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What does it take for a woman to get arrested for just being ornery? Start with being "addicted to scolding" and to "instruct and teach her children to insult, abuse and injure children and persons in general." Mrs. Johnson also "makes a habit of using profane, vulgar and abusive language." Not only that, she keeps her store open on the Lord's day which disturbs the rest of the peaceable citizens.
Sounds like just another day at Wal-Mart to me, but to the good folks of Lycoming County in 1884, Mrs. Susan Johnson was a big pain in the Pennsylvania Dutch ass.
Your choice old lady Johnson...the can or the stocks.
Original Court Document, 1884 Collection Jim Linderman
Wow, she must have been really bad to have bail of $200 because my Pennsylvania German great great-grandfather only had to pay $300 to get out of the civil war. I've got the documents.
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