5. The Commonwealth Didn’t Let The Haters Get Them Down
This may or may not come as a surprise to some people, but there was plenty of backlash about the Santificationist movement. Most Christian churches taught their congregation that divorce was not acceptable under any circumstances, because the man and woman made a promise before God that they were going to stay together for the rest of their lives. It is still technically against the rules in the Catholic faith to this day, and if a man and woman get a legal divorce, the Catholics believe you are still spiritually married in they eyes of God. Many people blamed Martha McWhirter for the rise in divorce rates in Texas. They called her a home wrecker, and many of the violent men began to threaten her.
One day, two Scottish brothers were visiting Belton, Texas, when they spotted the Women’s Commonwealth. When they heard the story from the locals about Mrs. McWhirter and her crusade to remove women from toxic environments, this somehow threatened their masculinity. So they got very drunk and stood in front of one of the Commonwealth houses to shout and scream at the female commune, calling them all kinds of nasty names and threatening violence against the women. Maybe these idiots were used to getting away with saying whatever they wanted to women back in Scotland, but they were in Texas, now, and they were going to get the surprise of their life.
A mob of women came out of the boarding house with their kitchen knives. These men were threatening them on their private property, so technically, they could have even shot these men for trespassing and threatening them. The phrase “Don’t mess with Texas” is no joke! The ladies grabbed the two men, and carried them inside the house. They were tied up, whipped, and brought to a local insane asylum, where the women told the doctors that they men were acting insane. So, they were locked up until they sobered up. The next morning, the Scottish men were let free, but only after promising that they would leave Belton, Texas, and never come back.