The Petition of Sarah Martin late Sarah Rames. To the Hon^l[Honorable] The Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Illinois

Your Petitioner would humbly represent to your hon^l Bodies That previous to the 30^th day of October 1839 She was living on the Premises where her first husband had lived and where he died. That she has the care[,] support[,] & education of Two little boys confided to her the children of her deceased husband, one of the age of Eight years — and the other five. That by her care & industry she would have been enabled to support herself and the two little Boys But that at the time first above named your Petitioner was married to a man by the name of Nathaniel B. Martin who after six days left ^she^ my house with out assigning any sufficient cause, intending as he said to go to Alton and St. Louis and then to return to carry on his business of Blacksmithing in the Town of Springfield. And said he had rented a shop from M^r Hinkle for that Purpose. All which has turned out to be a mere pretence. He has never returned since and is now residing as ^she is^ I am informed somewhere in the Iowa Territory. He has never even written to me ^her^. And moreover he owed when he left here a large amount for some of his debts I have ^ she has^ been called on and greatly harrassed My ^Her^ first husband was an industrious & frugal man as well as a kind Husband, and by his business of Blacksmithing supported his family decently and left a House, and Lot and a Small personal estate. That all of his personal estate, except what was Assigned to me as my ^your petitioner as her^ Dower, has been expended in necessaries for the nurture & education of my ^her^ children. But if

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Your Petitioner could be assured that what she might in future earn should be her own she still believes she could by the blessing of Providence support herself and children and live in comparative peace and comfort again. But this she thinks cannot possibly be the case while she is bound by the Marriage relation to said Martin. That she has now no hope that he will ever be a helper but a hindrance to her in providing for her family. She is sorry to say that he has proved himself utterly unworthy of the confidence she once reposed in him. Your Petitioner would wait the ordinary proof of the Law and obtain a Divorce at the end of two years on account of his absence1 But she feels that by so doing she is hazarding her happiness and that of her children and ^standing be ^ liable to have all her property taken by him and His Creditors and thus become a wretched child of want cast on the cold charity of a world too indifferent to the wants or the woes of others Your Petitioner thinks she has learned a sufficient lesson by this sad experience not again to hazard her happiness[,] Her property, her all, by a similar act, but by a life of quiet industry and domestic care to render herself worthy of the respect of her neighbors and the regard of those whom she now Petitions. In Tender consideration of the Premises She Prays that your Hon^l Bodies will grant her a divorce from her husband the said Nathaniel B Martin and thus restore to peace & comfort in some degree one who is doubly a widow. And for this Petitioner will ever Pray &c[etc.].