1843 Divorce Petition, Monroe County, IN
(C. Avis Catalog entry #615)
Monroe County Court:
To the Honorable the Judges of Monroe Circuit Court in Chancery Sitting at the September [session] of Court 1843.
Your petitioner, Mary Avis, would respectively [sic] state unto your Honors that on the 2nd day of may 1836 at the County of Monroe and State of Indiana, she was married to one David Avis and that she continued to live with him as an affectionate and dutiful wife from time to time of their said marriage until the 9th of March 1841 when the said David Avis abandoned your petitioner with the intention of never living with her again and has continued to remain absent from your petitioner for more than two years next before the filing of this petition. Your petitioner would further state that during the time she continued to live with the said David Avis she had by him two children: one boy now about 5 years old, the other a girl about three years old, both of whom are now and have been since said abandonment living with your petitioner. Your Petitioner would further state that at the said time of her said marriage with the said Avis she owned the following property, to wit: one bed, bedstead and bedding of the value of twenty-five dollars; one table, one stand, one bureau, one cradle, one set of chairs and a few cooking utensils; and the said Avis just before abandoning your petitioner sold the bureau, cradle and chairs leaving in the possession of your petitioner the residu of the property above [text missing?] ... of one dollar and eight yards of Calico. Your petitioner would further state that she has been more than two years next before the filing of this petition a resident of the County and State aforesaid.
Your petitioner would therefore ask your Honors to decree her a divorce Said David Avis, grant her the custody of her said Children and that the property aforesaid be and remain hers exclusively and as now duly bound she will ever pray, etc.
State of Indiana
County of Monroe
I, David Browning, clerk of the county aforesaid certify that the foregoing is a true and complete copy of the original Bill now on file in my office.
Given under my hand and seal this 5th day of June 1843.
D. Browning Clerk.
Monroe County
The Statue of Indiana
To the Sheriff of the said county, Greetings:
We command you that you summon David Avis that he be and appear the Hon. Judges of Monroe Circuit Court at the Court House thereof in the Town of Bloomington on the first day of the next September term of said Court then and there to answer unto Mary Avis in a certain Bill in Chancery filed therein in which you said David Avis are defendent and said Mary is Complainant. And this you shall no wise omit and have you then and there [two illegible words].
Given under my hand and seal of said Court as Clerk thereof at my office in Bloomington this 15th of June A. D. 1843.
D. Browning