The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier

by April White

Overview

**SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, "10 BEST HISTORY BOOKS OF 2022"**
**AMAZON, "BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH (Nonfiction)"**
**APPLE, "BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH"**

From a historian and senior editor at Atlas Obscura, a fascinating account of the daring nineteenth-century women who moved to South Dakota to divorce their husbands and start living on their own terms

For a woman traveling without her husband in the late nineteenth century, there was only one reason to take the train all the way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, one sure to garner disapproval from fellow passengers. On the American frontier, the new state offered a tempting freedom often difficult to obtain elsewhere: divorce.

With the laxest divorce laws in the country, five railroad lines, and the finest hotel for hundreds of miles, the small city became the unexpected headquarters for unhappy spouses—infamous around the world as The Divorce Colony. These society divorcees put Sioux Falls at the center of a heated national debate over the future of American marriage. As clashes mounted in the country's gossip columns, church halls, courtrooms and even the White House, the women caught in the crosshairs in Sioux Falls geared up for a fight they didn't go looking for, a fight that was the only path to their freedom.

In The Divorce Colony, writer and historian April White unveils the incredible social, political, and personal dramas that unfolded in Sioux Falls and reverberated around the country through the stories of four very different women: Maggie De Stuers, a descendent of the influential New York Astors whose divorce captivated the world; Mary Nevins Blaine, a daughter-in-law to a presidential hopeful with a vendetta against her meddling mother-in-law; Blanche Molineux, an aspiring actress escaping a husband she believed to be a murderer; and Flora Bigelow Dodge, a vivacious woman determined, against all odds, to obtain a "dignified" divorce.

Entertaining, enlightening, and utterly feminist, The Divorce Colony is a rich, deeply researched tapestry of social history and human drama that reads like a novel. Amidst salacious newspaper headlines, juicy court documents, and high-profile cameos from the era's most well-known players, this story lays bare the journey of the turn-of-the-century socialites who took their lives into their own hands and reshaped the country's attitudes about marriage and divorce.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306827662
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	279,469
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

April White is a senior writer and editor at Atlas Obscura. She previously worked as an editor at Smithsonian Magazine. She holds a master’s degree in history and her work has appeared in publications including the Washington Post, The Atavist Magazine, and JSTOR Daily, where she wrote a regular column on the history of food,. She lives in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Is Marriage a Failure? ix

Part 1 Maggie

1 A Thriving and Interesting Place 3

2 In Good Faith 10

3 Just Another 22

4 Budding Hope and Dead Passions 33

5 A Savage American 46

Part II Mary

6 Ardor and Inexperience 61

7 The Campaigns 71

8 Undesirable Cattle 84

9 A Personal Statement 94

10 Let Not Man Put Asunder 105

Part III Blanche

11 A Moral Superstition 115

12 Free as Air 124

13 The Sentence 137

14 To Be Left Alone 149

Part IV Flora

15 Happiness Will Follow Thee 163

16 A Tramp and an Exile 174

17 Stupid, Unjust, Monstrous, and Foolish 183

18 Light in the Sky 194

19 Heart 205

Epilogue: A Rising of Ideals 215

Acknowledgments 229

Notes 235

Index 267

Editorial Reviews

02/28/2022

Atlas Obscura editor White (Code of Ethics) delivers a colorful history of divorce in America focused on women who came to Sioux Falls, S.Dak., to end their marriages. Requiring only a three-month stay to establish residency, Sioux Falls was the epicenter of the controversy over “migratory divorce” and the “rampant immorality” it was presumed to foster. Noting that two out of every three divorce seekers were women, White profiles Maggie De Stuers, a descendant of John Jacob Astor who came to Sioux Falls to divorce her Dutch diplomat husband; Mary Nevins Blaine, whose father-in-law, Republican congressman and presidential candidate James Blaine, tried to invalidate her marriage in its first week; Blanche Molineux, an aspiring actor convinced her husband was a murderer; and socialite Flora Bigelow Dodge, whose short stories and plays “pok fun at the petty grievances, outdated mores, and gossip-fueled misunderstandings of the world she moved in.” Opposition voices included Episcopal bishop William Hobart Hare, who claimed that the presence of divorce seekers in Sioux Falls gave him “moral nausea.” White’s vivid character sketches and fluid storytelling buttress her argument that by seeking divorce, these women helped to democratize marriage. Women’s history buffs will savor this sparkling account. Agent: Andrea Blatt, WME. (June)

Publishers Weekly

**Smithsonian Magazine, "10 Best History Books of 2022"**

**Library Journal, "Best Books of 2022"**

**Washingtonian, "Best Books of 2022"**

**Mental Floss, "Best Books of 2022"**

Apple, “Best Books of the Year So Far" (2022),
Apple, "Best Books of the Month” (June 2022)

Amazon, "Best Books of the Month" in Nonfiction (June 2022)

Booklist, "Book Buzz: Top Book-Group Picks for Adults From PLA 2022"

Philadelphia Inquirer, "Best New Books to Read in June"

Arlington Magazine, "10 Books to Read in June"

The Everygirl, "The Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2022"

Dakota News Now, "Popular local books to add to your must-read list"

"An entertaining and edifying account of the divorce industry that emerged in Sioux Falls.”—Wall Street Journal

"Filled with lurid details from contemporary newspapers, which breathlessly covered the most salacious divorce cases, the book cleverly examines how these bids for marital freedom reflected broader societal changes in Gilded Age America."—Smithsonian Magazine

“White’s history of the Sioux Falls divorce colony is narrated energetically... A reminder, bright and sparkling for those who need it, that when endings are out of reach, so too are new beginnings.”—New Republic

