taytlor fined him $7.40 Mrs Druba walked out of the police station.

“She has deserted him,” ventured one of the policemen.

“No. She is bashful. She keeps the money in her stocking and didn’t want to get the money with all you men here,” said Frank.

Within a few minutes Mrs Druba returned to the station and placed a $5 bill and three $1’s in the police magistrate’s hands.

Druba promised to eat cold soup without complaint in the future.

Nov 2, 1016

 

(19) Woman is Viciously assaulted,  Lake County Independent and Waukegan weekly Sun, July 5, 1907, p.14  

Woman is Viciously assaulted

Her clothes torn off in desperate battle, but she comes out winner

Man who beat woman gets off for seven dollars

persuades his victim who had been here from old country only a month that settlement is the proper thing.

Viciously assaulted, it is alleged, and her dress torn from her person, last thursday night a Market street woman whose name is unknown settled with her assailant for $7 and the prosecution has been dropped as far as she is concerned.

To add to the novelty of the case, Officer Bellinski laid siege to the alleged desperado at the foot of a tall cement tank at the sugar refinery on the top of which the man alleged to be Joe Gorma, an Italian, was working. The Italian won.

Story of the fiendish assault

The woman, who resides at 809 Market street, and has been in this country only a month left her home

about 4 o’clock that morning to gather firewood, which many of the people pick up on the side of the refinery next to the Northwestern tracks.

Gormo is alleged to have been working on the top of the tank that is being constructed of concrete and when he saw the woman he came down from his perch and attacked her.

Struggle is exciting

There in the lonely spot the man and woman are alleged to have struggled, she for her honor and the other for the gratification of his beating instincts.

The woman came out the winner in the fight and finally freed herself, screaming, and with half her clothes gone, including her dress, from the grasp of her tormentor. Her screams attracted a crowd, and the police were at once communicated with.

Officers Bellinski and Nichols at once got on the trail. Nichols is a belt line officer.

Locate man on perch

When gormo saw the officer after him he went up the tank again and the police were powerless as the tank could not be ascended by anyone less than an expert and Gormo was safe

Officer Bellinski tried to get him last night and this morning and finally as a sure method stopped his check at the refinery pay office.

Settle the case

This morning he learned that Gormo’s friends had gotten together and settled with the woman for seven dollars. She is said to have been in this country only a month and to be ignorant of the fact that there are safe and sure laws to attend to the despoilers of womanhood.

The police regret the settlement keenly.

July 5, 1907

 

(20) Boarder Beats Landlord, Lake County Independent and Waukegan weekly Sun, Aug 10, 1906, p.8

Boarder Beats Landlord

Friday night in a rage at his wife a Market street boarding boss struck at her and began to beat her when the star boarder came home and interfered.

He asked the boarding boss to cut out the wife beating and when the brute refused, struck him to the floor, whereupon the boss scrambled to his feet and yelled for the police, who came and arrested the boarder.

However, the boarder accused the husband of beating his wife and he too was taken in charge.

on the way to the station in the grasp of the officers, the two began an argument, the husband accusing the boarder of undue intimacy with his wife and the boarder denying it.

Both were fined for disorderly conduct.

Aug 10, 1906

 

(21) Captured after a long race with 2 city policemen Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, July 23, 1915, p7

Captured after a long race with 2 city policemen

Waukegan July 21

Valentine Orgin of Market street was fined $25 and costs on complaint of Mrs. Anna Repp who alleged that Orgin struck her over the eye with his fist when she endeavored to separate him from Andy Runyon with whom he was fighting.

Orgin was placed under arrest late last night after successfully having eluded the police who had conducted a two week search for him. He took to his heals when the police hove him in sight, but Bart Tyrrell followed Orgin, who was then hiding in the EJ&E yards.

Orgin claims that in the old country men wanted by the police have a legal right to run and that he thought that the laws were the same in the United States. He was fined $25 and costs, but later the fine was reduced to $5 when his wife appeared in court and stated that she and her children would be forced to suffer want if the big fine was imposed.

July 23, 1915

 

(22) Deserts wife 4 times; bound over in large bonds Libbertyville independent, April 17, 1914, p7

Deserts wife 4 times; bound over in large bonds

Joe tamborino brought back from Alton, Ill given hearing in police court

Wife tells a sad story

Husband seeks to defend himself by saying wife refused to accompany him

Waukegan april 13

Three time Joe Tamborino, 28 years old, living at 733 Market street deserted his wife and two small children without raising any audible protest from his long suffering little wife. Each time he returned to her she extended open arms and welcomed himwith a kiss. But there is such a thing as going too far. Unconsciously the husband over-stepped the bounds of human endurance when he deserted her for the forth time on March 25th.

The wife placed the case in the hands of the police a few days ago and he was traced to alton Ill where he had accepted a position. Sherrif Green went after him on Sunday and returned with him Sunday night. Tambotino was arraigned in police court before police magfistrate Taylor this morning and was bound over to a grand jury in bonds of $1500 on a charge of wife and child abandonment.

