Pioneer Profiles – June 2022
“Merritt Divorce Case Testimony Thrills J’ville” read the 1924 Medford Mail Tribune headline.
June may be a traditional time for weddings and all the accompanying pageantry, but there’s nothing like a juicy divorce to set neighborhood tongues wagging!
The Merritt divorce even gained statewide attention. Gossipy charges and counter charges included profanity, bad temper, incompatibility, smoking cigarettes, sitting on another man’s lap, interference by the plaintiff’s relatives, letters to other women, wearing “yama yamas,” and more. Shocking!
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We should begin by introducing the principals involved.
Enter the Plaintiff, George Merritt. George was the only grandson of Jacksonville pioneer icon, Jane McCully. He was the son of Jane’s older daughter, Molly, and John W. Merritt, teacher and principal of the Jacksonville school from 1875 to 1885. Molly died from complications following George’s birth in 1884. John, bereft, turned George’s care and upbringing over to Molly’s younger sister, Isadora McCully or “Aunt Issie” as she was known.
Issie, a spinster, doted on George. After he graduated from Jacksonville High School, he attended the University of Oregon. Aunt Issie went to Eugene as well to look after George and see that he remained studious. It’s so difficult to let your nephew go off to a strange college town where temptation lurks at every corner.
At university George occasionally entered oratory contests, knocked out a little poetry from time to time, and graduated with a law degree. After graduation, George escaped to Boston to practice law—which is where he met Grace Wick.
Enter the Defendant, Grace Wick. When Grace met George in 1916, she was appearing with an English troupe of Shakespearean players—the only American member of the company. Undoubtedly, George found her glamorous, and soon after they met, the couple eloped.
Politics was Grace’s second love. Born in Harlan, Iowa, in 1888, she was the grandniece of social reformer Lucretia Mott. And of course, political campaigns provide built in audiences for publicity-minded actresses.
George and Grace appeared quite happy while living in Boston and New York during their first six years of matrimony. Grace did continue acting but also indulged her political interests. In 1920, she made a campaign speech for Channing Cox, a Republican candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. She told reporters that, “although I am a Democrat I gladly spoke for Mr. Cox. I happen to know the Democratic candidate.”
But George missed Oregon, and in 1922 the couple moved back to Jacksonville. However, Jacksonville was certainly not what Grace expected, and the town certainly did not welcome Grace with open arms.
To begin with, doting Aunt Issie felt no woman was good enough for George, much less an actress! And while George and Grace had mutually agreed that she would keep her professional name, in Jacksonville she was known as Grace Wick-Merritt. The only professional theatricals were touring companies with no room for a local actress. The fact that the Jacksonville PTA gave benefit plays and locals would host musicals featuring amateur singers failed to provide satisfactory alternatives.
After George brought her home to Aunt Issie, the couple began to disagree violently. Being a domestic young matron was not in Grace’s blood, so she took a position selling advertising for a local newspaper. Politics soon became a substitute for performing.
She enthusiastically endorsed Walter Pierce in his campaign for governor. Her political activities in his behalf placed a strain on Grace’s relationship with George and it began to grow a little threadbare. Almost every issue of the weekly Jacksonville Post reported that Grace was spending several days in Medford or was motoring to Ashland for a weekend with friends.
Undoubtedly influenced by Aunt Issie, in 1924 George sued Grace for divorce. The Post sadly announced that Grace Wick-Merritt had been evicted and was seeking an apartment for herself and three cats.
The divorce suit, strongly contested by Grace, received state-wide attention. George was represented by Attorney Frank J. Newman; Grace, by Attorney Gus Newbury, and at least 40 witnesses presented testimonies:
Miss Mary Ryan of Jacksonville testified that on a trip to Medford, in a Studebaker auto, Mrs. Merritt was seated on the lap of then Principal Sawyer of the Jacksonville schools, and smoked a cigarette. Asked how the smoking was carried on, Miss Ryan said, “first one would take a puff and then the other.”
P.X. Johnson, a mining man of Gold Hill, denied the testimony of a Mr. Sanderson living west of Central Point that he (Johnson) had once “expressed a desire to step out with Mrs. Merritt, but was afraid of domestic storms.” Johnson said he never saw Mrs. Merritt until he saw her in the courtroom.
“Mrs. Bernice Chapman of Jacksonville testified that she attended a Halloween party at which Mrs. Merritt was present. She said Mrs. Merritt wore a “Yama Yama” suit, and Attorney Gus Newbury for the plaintiff was unable to make her describe it as “pajamas.”
Grace in turn testified that George had a bad temper; that she had discovered letters written to other women; and that George’s relatives had interfered in the marriage. John F. Miller, a lifelong friend of the plaintiff, testified that as far as he was able to observe, Grace “was always lady-like.”
According to the Mail Tribune, other highlights included “a bitter exchange of comments between the defendant and her husband’s counsel, veiled charges of perjury,” a letter giving the address of a “racetrack man” in Omaha, Nebraska, that Grace had allegedly “befriended,” and testimony as to both the kindness and jealousy of “an aunt of the plaintiff.”
But after eight days of “he said, she said,” George won. An issue of the Jackson County News reported that Mrs. Grace Merritt was given a present … a divorce decree.” Lucky Grace. She was awarded $30 a month and George had to pay all court costs.
George’s marriage to Grace appears to be his only claim to immortality—a prominence which ended with his divorce. He worked as a bookkeeper for a fruit company and lived with Aunt Issie in the family home in Jacksonville. After Issie’s death in 1945, George sold the McCully property and moved to Medford where he apparently lived until his own death five years later.
Grace, on the other hand, continued to be a newsworthy—if not prominent—public figure. She initially moved with her three cats to Medford where she had acquired a large group of friends. She subsequently went to Hollywood, acting in silent films and modeling, before returning to Oregon and politics. But that’s another story—one to be pursued in an upcoming issue of the Jacksonville Review!
Pioneer Profiles is a project of Historic Jacksonville, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to preserve Jacksonville’s Historic Landmark District by bringing it to life through programs and activities. Join us in June for Haunted History walking tours, “Victorian Medical Practices” at the 1873 Beekman House Museum, Saturday “Walk through History” tours, and weekend “Behind the Counter” tours at the 1863 Beekman Bank Museum. Follow Historic Jacksonville on Facebook (historicjville) and Instagram (historicjacksonville) and visit us at www.historicjacksonville.org for virtual tours, blogs, upcoming events, and more Jacksonville history.