1/ Today’s entry gushed out of the intertubes - when all I wanted was to quickly fact check some deets about Pgh’s Dunking Stool
It’s one helluva dot connecting expedition that tumbles from the 1700s to the 1940s (that’s when I had to stop, there could be more)
2/ February, 1775 this twit called Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, orders a ducking (dunking) stool to be built for the court at Ft Pitt to handle talkative/troublesome women, aka “scolds”
By November court’s moved - stool’s whereabouts unknown
3/ 1829 Brilliant scold extraordinaire, Anne Royall, gets ticked off by her dour Presbyterian neighbors’ relentless chastising for her wicked tongue
Worst offender is a prominent married Presby elder who impregnated Anne’s maid
4/ Did I mention Anne grew up near Pgh?
The Presbys overcome by nostalgia for their old country’s dunking stool, dreamt of applying it to Royall & had her arrested & brought to court
5/ Despite having prominent witnesses on her side, the judge sentences her to a dunking (he’d already had the thing constructed in giddy anticipation)
The public sees the contraption & is appalled Sez No Way!
6/ Due to the uproar, the judge backed down & fined her $50 instead of the dunking.
1829’s $50 = $1000+ today — Anne who made her living as a reporter, was not a wealthy woman, 2 newspaper men paid the fee for her.
7/ Anne was the FIRST-ever human found *guilty* of being a scold in the US - 118 yrs later it happened again, in #Pittsburgh!
But wait, there’s (so) much more ~ TONS of coincidences that left me dazed, but not confused, hang on!
8/ Oct 1947 the 3 Znosko sisters, from Natrona, are accused of being scolds
This is almost TWO CENTURIES after the creep Dunmore put a ducking stool at our confluence ~ you’d think we’d progressed...
9/ Znosko’s neighbors, Francis Pastor & Francis,Jr claimed the sisters loudly unleashed profanities upon them (in English & Polish, b/c Pittsburgh) whenever they were outside.
10/ The sisters said the Pastor family routinely trampled their shrubs & Jr once rigged up a dummy - in their yard- to scare them
Jr was a young ex-GI (WWII), who also recorded the women shouting profanities - this was submitted in court, shocking everyone inc. Judge McDonald
11/ Jury took 30 min to convict the sisters, largely based on Jr’s recording (I’ve got ? as to what the real deal was, considering it involved a 19 yr male & sisters ranging in age from 20-26)
In Nov Judge McDonald sentences the 2 oldest to “13 mos. to 2 yrs” Then he...
12/ It came to light that just a few yrs earlier, Nov 1944, Judge McDonald had determined that the Scold Law didn’t apply to men
He arrived at this decision when confronted by a Shadyside woman accusing a male neighbor of harassing her & her dog (I know)
13/ Back to the turmoil of the sisters’ trial...
Shortly after closing the case #Pittsburgh woke up to read this: Judge McD committed suicide!
14/ Charging ahead the older sisters appealed their sentence & Judge Egan was brought in as a replacement & reduced their sentences! His reason: Judge McD, speaking from the “great beyond”, told him he’d made a mistake by not specifying the women’s jail term...
15/ By Christmas Judge Egan relented further & released all 3 on parole
Oh & one more thing...
16/ In 1949 State Rep Jeannette Rye (didn’t know SWPA had female rep back then) was determined to remove the Scold Law from PA’s books.
I couldn’t find out if she was successful
Wonder if it’s still on the books?
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