When To Hold, When To Fold

Amanda Cardwell Smith woke up one morning in Madison, Georgia sometime in 1863 to discover that her husband, Junius, had lost their house in a poker game.

In the annals of dumb hubby moves recorded by long-suffering wives (which is a pretty thick volume, by the way), this stunt ranks right up there - even more so when you consider that the house didn’t even belong to him. It was given to Amanda by her father. The deed only bore her husband's name because that's how they did it in Georgia in the year 1863.

According to Morgan County history, a controversy ensued. Imagine that. The winner of the poker game, one James Mann, took possession of the house, but he did so under the strong objection of the royally enraged Mrs. Junius Smith.

In a case of losing the battle but winning the war - Amanda Smith did not get her house back. However - the stink that she caused, the ruckus that she raised, the hell-hath-no-fury that she unleashed in the process did eventually result in a new Georgia law which was enacted in the year 1869. It provided that women could, from that point forward, own property in their own names.

And while that took care of the technicalities, it certainly didn't provide for what should be done with Junius P. Smith. The courts wisely left that up to his wife. Bless his heart and Lord help him.

Photo by Beth Yarbrough.