Page 210 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

forth about properly rights, I got tired of the affair being dragged out. I had heard there was an attorney
in Gainesville who could be a real bulldog if he was your lawyer in a divorce case, so I went down to
Gainesville and talked to Mr. S.L. Scruggs and employed him to assist Mr. Darby in the divorce case.
From that time on Mr. Scruggs more or less took over the case, and soon had it to where the case was
being tried.

Our divorce proceedings were held in one of the large court rooms in the Columbia County Courthouse,
and was widely attended by the curiosity seeking local populus. The Court room would be filled every
time we had a court session, as it was a matter of local interest and curiosity.

The first thing that happened when the court procedure began was that Mr. Scruggs asked Judge Rowe if
he could approach the bench, and permission was granted. Scruggs told Judge Rowe “Judge, I want to
call as my first witness, Mrs. Ruth Dicks, as a hostile witness on behalf of my client Mr. Lenvil Dicks.”
Judge Rowe said, “Mr. Scruggs I don’t think you can do that.” Mr. Scruggs asked to approach the bench
again and laid a law book before Judge Rowe and pointed to a passage in the Florida Statutes, and after
Judge Rowe had read what Mr. Scruggs pointed out to him, he directed Ruth Dicks to take the stand.

The reason that Mr. Scruggs wanted her to take the stand as a hostile witness on my behalf, was that he
could ask whatever questions he wanted to ask, whereas otherwise he would have only been able to
cross examine her, and his questions would have to be based on testimony previously elicited from her
by Mr. Black. Mr. Scruggs undermined their whole case when he did this, because when he finished
with Ruth Dicks he had Judge Rowe apparently leaning our way.

Ruth had only one witness in the divorce case which was her mother, as could be expected, but even her
mother did not have anything bad to say about me. On the other hand, I had 12 witnesses including my
father, the Reverend John Dicks, and when my dad testified as to things that Ruth had said to him on
previous occasions, when my dad finished testifying Judge Rowe called all of the lawyers up there and
told them “All of you go out there in that room and have a conference and decide, or come to an
agreement as to a settlement. If I have to decide the settlement Mr. Black, you’re probably not going to
like it.” Well, we all went out in to the conference room and it was not long until we had come to an
agreement, because Mr. Black knew when he was whipped. We ended up giving Ruth less than I had
previously offered her, and her settlement consisted of $12,000.00 in cash, plus I would be required to
make payments on the house we were living in and let her live there with me making the payments. I
agreed to this, as the payments on the house were not but $65.00 per month.

Within the next 2 or 3 years, I could have paid off the house and had the mortgage removed, but I did
not choose to do that. I insisted on making the monthly payments until the mortgage matured in order to
have her in a situation where she could not just have title free and clear, and sell it to the first slick
talking customer that came along.

My opinion towards Ruth Dicks is still exactly the same today as it was then, and, although she
continued to live in Lake City I very, very seldom ever saw her, even riding down the street.

About 6 weeks after our divorce, she married a friend of mine who had played first clarinet in the
Jacksonville Symphony at the time I was playing first trumpet, a man named Bill Potter, and I was very
fond of Bill, and was a little surprised when I heard that he and Ruth had gotten married.

That marriage only lasted about 6 weeks, and after they had split, Bill Potter called me one day and said
“Lenvil, why didn’t you tell me that Ruth was the kind of person that she is, as you could have saved me
a lot of grief?” I told him “Bill, if J had told you, you would not have believed it. And furthermore, if
you could not realize that she was just marrying you to spite me, you should not have expected it to

204

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: B423BA50-F22B-4D87-A44C-403308C92982