The Crime of Seduction

The crime of seduction has traditionally been defined in English common law as a felony committed when a male induces a previously chaste, unmarried female to engage in sexual intercourse with a promise of marriage. Although such laws are still on the books in some states of the US, cases of seduction are rarely prosecuted nowadays. The exception, of course, is when an underage female is seduced by an older male, in which case the male, especially if the age difference is pronounced, is often charged with statutory rape. However, if both parties are of legal age, laws against seduction are rarely invoked nowadays. It hasn't always been the case. It was not uncommon for a man to be charged with seduction a hundred or more years ago. The case of Allen Stemmons, of Jasper County, Missouri, is one example.
Stemmons was a young man about twenty-six years old living in the Carthage area when Viola Shottenkirk (surname also given as Bailey), about nineteen or twenty years old, came to his neighborhood from Kansas in December 1914 for an extended stay with her grandparents. Stemmons was attracted to the young woman right away, and they soon began keeping company. In August 1915, he proposed marriage to her. She accepted and began preparing table linen, sheets, and other household items in anticipation of the marriage. Their relationship even made the gossip column of the Jasper News when the paper reported on September 9, 1915, that "Viola Shottenkirk and Allen Stemmons of Maple Grove motored to J. F. Gullick's Sunday." (Maple Grove was a small community north of Avilla, about fifteen miles northeast of Carthage.)
Stemmons continued his attentions to Viola until one day in October, when they were out riding in an automobile, he "insistently solicited sexual intercourse," urging that, being engaged, they were already married in the sight of God. She demurred, pointing out that they were not yet married in the sight of man, but when he persisted, she finally gave in and "lent herself to his embraces." The couple again had sexual relations in November, and as a result of the intercourse, Viola became pregnant. According to later evidence, Stemmons didn't believe Viola when she first told him she was pregnant, and later he began backing off his promise of marriage and trying to arrange an abortion for her. When that failed, he made arrangements for her to go to Kansas City to have the baby. He met her in Kansas City and paid for her maternity care. Her parents, having learned of their daughter's condition, showed up, and the mother demanded to know of Stemmons whether he was the father of the unborn child. He admitted that he was, saying he knew that Viola had not had sex with anyone other than himself. When the mother wanted to know whether he planned to marry her daughter, he relied, "I didn't say I wouldn't."
But he didn't marry Viola, either before the child was born on July 31, 1916, or after, because he had fallen in love with another girl, Mary Leah Preston. He married her in August of 1916, just weeks after Viola gave birth to her child.
Viola and her family filed a charge of seduction and breach of promise against Stemmons in Jasper County Circuit Court. Stemmons, who had been a standout member of the debate team at Carthage High School, was described by a Webb City newspaper at the time he was arrested as "a clean, gentlemanly looking young man of splendid parentage." At his trial in the fall of 1916, Stemmons denied ever having sexual relations with Viola or ever having more than a casual relationship with her. He admitted making maternity arrangements for Viola but claimed he only did so in response to her threats. He said she came to the drug store where he worked and wanted him to provide something that would abort the baby. When he was unable to do so, she threatened to name him as the father of her unborn child if he did not provide for her relief. The jury didn't buy Stemmons' unlikely story, and he was convicted of seduction and sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary. His lawyers appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, postponing imposition of sentence, but the high court ruled in late July 1918 that the judgment of the lower court should stand.
Stemmons was transported to the state prison in Jefferson City on July 30, 1918, but he didn't stay there long. Just a month later, he was pardoned by acting governor Crossley after serving just a month in prison. In issuing his order, Crossley said he did not believe Stemmons was guilty of the crime of which he had been convicted. He said it was clear from the court record that the jury itself had doubts as to his guilt and had only convicted him with a recommendation of parole. The trial judge, however, had gone ahead and pronounced the two-year sentence, saying he would rather the state parole board act on the recommendation.
On August 31, 1918, Stemmons walked out of prison a free man, and he went on to lead a long and productive life, dying in 1977 at the age of 88. What happened to Viola and her child I have been so far unable to trace.