How do you know your marriage is in trouble?
You might just check notices in the local paper.

William Moulton submitted an article to the Weekly Wanderer of Randolph on this day in 1801, regarding his wife, Lucia.

Community newspapers served many purposes in the small frontier towns that comprised Vermont. Moulton used his local newspaper to announce that while he had been on a trip to Canada, his wife had fallen in love with someone else.

He declared that within seven months of his return, she gave birth to a baby boy and that she had developed an aversion to spending time with her husband. Moulton no longer wanted the legal liability for his wife, explaining that her lover should be held responsible for her.

Image courtesy the Vermont State Library.

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