Case Summary

In 1903, Olive Anderson petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus claiming that minor children Walter and Edna Gross were being deprived of their liberty by Minnie Gross and Henry Smalley. Walter and Edna were the children of Olive Anderson's daughter, Freida Gross. Freida and the children's father, John Gross, had been divorced in 1902. Allegedly, John had left her because she was a vaudeville dancer. Freida left for Los Angeles, but John followed her, took the children, and placed them in the custody of Minnie Gross, his sister-in-law. Judge Cornish granted the petition. In 1904, the court dismissed the cause "for want of prosecution." The next month, the petitioner showed in court and Judge Holmes reinstated the case. In 1906, the court again dismissed the cause. The fate of the bound party is unknown. However, a Lincoln Journal Star article implies that, as Freida didn't show up in Lincoln for the trial, since she worked in L.A., the judge simply asked John to take care of his children.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Interpersonal

Petition subtype(s)

• Child custody

Outcome

Writ dismissed

Fate of bound party

Unknown

Case Citation

RG207 Lancaster County Subgroup 9: Series 4 Daily Journal #42: Nov. 1902-Dec. 1903, p. 362; 386; RG207 Lancaster County Subgroup 9: Series 4 Daily Journal ##44: Jan. 1904-Jan. 1905, 51; 170; 606; RG207 Lancaster County Subgroup 9: Series 4 Daily Journal #46: Jan. 1905-March 1906, p. 583; RG207 Lancaster County Subgroup 9: Series 3 Appearance Docket F, p. 92

Source material(s)

Docket | Journal

Repository(s)

• History Nebraska (Lincoln, Nebraska)

State

• Nebraska

Tag(s)

• Children

People

• Gross, Walter (bound party)
• Gross, Edna (bound party)
• Anderson, Olive (petitioner)
• Gross, Minnie (respondent)
• Gross, Minnie (responding party)
• Gross, Minnie (holding party)
• Smalley, Henry (respondent)
• Smalley, Henry (responding party)
• Smalley, Henry (holding party)
• Stewart, Willard E. (petitioner attorney)
• Cornish, Albert J. (judge)
• Holmes, Edward P. (judge)

• Additional parties

  Branson, Z. S. (sheriff)

  Ress, Nicholas (deputy sheriff)

  Gross, Freida (mother of bound parties)

  Gross, John [Freida's husband, Walter and Edna's father]