The Cordele Dispatch And Daily Sentinel

DIVORCE MILL WAS GRINDING 100 YEARS AGO.

Nashville, Tenn., July 24.--Whether the divorce evil of modern times is justified remains to be proven, but the fact remains, according to legislative documents, that the flare-up in the divorce courts did not originate in recent years.

A search of legislative records in the State house produces the "omnibus" divorce bill of 1822, in which about thirty applications for divorce from marital ties were sought of the general assembly. That was during the first term of William Carroll as Governor of Tennessee.

At that time James K. Polk, president of the United States from 1845 to 1849, was clerk of the Senate and signed the divorce bill, when it passed on first reading on August 12, 1822.

Bill to Divorce.

The bill was entitled "A Bill to Divorce the Persons Therein Named" and passed the house on first reading on August 7, 1822, the records show.

But the legislators evidently were not willing to lend approval to such an extensive divorce procedure, for the bill was marked, "Read Second Time and Rejected, House of Representatives, August 12, 1822," and signed by T. J. Campbell, clerk.

One of the most interesting features of the divorce bill was the fact that Joseph McMinn, Governor of Tennessee for three terms, from 1815 to 1821, just preceding the session at which the bill was introduced, was asking for a divorce from his wife, Nancy McMinn.

The ex-Governor's name appears about half way down the list of applicants. The only method of obtaining divorces in those days was by petition to the General Assembly, as the divorce machinery had not been vested in the courts.