The wife and two small children were present in court. There was no apparent enmity between them as they sat side by side. One of the children sat beside the other. The other was held upon the lap of the father. He showed an unexpected devotion to the little mite. From time to time his face close to the child’s cheek. Several times he implanted kisses on the child’s cheek and forehead. At each instance of affection the child would snuggle up closer to the father. Both children were too young to understandthe tragedy that was being enacted, they could not understand the inescapable law had stepped in to effect a permanent reunion.

Through an interpreter the wife told of her struggle to keep body and soul together at the different times when her husband had deserted her. Mouisture gathered in her big brown intelligent eyes as she told of her efforts to retain her husband’s affection if for no other reason than that the children might have a natural protector.

She said that her husband quit work a week before payday in order that he might get his pay and leave the city without her knowledge. The huisband denied this and said he had asked his wife to accompany him but said that she had refused.

The Tamborinos were not always in strained circomstances. There was a time when theyn were rolling in affluence, according to the statement of the wife, but she says her husband squandered all of his small fortune while he was away on these trips. At last she had made up her mind that that he has no desire to live with her and she is resigned to let the law take its course.

April 17, 1914

(23) Two wives ask for divorces on the same grounds Libertyville Independent , Jan 14, 1916, p8

Two wives ask for divorces on the same grounds

Mrs Mary Root of Waukegan says that her husband deserted her in 1913

Two women filed bills of divorse against their husbands in circuit court Monday. In both cases the divorces were asked for on the grounds of desertion. The cases are entitled:

Mrs Mary Root vs John Root

Mrs Mary Smith vs geo Smith

The Root case

Mrs Root, through her council attorney J G Welch, asserts that she and her nusband were married Nov 1, 1881 at Rekitns, Austria and lived together until April 6, 1913 when she says he deserted her and continues to remain away.

She says that she and her husband managed to purchase two pieces of property on Market street, one at no 611 and the other at no 733. She says that when her husband left these places were encumbered for several thousand dollars.

She says she has continued to pay the interest on the mortgages, has paid all taxes, assessment and kept the places in repair. The husband recently returned to Waukegan, she says, and is threatening to dispose of his interest in the property.

Mrs Root says that she is making a livilhood by conducting a soft drink parlor on Market street. Her husband, she says, has threatened to interfere with her business and she fears he will do so. The court granted an injunction restraining Root from encumbering the property in any manner and also from interfering with the business of his wife.

Jan 14, 1916

(24) Has Husband and son arrested; Libertyville Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , April 28, 1916, p11

Has Husband and son arrested;

Had blind pig, charge

Mrs. Mary root has husband arrested, then son asks for her arrest

Had a free-for-all fight

Mary Root had invited her friends to party, then husband and son appeared.

Waukegan April 26

Four men were arrested by the police late Tuesday night after heads had been battered and “heels” used in a free for all fight in a “temperance parlor” on Market Street last night. The four men who were arrested by complaint of Mrs. Mary Root, keeper of the place were:

John Root, her husband, fined $3 and costs

Frank Kucler, Fined $3 and costs

John Root, her son, dismissed

Tony Borchnic, her brother, dismissed

Late Tuesday afternoon in was announced on Market street that Mary Root had purchased a saloon at Twenty-second and May streets, Chicago, and that she had invited all her Waukegan friends to congregate at a “temperance place” on Market street to assist in the celebration. There was plenty of music and refreshments and the sons claim that the refreshments were very, very wet. In fact one son said “Why, I could produce a thousand witnesses to prove that my mother is operating a blind-pig.”

The friends of Mary Root, some 70 in number, were having a fine time, when John Root, Joe Root and two others entered the place.

Now John Root has not been living with his wife for years. In fact, they do not speak. Yet when John and his son learned that Mary was giving cigars and refreshments away they ran from their Tenths street home to Market street.

When John entered the Market street place he ran behind the bar and began to help the boys to the cigars, etc, etc.

Mary objected. “You don’t get these things and you can’t give them away,” she said to John. Then they grappled. The patrol wagon was called and four men were arrested. Police Judge Taylor fined John Root and one of his companions $3 and costs, and another son, Tony Root requested that an appeal be taken to the circuit court. Upon payment of $6-$2 for the bond and $4 for the transcript the case was appealed to the circuit court.

Then Tony asked Judge Taylor to issue a warrant for his mother’s arrest on the charge of selling liquor without a license. Taylor refused to do this, and recommended that Root confer with the state’s attorney. Root claims that it was the 27th of November last when his mother sold the booze, so Taylor thought it best for him to confer with Mr. Dady.

April 28, 1916

 

(25) (Man who derted wife caught in local saloon  Waukegan Jan 27 (1916?)

Man who derted wife caught in local saloon

Chief Tyrrell arrests Matt Rauk who deserted girl he married in station

Waukegan Jan 27 (1916?)

