It's already week 8 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. So far I've been able to keep up! I hope I can continue to post each week. The prompt for the week is 'Courting'.
Normally if I hear the word courting, I immediately think of a young man trying to woo his future bride. I also start singing "Goin' Courtin'" from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! But today I am thinking of 'courting' as 'going to court' for legal proceedings. I want to tell you about a court case involving an ancestor.
The story starts in 1901 when Charles Franklin Weiss married Mary E Tullis in St. Charles County, Missouri. The couple kept their marriage secret for nearly a month before announcing the marriage. I don't know why, but now I wonder if that may have been an early clue that there would be trouble in the marriage!
Marriage of Mary Tulles and F Weiss 12 Sep 1901, Thu Alton Telegraph (Alton, Illinois) Newspapers.comThe article refers to the groom as 'Fred', but his name was 'Frank' or Charles Franklin Weiss
Eleven year later Charles (more commonly known as Frank) and Mary were living separately. In August of 1912 they were in court battling for custody of their daughter, Mary Esther. If the testimony is to be believed, Mary was less than an ideal mother. According reports in the local paper, the court testimony showed that Mary kept her daughter out late into the night while she attended dances. The child would have been only 4 years old at that time. Mary was also accused of seeing another man while her husband was away. You can read more in the article below.
Custody Hearing for Mary Esther Weiss 06 Aug 1912, Tue Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, Illinois) Newspapers.com[The article refers to the father as Elmer Weiss, but Mary Esther was the child of Elmer's brother Frank and his wife, Mary Tullis]
The outcome of the trial was that the grandparents were awarded custody of Mary Esther. The grandfather took custody a few days after the trial.
Weiss child custody awarded to grandfather 19 Aug 1912, Mon Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, Illinois) Newspapers.com
The grandfather took custody shortly after the trial ended. I find it interesting that the Police Chief agreed to have an officer go along to keep the peace, but NOT to take possession of the child. I wonder why this was. Did he strongly believe that the mother should always be the caretaker of the daughter? Did he know that there was more to the story than what came out in court? Is it possible that Mary was not the bad parent that Frank made her out to be?
I've been unable to locate the actual court records. I plan to try again now that I am little more familiar with court records. I may have looked in the wrong court when I tried several years ago.
One more thing to note in the article. The grandparents were apparently given custody to allow the parents to work towards reconciliation. (Does it bother anyone else that the child is referred to as 'it' in the last sentence?!) Spolier alert: Any reconcilation they achieved was short-lived. Frank was back in court three years later to obtain a divorce. But that is a story for another post.
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