In 1893, Clint Nickells, a Kansas City druggist, came to Wahpeton and rented a house with Mrs. Maude Graham and her three children. The pair intended to establish Dakota residency so they could divorce their spouses. Mr. Graham soon arrived from Minneapolis; he had hired detectives to trace his wife after learning of several large trunks she’d checked into the baggage car.
Maude and Clint had been sweethearts in Kansas before she met Mr. Graham in the East. She married Graham in 1885. Her father, also a Kansas City druggist, left her a fortune, and the wealthy heiress decided to return to Clint. She filed for divorce on grounds of non-support.
After securing their Dakota divorces, Clint and Maude married. In March 1894, they went to Maude’s elegant Minneapolis mansion to live. But they were arrested on complaint of Mr. Graham, who had launched a criminal case alleging illicit relations. “NICKELLS A BIGAMIST,” blared a St. Paul headline. Although the case was dismissed, it continued to fill newspapers around the country.
But Clint’s first wife, Minnie Nickells also fought back. She contested the divorce and sued Maude for $50,000. In June 1895, she took the matter to the North Dakota Supreme Court, with Judge Max Lauder of Wahpeton presiding. Minnie Nickells testified she had never agreed to the divorce, but the decree stood.
According to the Wahpeton Times, “Mr. and Mrs. Nickells returned from Fargo this week much elated” after the suit concluded. The dispute was settled monetarily, granting the first Mrs. Nickells $9,500 equity in Maude’s Minneapolis property. Clint and Maude then returned home, where Judge Lauder remarried them. “Thus ends a painful and expensive controversy,” the paper wrote, “and now the community joins in wishing and hoping that the latter union will be happy and prosperous.”
On this date in 1897, Christmas shoppers flocked to the iconic Masonic Temple building owned by Nickells. Preparing to sell out, he advertised deep discounts, 50 percent and lower, on gift items at his drugstore.
But the couple’s happiness was short. Maude died in 1898 from complications of rheumatic fever that had affected her brain and left her mostly unconscious for the past several years.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- WANTS $25,000 DAMAGES. Story of the Minneapolis Divorce Colony at Wahpeton. St. Paul Daily Globe, February 22, 1894
- RETURNED TO AN OLD LOVER – Minneapolis Woman Leaves Her Husband and Causes Scandal The Evening World (New York, NY), March 16, 1894
- THE NICKELLS AND GRAHAM AFFAIR. The Wahpeton Times, March 22, 1894
- From the Minneapolis Tribune: Another Nickells Suit. North Dakota Globe, June 28, 1894
- NICHOLLS A BIGAMIST. St. Paul Daily Globe, June 28, 1895
- North Dakota Globe, July 4, 1895
- ARE IN A HURRY. St. Paul Daily Globe, August 6, 1895
- The Wahpeton Times, October 10, 1895
- CELEBRATED CASE
- MINNIE NICKELLS AND MAUDE NICKELLS SETTLE THEIR DIFFERENCES.
- Out of Court – Eight Thousand Dollars Cash and Twelve Thousand in Property Accepted in Lieu of Husband’s Affections – End of a Hard Fought Case.
- North Dakota Globe, October 10, 1895
- Advertisement placed by Clint Nickells. OH, LOOK! Christmas and Holiday Goods -- At 50 cents on the $1.00! TOYS, BOOKS, CANDY, TOILET and FANCY ARTICLES, PLUSH CASES, ALBUMS, etc. Now, if you want to save just one-half of what you expected to spend for Christmas, come at once and make your selections before the stock is depleted, The Richland County Gazette, December 17, 1897, Page 3
- Mrs. Maude Nickells, Dead. The Wahpeton Times, October 13, 1898
