History of Kurtz: The Prather-England Scandal of 1899 – Seymour Tribune, #History #Kurtz #PratherEngland #scandal #Seymour #Tribune Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
On June 19, 1898, 20-year-old William Prather married 16-year-old Lillie England, who was probably two months pregnant.
Both Kurtz residents were children of prominent Owen Township families. Less than a year later, the families would go through a very messy and complicated divorce that became a public scandal and drove citizens to the courthouse to watch the spectacle.
Almost immediately after the wedding, the relationship broke down. In early September, Will opened a saloon in Kurtz and soon hired Frank Lane as a partner. According to court records, on Tuesday, September 20, 1898, just three months after the marriage, Will told Lillie “in front of others that he had made a mistake in marrying her, that he did not love her and could never be happy. with her.”
Lillie claimed that Will left her sick in bed six days later to take a “certain young lady” to the Seymour Street Fair. He boasted that he intended to marry the young lady as soon as he could arrange a divorce. When he got home late that night, Will taunted his teenage wife for having had a “good time” with “his girl.” According to Lillie, Will “threatened to kill himself to get out of the marriage”. “He told me if I didn’t destroy the child, he would…”
Once, Lillie locked herself in a room during an argument, and Will reportedly drew “his revolver on me,” she said, “but I unlocked the door and left the room.” Will threatened to kill her if she told anyone. On another occasion, “he tried… to make me commit suicide,” Lillie explained. “Said if I did that he would kill himself” immediately after.
Lillie also complained of abuse from Will’s parents, Alexander and Julia Ann Prather. “His mother repeatedly told me that I would be the cause of his death… She said that she had seen him take medication several times to commit suicide, and if I stayed, he would surely kill himself one day… Lillie reported.
According to court records, Will allegedly cursed and abused Lillie “and drew his revolver on her” on December 10, threatening to kill her. On December 31, Will left her while she was on her sickbed for 15 days, knowing she would give birth every day. And when she asked what would become of her and the child, he replied, ‘I don’t care what becomes of you. I don’t care if you starve to death. You will never see me again.” Lillie said, “The morning he left he told me to file a divorce and he (would) pay half…”
On January 16, 1899, Lillie gave birth to a daughter, Lena Prather. But the marriage could not be saved. Will’s drinking had become an open problem. He was charged in February with public intoxication.
On February 8, Lillie filed a lawsuit against Will’s parents for seduction, demanding $2,500 in damages. Seduction was a *crime that typically charges a man with the coercion of a woman—usually an underage woman or child—of* by the promise of marriage, money, or other seduction, often leading to him deserting the woman. left when she was pregnant.
Lillie claimed that Will’s parents were complicit in their son’s coercion and abandonment. Almost at the same time, Lillie sued Will for a fraudulent marriage. But Will’s troubles had only just begun.
In April, Will traveled to Bloomington to attend the funeral of his cousin, Albert Brown, who was killed in a traffic accident. By May, the divorce had become a public spectacle. The teenage daughter of a Civil War veteran accused her saloonkeeper husband of physical and verbal abuse, death threats with a revolver, coercion to force her to commit suicide while pregnant, flirting with other women and abandonment while sick in bed deliver their child two weeks earlier.
The additional charges of parental complicity in a *crime drove onlookers to the courthouse to witness the show. The Kurtz columnist for The Banner wrote, “A lot of people were in Brownstown the first week about the Prather and England case.”
To make matters worse for both families, Will and Lillie’s newborn daughter died the same week. Perhaps as a window into the community mindset, the Kurtz columnist for The Banner was silent about Will’s fatherhood. “Lena, Lillian Prather’s daughter, left this life at 11 a.m. last Wednesday night.”
The court dismissed both of Lillie’s cases for seduction against the parents and fraudulent marriage against Will. Then, on August 24, 1899, Lillie sued Will for divorce on the grounds of “cruel and inhumane treatment” and demanded alimony of $500, the full value of his saloon.
Will Prather’s partner, Frank Lane, may have sympathized with Lillie. The teen’s written statement to her attorney read, “My last witness… is Frank Lane. Will tried to hire him to insult me and… said if he did, it would clear it up for him in this case… He (Frank) knows more than anyone about the way Prather has about me spoke and treated me…’
The divorce was pronounced in December 1899. Lillie returned home to live with her parents and eventually remarried. But the days of Will’s saloon owner were over. He went to Linton for work for a while, but eventually returned to Kurtz to become the town’s barber. The records show that he never officially married, but over time Zora Fleetwood became his wife.
Craig Davis, a Seymour native and a graduate of Brownstown Central High School, currently lives in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and works for a US government contractor on the prevention of violence in schools. He is the author of “The Middle East for Dummies” and researches for a genealogy and social history book in Kurtz and Freetown. You can visit Living with Cancer’s weekly blog at marvingray.org and write to it at: [email protected]