Case Summary

Sometime shortly after his wife's death, Fred O. Lane, a carpenter in Omaha, Nebraska, gave the custody of his then five-year-old daughter, Frances Lane, to a Sarpy County couple, the Brothers, via a "written instrument." The girl lived with the couple for three years, becoming part of their "hearts and home." Frances was the couple's niece, and Andrew was known in his community as a well-to-do foreman. The couple believed that the piece of paper Lane had signed were formal adoption papers, and that he had surrendered parental rights. Andrew R. and Hattie Brothers attested that they had always told the girl who her biological father was, despite his lack of involvement in her life. According to the Omaha Daily News, they lived in boxcars that had been retrofitted into a house. As the Brothers told it, after years of absence, Fred Lane suddenly took the girl back with him to Omaha on June 1, 1916. According to Lane's second wife, when Frances returned to her father's home "her clothes were ragged...and she had learned to use bad language." Likely to regain custody of the girl, the Brothers filed for adoption on June 27, 1916 in Sarpy County, and despite Fred Lane's objections at the hearing, which Frances was never present at, Sarpy County approved the adoption on August 2, 1916. However, Fred appealed, and during the long legal process, the girl remained in his home. On January 9, while walking to Walnut Hill School with her friends, Frances was taken by the Brothers and brought back to nearby La Platte, after which Fred Lane filed for a writ of habeas corpus. His appeal of the adoption decision was affirmed by Sarpy County District Court on January 13, 1917. Fred had remarried and had another child by this time, and claimed that he had received several wealthy Omaha families wanted to adopt the girl, as she was "an unusually attractive child." He said to the Omaha Daily Bee "Brothers has one baby of his own...I don't see why he should want mine." Apparently, at one point, pieces of evidence about Frances's affection for one side or the other was stricken for the record. During the trial, she curled up on a bench in the corner of the courtroom and played with a doll. According to the Omaha Daily Bee, Judge A.C. Troup consulted with the child privately before making his final decision. Fred was given custody of the child on January 18, in a verdict that elicited tears from onlookers. The Omaha Daily Bee said that "The child, the cynosure of all eyes in a crowded court room when her future was decided by Judge Troup, did not seem to understand what it was all about as her father clasped her to his breast at the dramatic moment when the final decision was made."

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Interpersonal

Petition subtype(s)

• Child custody

Outcome

Writ allowed

Fate of bound party

Released from custody

Case Citation

Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series: Criminal Appearance Docket Books, Vol. 19: ca.1916-1917, p. 265; Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series 7: Criminal Case Files, 1897-1920, Reel 72: Doc. 19-220 to 19-352, Dec. 13, 1916 - Mar. 26, 1917, No. 19-265

Source material(s)

Docket | Case File

Length of case file

Between 21 and 30 pages

Repository(s)

• Douglas County District Court (Omaha, Nebraska)

State

• Nebraska

Tag(s)

• Children

People

• Lane, Fred O. (petitioner)
• Lane, Frances (bound party)
• Brothers, Andrew R. (respondent)
• Brothers, Andrew R. (responding party)
• Brothers, Andrew R. (holding party)
• Brothers, Hattie (respondent)
• Brothers, Hattie (responding party)
• Brothers, Hattie (holding party)
• Baker, (petitioner attorney)
• Ready, (petitioner attorney)
• Murphy, (respondent attorney)
• Winters, (respondent attorney)
• Troupe, A. C. (Troup) (judge)

• Additional parties

  Cannon, Belle [defendant's witness]

  Christiansen, Christopher [deputy]

  Clark, Michael L. [sheriff]

  Cleveland, Rev. D.E. [defendant's witness]

  Hoschar, Mary [defendant's witness]

  Lane, Mrs. Fred [plaintiff's witness and Fred Lane's wife]

  Larson, Bertha [plantiff's witness]

  Lorne, Julia W. [plaintiff's witness]

  Nystrom, Mrs. O.A. [plaintiff's witness]

  O'Leary, J.D. [defendant's witness]

  Olson, J.C. [defendant's witness]

  Olson, Lizzie [defendant's witness]

  Pomeroy, Cora [defendant's witness]

  Self, Charles G. [notary]

  Smith, Robert [clerk]

  Steele Jr., Asel [deputy]

  Stephens, Mrs. Fred [defendant's witness]

  Stephens, Mary [defendant's witness]

  Stevens, Fred [defendant's witness]

  Stevens, Mort [defendant's witness]

  Taylor, Jess [defendant's witness]