In 1842, Sarah Ann Olds married Dr. William W. Rainey, who, even then, sometimes drank to excess. By the mid-1850s, she said, he was "almost constantly drunk" and threatened her with bodily harm. Fearful for her safety, she fled from their home. In 1856, she asked John J. Olds, her brother and the trustee of her estate, to "take the possession of her slaves," including Joe, Susa and Susa's children: Armstead, Rachel, Bob, Abner, and Ada. Sarah Ann had received Susa and her family from her father in 1847 and she had purchased Joe from her father's estate in 1853. Sarah Ann charges that her husband is "unfit for the discreet management and control" of the slaves and is "wasting and squandering" her property. She asks for an injunction enjoining her husband from "all proceedings at Law" against her brother as trustee of her property. She seeks a decree granting her complete control over the slaves "as if she was sole and unmarried." In an earlier suit, William Rainey had sued to recover the slaves asserting himself as their sole owner by virtue of his marriage to Sarah Ann. He claims that, in 1847, William W. Olds could not have given slaves to his daughter which he no longer owned.
Result: Granted; appealed; reversed; rendered.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama
