Member-only story
The Woman Who Sued For Divorce Because Husband’s Ex Wives’ Mother-In-Law Lived With Them — And Lost
More than a century ago, one woman got fed up with her husband’s insistence on having his former wives’ mother living with them
A common trope in society is that mother-in-laws often don’t get along with the men who marry their daughters. That’s not always the case, as was evidenced by the unusual case of William Giese, who was taken to court by his fourth wife because he insisted that the mother of two of his two former spouses live with them — resulting in an emphatic ruling by the presiding judge.
In 1902 Chicago, an incredibly unusual legal battle played out when the fourth wife of William Giese took her husband to court due to her unhappiness that the mother of two of his previous wives (they were sisters) lived with the couple. It’s reasonable to understand why the arrangement made her uncomfortable, but he was insistent that he would not ask the older woman to leave. Additionally, it was claimed that the mother-in-law insisted on running the household, which sat none too well with the current wife.
The presence of the mother-in-law was a primary reason the fourth Mrs. Giese gave for wanting to be granted legal separation from her husband. However, the verdict rendered by the judge was not quite what she was expecting.
Judge Holcomb issued what it retrospect was bother a shocking and largely inappropriate opinion that fell completely to the favor of Mr. Giese:
“If a dog does not bite or the cat scratch, the husband may keep both, and his wife cannot object. The same holds true of a mother-in-law if she does not harm anybody. This is right, even though the mother-in-law be the mother of a man’s wife by a former marriage. Mrs. Giese’s suit is dismissed.”
It’s a toss up whether it’s more shocking that Giese was so tied to the mother of a former wife, or that a judge thought so little of a woman’s right to dissolve a marriage that he compared the mother-in-law to a domestic pet. The outcome of the situation is also unknown, but hopefully the fourth Mrs. Giese was able to get far away from a situation where she clearly received no respect or understanding.
