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In the matter of application of Ruth Christy by Robert E. Christy her parent and next friend for writ of Habeas Corpus

July 12, 1923 - January 12, 1924

Petitioned on July 12, 1923

Filed before the Douglas County District Court (Omaha, Nebraska)

Case ID: hc.case.ne.1416

Case Summary

On June 23, 1920, Nellie P. Christy, neé Crother, asked for a divorce from her husband of 15 years, Robert E. Christy. She accused him of committing repeated acts of adultery with their maid, Beulah Shepherd. Robert had become infatuated with the 17-year-old, and continually defied Nellie's attempts to fire her. He also refused to support his wife or their six children, so Nellie had been forced to take in roomers and work in a laundry. At some point, he had moved away from the family's home in Fullerton to live in Omaha with Beulah. The divorce was granted, and Nellie was given custody of the three older children, with Robert maintaining custody of the three younger. Robert continued coming around Nellie's household after the divorce to verbally abuse and swear at her, as evidenced by a restraining order issued against him in September 1920. Robert filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, presumably against Nellie, for his daughter, Ruth Christy on July 12, 1923. Apparently, sometime before 1923, custody of all six children had been given to Robert after Nellie was accused of living with another man. This did not dissuade Nellie from visiting her children, and she violated a court order to do so. She accused Robert of poisoning her children's minds against her, and said that the gifts of hand-knitted stockings that she had mailed to them were returned to sender. On January 21, 1924, the case was dismissed for want of prosecution. This may be because the Christy family was involved in another legal case at the time—Ruth and Vera had danced in a public theater, which was illegal for girls under 14. Both had been sent to a reform school in Riverview on July 13, 1923.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

  • Interpersonal

Petition subtype(s)

  • Child custody

Outcome

Writ dismissed

Fate of bound party

Unknown

State

  • Nebraska

Tag(s)

  • Children

People

Source Materials

The complete case file for this petition has not been found. Information here has been gathered from court journals, indexes, or dockets. You may contact the repository and provide the citation information to request digital scans or print copies of those records, but they are not likely to yield more information than is represented here.

Repository(s)

Case citation

Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series: Criminal Appearance Docket Books, Vol. 26: ca. 1923 - Jan. 1924, p. 183; Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series 7: Criminal Case Files, 1897-1920, Reel 114: 26-89 to 26-201, Jun. 4, 1923 - Jul. 16, 1923, No. 26-183

If you are teaching, publishing, or presenting from this work, please cite this page.

Type of source(s)

Docket

Cite this page

If you are teaching, publishing, or presenting from this work, please cite this page as:

Katrina Jagodinsky, Cory Young, Andrew Varsanyi, Laura Weakly, Karin Dalziel, William Dewey, Erin Chambers, Greg Tunink. “In the matter of application of Ruth Christy by Robert E. Christy her parent and next friend for writ of Habeas Corpus.” Petitioning for Freedom: Habeas Corpus in the American West, 1812-1924, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Accessed April 4, 2025. https://petitioningforfreedom.unl.edu/cases/item/hc.case.ne.1416

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