The Divorce Mill

In the eighteen nineties, lawyers in downtown Fargo had a brisk and unusual trade. Their clients arrived by train from the East, from Chicago, from Boston, from New York, from wherever respectability made unhappy marriages impossible to escape. They came to Fargo because North Dakota had made it easy, and for a few years in the nineties, Fargo was the divorce capital of the country, possibly the world.

The roots of the situation ran back to the Dakota territorial legislature, which had passed remarkably permissive divorce laws. A resident could file immediately upon arrival. Later the residency requirement was extended to ninety days, which was still far shorter than what most states demanded. Then in eighteen ninety-three, South Dakota tightened its own laws, and Fargo inherited the business that had previously been split between the two territories.

One Fargo judge reportedly granted three hundred fifty divorces in a single year. The clientele skewed wealthy. The hotels did well. The restaurants did well. The lawyers, naturally, did especially well. Fargo's position on the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads made it easy to reach from the East, and its position as the first major city west of the Minnesota border made it the natural first stop for those seeking legal relief.

The era ended on April first, eighteen ninety-nine, when Governor Fred Fancher signed legislation requiring one full year of residency before filing for divorce, and requiring petitioners to be United States citizens.

Fargo lost its peculiar distinction but kept the courthouses, the lawyers, and the hotel rooms that had been filled for a decade with the quietly desperate.