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To the Honorable Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Wisconsin Assembled;
The undersigned your petition begs leave most respectfully to represent that on the eighth day of April A.D. 1840 he was married to one Ellen Coon of the County of Oswego N.Y. that he and said Ellen lived harmoniously together without any difficulty whatever until the 19th day of March A.D. 1844 when it was argued between your petitioners and said Ellen that (as they were poor, and had been informed that it was easier for poor persons to live comfortably and accumulate property in the west than in the State of New York) your petitioner should go to Wisconsin, and try to procure a house and if successful he was either to go or send for said Ellen, and she was to join him in their new home; accordingly on the day last above mentioned your petitioner left for the west and located at Green Lake Marquette County Wis. Ter. when he was satisfied he could render his family comfortable as soon as I was so satisfied I wrote to her said Ellen now I was situated and my intention to come or send for her as soon as I could raise the necessary means, and received in answer from her that she would not come to Wisconsin under any circumstances and advising me to get another wife in Wisconsin.
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Your petitioner not satisfied with that, wrote to her again and again, urging her to come on, and provided, a comfortable manner and the means for said Ellen to come to him to wit; An old man who was a near neighbor and a friend came to W.T. to look at the country and determined to move here with his family and your petitioner agreed with him to escort his wife the said Ellen to W.T. he called on her and offered to bring her out telling her she should [illegible] as well as his family and after she got here if she was dissatisfied he would furnish her the means to return to N.Y. Your petitioner also wrote to her at that time and earnestly solicited her to come out with Mr. Cornwall who was his friends name, but she positively refused to come, and still continues to neglect and refuse to come. Your petitioner has the means to make her comfortable and she cannot and does not assign any reason for not coming.
Under all the circumstances which your petitioner is prepared to prove your petitioner conceives that he has done all that could be required of him in the premises, and ought not be any longer bound by his marriage contract, which has been violated by said Ellen and persisted in with so mcuh pertinacity.
He does therefore request your Honorable bodies to pass an act divorcing your petitioner from the bonds of matrimony.
And your petitioner as in duty bound
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will ever pray.
Samuel Burdick
Territory of Wisconsin Marquette County SS:
Before the undersigned came Samuel Burdick who being duly sworn said that the facts set forth in the foregoing petition were true to the best of his knowledge and belief February 4th 1848.
J.H. Clark Jr. Notary Public
