100 Years Ago in Macon: Record number of divorces; ‘shooting in the city must stop’

It was February of 1917 and America was still two months from entering World War I.

In Macon, news of the day included word from Bibb County Superior Court of a never-before-seen number of divorces.

The Telegraph on the morning of Feb. 9, 1917, reported that “juries working all day yesterday established a record for the number of divorces granted in one day by the court of this county, by cutting forty-seven marital knots.”

Though the article didn’t cite any particular reason for the uptick, the previous record was said to be 37.

One wife, though, failed in her effort to divorce her husband on grounds of “voluntary desertion.” A judge ruled that because the husband was in jail on embezzlement charges, the husband’s “absence is, therefore, involuntary,” the newspaper reported.

Another news item that February day a century ago was about boys killing birds — too many of them as a Telegraph article noted:

Small boys who have a done a flourishing business during the cold snap by shooting robins and selling them, will either have to discontinue their operations or else keep an eye peeled for a policeman while shooting. Chief of Police George Riley yesterday issued the following order to the lieutenants: “Your attention is called to the boys and others shooting robins, etc., with shots from rifles, airguns, slingshots, etc. Instruct your men this is a violation of a city ordinance and while we do not wish to be harsh on Young America, this shooting in the city must stop.

Another article noted that Macon’s Terminal Station had been deemed the best of its size in the country.

This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 12:56 PM with the headline "100 Years Ago in Macon: Record number of divorces; ‘shooting in the city must stop’."