After a nineteen day trial in which Isaac Burch, a leading Chicago banker, had charged his socialite wife Mary, niece and heiress to railroad magnate Erastus Corning, with adultery, the jury ruled unanimously in favor of Mrs. Burch. Public opinion was on the her side, as well, and there were celebrations with bands and bonfires in Chicago. The case was one of the most famous and influential divorce trials of the century thanks to its intense media coverage. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Norma Basch, Framing American Divorce: From the Revolutionary Generation to the Victorians (Berkeley,CA: University of California Press, 2001), 162-165.
"The Burch Case," New York Herald, December 11, 1860, p. 5.
"The Burch Case," New York Herald, December 11, 1860, p. 5.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating