Your cheatin' heart

In 1843, a Tennessee woman’s attorney filed an information copy of a divorce case in Sixth District Court in Texas. Court records from Tennessee said Ophelia Thompson married G.W. Matthews in 1838. For the first year of marriage, the couple lived a good and proper life, each giving forth of the duties required of husband and wife. In 1839, Ophelia’s 16-year-old sister came to live in the Matthews’ household. (If you said “Aha” or anything similar, you were right.) Within a few months of the sister’s arrival, G.W. began to neglect his lawful wife in all respects and affection, instead showing much affection to Ophelia’s unnamed sister. Sometime in 1840, G.W and the now 17-year-old left Tennessee and journeyed to Red River County, where the couple set up household as husband and wife. G.W. had, records said, left Ophelia without succor and means. A Tennessee jury agreed with Ophelia’s plea, and decreed she and G.W. divorced.

Red River County records do not indicate if the Tennessee case caused changes in the life of the adulterer and his sister-in-law.

The Ophelia-G.W. case was not the only one in which frontier family ties were closer than is proper.

In the late 1830s, a man filed for a league and labor -- 4,605.5 acres – as head of a household during the 1836 rebellion against Mexico. The man stated that he was a resident of Texas during the revolution and that he had not left Texas nor given aid and comfort to then enemy during the rebellion. At the time of his request, the man and his wife lived in Red River County.

The county board appointed to hear and approve/disapprove such requests turned down the man’s application. The man appealed by filing suit in Sixth District Court. His appeal led to a more thorough investigation.

Paperwork made its way to Austin and to other places in the Republic. After a time, the county board received notice from a woman in Nacogdoches that she, as the man’s wife, had already received a headright as head of household. The man immediately filed renunciation of any land connected with his Nacogdoches wife. The court decided the man was not entitled to a headright, since his legal family – wife and several children – lived in another county. His Red River County wife had been his daughter-in-law when both were in Nacogdoches.