SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

equired any divorce plaintiff to state their rationale within the well-worn tracks that the law
provided. It is possible that Henry Sanders had simply abandoned his wife; certainly in the 19 th
century, the most direct way to dissolve a marriage, particularly for men, was simply to leave. It
was also possible, however, that Henry Sanders had moved to Florida looking for better
opportunities and had left thinking that he was moving ahead of his family and planned for them
to follow him later: perhaps Susanna had balked at the idea. Or, it may have been that, as so
many district judges suspected, the two parties had grown weary of each other, and had in fact
colluded to obtain the divorce with the least amount of fuss. Whatever the case, Susanna’s
divorce petition notes that her husband had in 1896 been living in Florida for more than five
years (a number that does not correspond to her own claim that Henry had moved in 1893).
More importantly, Susanna also claimed that Henry had accumulated significant property in
Florida, which she estimated at a value of more that $5,000.
It was clear that property was Susanna Sanders’ primary concern, and her petition seems
to depict a woman well aware of the Kansas provisions for married women’s property rights.
Her petition claimed that, at the time of the couple’s marriage, she had brought more financial
stability to the marriage than did her husband, specifically “that at the time of the marriage of
plaintiff [Susanna] and defendant [Henry], plaintiff was the owner of one horse, two cows, five
sheep, some money and other personal property, all of the value of $500. That at that time said
defendant was the owner of a small amount of property only worth much less than the value of
plaintiff’s property at that time.” 137 Acknowledging that she and her husband had grown their
farm together, Susanna argued the couple used her property jointly, and that therefore, she
should get her property back along with a part or all of the property they accumulated together.
137 Ibid.
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