It is 3 p.m. on Aug. 2, 1905. Anna Carol sits on the witness stand, ready to testify at the divorce trial of Lide and John Zintheo. The Zintheos have employed 40-year-old Carol as their maid/nanny for the past 10 years to watch over daughters Irene, 12, and Lillian, 10.

“Did Mr. Zintheo ever call his wife names or curse?” the lawyer asks.      “He called her a chippy, an ignorant fool and a god dam whore," replies Carol. "He once told his daughter Irene he wold break her god dam neck if she wouldn't shut up.”      She went on to answer question after question about how Mr. Zintheo frequently cursed in front of the whole family. She said Zintheo called his wife defiling names called because he thought she was intimate with one Mr. Biggs, even though she denied the affair.      Carol never witnessed any physical abuse but said once Irene, Zintheo's daughter, had a scratched and swollen face. Irene told Carol her father had done it because she was late going to school. Carol also told of how Mrs. Zintheo once sold an oven and then had to promise to return the money because her husband threatened to strike her.      The Zintheo marriage that began on Dec. 24, 1889 was now coming to an end. The judge ruled that Mrs. Zintheo had, in fact, committed adultery at Merchant's Hotel in Kerkhaven, Minn., on Jan. 23, 1905 with Mr. Biggs.      The judge also found that there was no evidence of cruel and inhuman manner toward Mrs. Zintheo or the children. Mr. Zintheo received custody of the children, and his wife was not entitled to any alimony, suit money or interest in property. Her husband was required to pay for her lawyer fees, which added up to $250.      Soon after the ruling on Sept. 12, 1905, the children were placed at Sacred Heart Academy, so Mrs. Zintheo couldn't interfere with them.

Lide and John Zintheo

     When people look back on the divorce rate around 1900, the rate doesn't seem nearly as high as it is today. However, divorce was much more common than people may think. An unknown North Dakota poet wrote about how marriage isn't what people may think it is.

                 “If you think that Marriage is love and kisses
                 And being forever Mr. and Mrs....”

     According to court records, on Sept. 24, 1882, Frances and John Goldthorp were granted a divorce because he had left his wife. Similarly, Chester and Mary Groskreutz were married in Germany on April 6, 1922. Soon after, Mary packed up her belongings and the couple's five-year-old son. She went to be with another man.
     At age 60, Benjamin Balch married his 25-year-old wife Sarah in Arkansas. Three years later they received a divorce because Sarah had left and her whereabouts were entirely unknown.
     In the divorce of Emma and Louis Yorke, she testified that on Oct. 22, 1891, “she accidentally saw in a New York newspaper certain notices announcing that Louis A Yorke, her husband, had obtained a divorce from her, Emma M. Yorke, by alleged default.” This was the first information she had of these proceedings.
     While Louis was out to sea, he claimed his wife had an affair. Louis testified, “No sir, they didn't deny it, but said if I would say nothing about it, but keep still, they would give me $60,000.”

                “With wedding bells and bridal chime
                And organ music all the time,
                With compliments throughout the day,”

     Ida and Melvin Hildreth didn't have the perfect marriage, either. Ida wrote a letter to her husband stating: “It seems to me that I have told you times enough, so it ought not to be necessary to say again that you cannot come here again. I have no desire to see you and nothing more to say.”
     She wrote another letter on May 28, 1886, saying: “Your action Sunday night decided me that I would have nothing more to do with you. I have packed your things and sent them. This is my own uninfluenced decision and is unalterable.”

                “As pleasant as your bride's bouquet,
                With honey for breakfast and nectar at noon
                And years and years of a honeymoon...”

     One of the most interesting cases John Bye, archivist for North Dakota State University, found was a Chicago woman divorcing her husband for having an affair.
     “In the file were a series of letters she wrote to her husband shortly before leaving to Fargo for the divorce. The physical item [in the file we got] was two glass bottles of ‘Santal Midy’ from Paris, France. One bottle is still sealed shut, full of brown-colored pills. According the testimony of a physician in the depositions this is for the treatment of gonorrhea in women at the time,” Bye said.
     Not only did the average town folk come to Fargo for their 90-day divorce. Many famous people would come to the area, take up residency and end their matrimonial state.
     Sadie Corbett filed for divorce from her husband James J. Corbett, 1892 heavyweight champion boxer, on June 27, 1895. Maude Ganger, a Broadway theatrical star, was said to be here, but her files are now missing. The same situation happened with Cora Tanner, another Broadway star best known for the lead in “Sporting Life.” Her record is now blank.
     Senator R.N. Ink and his wife got a divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment. Ink had served two terms in the North Dakota Legislature in 1891.
     “Evidence was of such rich and racy nature that Judge Pollock excluded spectators from the courtroom,” The Forum reported.
Bye receives many files on divorces that have taken place in North Dakota. The actual divorce files were originally housed in the Cass County District Court offices. Which administers divorce law. Early last year, the Fargo fire inspectors told the clerk of court office they could no longer store their case files in the attic due to the air handling system machinery. It was at that time that NDSU archives accepted all the civil case files for Cass County, from the first cases in the 1870s to 1942. These files include the divorce files, Bye said.
     “We are now in the process of re-foldering and re-boxing some 350 linear feet of records. I might add that, by law, the divorce cases can be thrown after 100 years of completion of the case. We, in consultation with the state Archives, felt it important to preserve the early divorce cases from the 1890s, when North Dakota had only a 90-day residency requirement for obtaining a divorce,” he said.

                “Well, I'm sorry to have to tell you this,
                But Marriage is no way this much bliss.”

 Fargo was once the world's quick divorce center for two decades. There was only a 90-day waiting period required to receive a decree. On June 4, 1950, Fred W. Compton wrote a story for the Fargo Diamond Jubilee Edition of the Fargo Forum about how Fargo was the divorce capitol of North Dakota.

Fargo, North Dakota

Because of the 90-day residence law, “pretenders dropped a suitcase in a hotel room, paid rent in advance and, three months later, returned to begin legal action as a resident,” he wrote.      Prior to 1899, only 90 days residency was necessary to receive a divorce. From 1866 to 1877, applicants for divorce could come to Dakota Territory and begin action on the morning of the petitioner's arrival, the article said. Lawmakers amended the code in 1877 and made the 90-day law.      Divorcees coming to Fargo often resided in boarding houses at Eighth Street South and First Avenue to Third Avenue. The Old Swart House at 109 9th St. N. was a rendezvous for many. Those locations are all within three blocks of what today is known as Island Park.       Back in those years, irreconcilable differences weren't a choice for divorce, as it is today. There were only seven grounds for divorce. They were adultery, extreme cruelty, desertion, willful neglect, habitual intemperance, conviction of felony and insanity.

     Today, married couples often try counseling before they divorce. But back in the 1900s, counseling wasn't that easy or accepted. The Rev. Jim Levitt from Bethel Evangelical Free Church in Fargo said divorce was looked upon as a sign of complete failure. The basic response wasn't to go for help because there was such a stigma against divorce.
     Thus, the marrying verse, “till death do us part” didn't seem to hold up in the 1900s, either. Affairs and desertion seem to be the most common themes for separating the husbands and wives who once made that pledge to one another. Unfortunately, married couples didn't feel open enough to be able to get the help most seek in the 2000s. Yet with all the help available to couples, the divorce rate continues to climb.