Matt Rauk, for whose arrest the police have carried a warrant for two weeks, was arrested in a Market street saloon late Wednesday, following his escape from the “coppers” on two occassions.

Two weeks ago Saturday Rauk led one of the popular Austrian girls of Waukegan to the marriage alter. He married the young woman after she had caused his arrest on a serious charge. At the time odf the marriage it was stated that he had married the girl rather than suffer a jail sentence or pay her $550. They were married by police magistrat Taylor at the city police station.

Ten minutes after the wedding ceremony Rauk deserted his wife, according to her story.

It is alleged that he told he told her he was going to Chicago to buy furniture with which to furnish an apartment and that he never returned to her. The next day chief of police George n Powel caught a glimpse of Rauk on the streets of Chicago but he did not know that Rauk was wanted for wife abandonment or non-suport. The next day the girl sent her sister’s husband to Waukeganand procured a warrant for Rauk’s arrest on the charge of non-support. Assistant chief of police Tyrrell arrested him in Frank Petkovsek’s place on Market street (Frank Petkoveck who was at 718 Market street) late Wednesday afternoon. His case has been continued until Februrar 5th and he is enjoying his liberty, thanks to the “king of Waukegan Austrians” Frank Petkovceck who signed his bond for $1,000.

His wife is sick in bed at the home of a friend in Chicago. Rauk, the police say, has informed them that he wants to get a divorce.

Jan 27 (1916?)

 

(26) Must take pledge Libertyville Independent June 4, 1915, p9

Must take pledge

It Thomas Holland gets intoxicated again and abuses his wife he will be sent to the county jailto work out a fine of $50 and costs.

Late Tuesday night Holland was arrested on the complaint of his wife who told police magistrate taylor that her husband would get drunk at a nearby saloon then come home and beat her and that he refused to support her.

According to the police, Holland is an old offender and has been arrested several times for intoxication and creating a disturbance. This is the first time, hoever, that his wife personally made the complaint.

He told the court that when he was intoxicated he was not responsible for what he didand asked the leniency of the court. Judge taylor fined him $50 and costs and allowed the fine to stand in te event that he is ever arrested again.

Holland then promised to take the pledge and was given his liberty. Arm in arm mr and mrs Holland left the station for their home.

June 4, 1915

(27) Deserted wife and children;  Is held to Gr Jury Libertyville Independent,  Aug 22, 1917

Deserted wife and children; Is held to Gr Jury

Thomas Holland, cook for Battery C, Fort Sheridan, bound over under bonds

Child has tuberculosis

Deserted wife tells pathetic tale of husband’s alleged failure to provide

Waukegan, Aug 20

Charged with wife and child abandonment, Thomas Holland, until recently employed as cook in Battery  C at fort Sheridan was bound over to the grand jury by magistrate Taylor this morning under bonds of $1,000. Holland was arrested at Fort Sheridan last week on the complaint of his wife Mathilda Holland, who lives with three minor children at 319 Market street.

Holland’s wife told the magistrate of her husband’s deserting  her three years ago. She declared the last time Holland had contributed anything to her support was more than a year ago when chief Tyrrell forced him to give five dollars toward the support of the children.

The family consists of two girls and a boy aged 14, 13 and 8 respectively. One of the girls is also said to be the victim of tuberculosis.

Since her husband’s alleged desertion Mrs Holland has been supporting her family by taking care of the bunk house at the Northwestern round house, for which she receives $40 a month. From this amount she is obliged to pay $10 a month. Holland claimed to have been earning $30 a month in the army and declared himself willing to give his wife $15 a month toward the support of the children. It was the opinion of the magistrate that Holland would fail to make these payments if he was removed from Fort Sheridan, and bound him over to the grand jury.

Aug 22, 1917

(28) Didn’t want girl left by wife; he wanted the boy, Libertyville Independent Oct 1, 1915, p7.

Didn’t want girl left by wife; he wanted the boy.

Three weeks ago anton sarello’s senora disappeard from his home in northern idiana. Anton didn’t mind her leaving—in fact he was glad of it. But the senora took their only son with her and left their little senorita with him. Anton was cut to the heart. He employed city and village policmenen to assist him in the search for his wife, and on Monday of this week engaged an Italian detective.

Late wendesday night the detective located mrs sarello in Waukegan. She was living with another Italian on market sreet. Mrs sarello’s companion disappeared from themarket street residence before a warrant for his arrest could be procured.

“Oh I tak her back with me, I wants th’kiddo,” said anton to the police. “me divorce her. She bad. She run away and take my baby. She leave me the girl. I no want the girl; she can have the girl—but I want th’ boy.”

Mrs sarello complied with her husband’s demands and went back with him to Indiana.

We will fight it out in the courts. I want the boy; so does he, so we’ll letthe court decide. I would be glad to gwet both children,” said the wife.

Oct 1, 1915