"April White’s riveting, proudly feminist book offers everything you’d expect from a rousing historical drama, but it’s entirely true... White vividly and entertainingly reconstructs a largely forgotten but vital chapter of American history."—Mental Floss

"It’s essential feminist history. In White’s telling, it’s also a gossipy story of misogyny, millionaires, and murder."—New York Daily News

"Through well-documented research, White melds the changing stances within the worlds of politics, religion, the courts and the growing nation's social culture, all of which were moving slowly, incrementally, more tolerant of necessary divorce."—Star Tribune

"White’s book is as readable as her research is thorough. Her writing style is so engrossing that the book could be historical fiction, [even though] it is not."—The Sun

"A fascinating read, and eerily pertinent to the rights of women today."—Historical Novel Society

"The Divorce Colony delivers a delicious, cinematic tale of real-life scandal, suspense, and above all else, survival. It’s beautifully written, fiercely feminist, and best of all, a true page-turner from start to finish. It's a story I wish I had written."

—Abbott Kahler, New York Times bestselling author (as Karen Abbott) of The Ghosts of Eden Park

"For those out there who have an abiding fascination with nineteenth-century railways, with matters concerning sex, scandal, divorce, exile, and refuge, with the Frontier and the prairies—for anyone who would fain meld Peyton Place with West by Northwest and The Shining,  April White has done us all a great favor.  I loved every word of this most surprising book."

—Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Men Who United the States

"Until I read April White's remarkable book, The Divorce Colony, I had not thought of women seeking to leave marriages in the 19th century as human rights pioneers. But this story—vivid, compelling, infuriating, inspiring—changed my mind. And I have no doubt, it will change yours, too."

—Deborah Blum, New York Times bestselling author of The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz-Age New York

“The Divorce Colony paints a carefully-researched portrait of four women at the turn of the 20th century who had had enough. White’s colorful portrayal of these brave divorcees—conjured before our eyes through an impressive deep dive into the archives—reminds us of the distance, both literal and figurative, that women have travelled to uncouple and regain their freedom. A fascinating read!"

—Paulina Bren, Ph.D., award-winning author of The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free

“Unearthing a hidden gem previously lost to history, April White weaves impeccable research and elegant prose into a thought-provoking page turner. The Divorce Colony is an irresistible work of narrative nonfiction.”

—Matthew Pearl, New York Times bestselling author of The Dante Club and The Taking of Jemima Boone

"Start The Divorce Colony and you'll have a hard time leaving."—Post Bulletin

"Lively."—Argus Leader

"[A] sparkling account... White’s vivid character sketches and fluid storytelling buttress her argument that by seeking divorce, these women helped to democratize marriage."—Publisher's Weekly

"Perfect for historians, readers of women’s issues, and historical novel lovers.”—The North Platte Telegraph

"[An] absorbing, thoroughly researched account... White effectively humanizes her subjects while remaining faithful to telling nothing but the fascinating truth."—Kirkus

"A valuable and intriguing contribution to
American social history."—Booklist

"In April White’s hands, this slice of Gilded Age history about women who headed west to states with more lenient divorce laws is entertaining and enlightening."—BookPage

"Readers of this book will find that it is not just about divorce. It is about American social changes that have affected all of us."—Watertown Public Opinion

From the Publisher

04/01/2022

White follows four women (including an Astor and an aspiring actress) as they traveled to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the late 19th century, all seeking the same thing: a divorce from their husbands. Sioux Falls attracted divorce-seekers from across the country—wealthy women in particular—with its five rail lines, its luxury hotel (rare on the frontier), and the most accomodating divorce laws in the U.S. The many Sioux Falls divorcées, nicknamed "the Divorce Colony" in the press, were at the center of a national debate about divorce and the state of American family. The dramatic lives of this book's East Coast-socialite subjects will captivate White's readers the way it captivated the American public a century ago. Just as fascinating, White expertly weaves in the politics of divorce (from churches to the courts to the White House) and does justice to the Divorce Colony women who she says started a revolution simply by seeking divorce. VERDICT A spellbinding look into a forgotten history, with engaging storytelling that makes it feel like a dramatic novel instead of the well-researched nonfiction it is. A must for anyone interested in women's history.—Carleigh Obrochta

Library Journal

2022-03-08
An engaging portrait of a little-known time in American history when the phrase going to Sioux Falls was synonymous with divorce and select women had the rare opportunity to control their own destinies.

In this absorbing, thoroughly researched account, White, a senior editor at Atlas Obscura and former editor at Smithsonian magazine, puts readers directly into the lives of four inspirational women in late-19th-century America. At a time when states determined their own divorce laws—and when it was often impossible for women to advocate for themselves—Sioux Falls, South Dakota, offered a chance for them to reclaim their freedom. They need only live in the frontier city for 90 days to establish themselves as residents, and then they were free to file for divorce and potentially unbind themselves from their partners, many of whom were ill-tempered, philandering, abusive, or even murderous. Husbands and wives weren’t always at odds, however, as some colluded on the matter and worked toward a mutually beneficial end to their marriages. Interwoven with the biographical information about the women are in-depth examinations of what society, the church, and political figures felt about the Sioux Falls loophole and the increasing number of broken marriages, and White shows how those opinions factored into the creation of divorce laws throughout the U.S. Leaders of both church and state, writes the author “would attack this scourge with religious condemnation, legal obstacles and expense, new legislative restrictions, and the threat of ostracism.” Particularly interesting are the opinions of suffragists of the day. What might seem to be a given—that women’s rights activists would support fewer barriers to divorce—is in fact more problematic, as the author demonstrates. Other delightful insights include the women’s various levels of commitment to the residency ruse. As always, divorce was easier for those with money and status.

White effectively humanizes her subjects while remaining faithful to telling nothing but the fascinating truth.

Kirkus Reviews