Divorce over Bed-Bugs in 1895

Bed bugs have obviously been around for a very long time biting and infesting our homes but little did we know that they could contribute to a divorce. I guess you could say the Bowen home didn't follow the saying "a clean home is a happy home". 

BED-BUGS IN LAW

DOMESTIC INSECTS ARE IN COURT 

IN LEAVENWORTH

Old Farmer Sues His Wife for Divorce, His

Plea Being that His Wife Didn't Keep 

the Beds In Order and Allowed the

Creatures with Incisors to Take Posses-

sion of the Home and Drive the Chil-

dren to the Barn to Sleep-Number of

Convicts Now Lodged in the State Peni-

tentiary.

Leavenworth, Kan., Sept. 5 -Joseph 

Bowen, a farmer of Sherman township,

began suit in the district court yester-

day for a divorce from his wife, Jennie

Bowen. His petition is a long one and

makes some rather sensational charges.

  He says he was a widower with eight 

children when he married the defend-

ant, who was an "old maid" and had

nothing but a tunk and a few old 

dresses. That he gave her $25 to pur-

chase a wedding trousseau. He says

she married him for his money and has

told neighbors since that she would not

have done so, if she had known he did

not have more that he has. 

  He says that during the first four 

months of their married life she con-

ducted herself very decently, and seem-

ed to think a great deal of the children

and a great deal more of the plaintiff,

but she soon became jealous of his at-

tentions to the children and turned 

against him and made his home a per-

fect hell.

  One of the first things she did was to 

neglect her household duties; to keep

the beds of the children by his former

wife in such a shape that they became in-

fested with "bed bugs;" that the chil-

dren had to leave the house and sleep

in the barn and other houses on the 

place.

  For a further cause for divorce the 

defendant has been guilty of extreme

cruelity, as she has often cursed and

abused the plaintiff by the calling him a

liar, son --------- and other vile epit-

hets, and saying that he was no bet-

ter than the chickens and dogs run-

ning in the yard.

  He says the defendant would fre-

quently get mad and sulky and leave 

his home for days and weeks at a time:

that she usually did so during harvest

and threshing times or in the busy sea-

son: that she left his home on the 10th

of August and is now away.

  He said that he had to lose 160 acres 

of land owing to her actions and that 

he still has 80 acres with a mortgage

on. The he earned and asks to be award

ed to him absolutely. 

Clipping from The Wichita Daily Eagle, Wichita, KS September 1895