Tracy Lee Howard, Myth Buster of the "Good Old Days" When There Was No Divorce Ever

 Johann Gottfried Hauer (John Godfrey Howard) Family Line

Tracy Lee Howard (1895-1947)

Myth Buster of the "Good Old Days" When There Was No Divorce Ever
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by Carolyn Ann Howard

The link between Michigan and New York for the Howard family has yet to be determined, at least by me, anyway. Tracy Lee Howard is another one of those Howards who was born in New York and went to Michigan. Tracy, however, eventually went back to New York after his third marriage.

Tracy was born 15 Aug 1895 in Middlebury, New York, and I'm told that this is a wonderful place in which to live. I'd love to visit sometime. Tracy's parents were Francis David Howard, who went by Frank, and Josephine Eldora Gay. Almost 7 years separate Tracy and his brother, Gordon, who was born in 1888. On the 1900 census, Tracy's father is listed as a "day laborer." It shows that his mom had had 2 children with 2 living. It also shows that his parents had been married 17 years.

That myth soon becomes broken when on the 1910 census. Tracy's mom, Josephine, was listed by herself with just Tracy, having been married 27 years. Her occupation is "house work." Tracy's occupation was listed as "none." Surely at the age of 14 he was in school, right? Yes, that's right. We see on the 1940 census that his highest education was 4 years of college. Tracy's father is on the page previous to Josephine, living with John Johnson and his family as a border. It shows his marriage as 27 years also, and that he is a painter and paper hanger. This is what my paternal grandfather did as his side hustle. Tracy's brother, Gordon, was out on his own, would be getting married the next year, 1911, and moving to Perry, New York, close to Middlebury.

This is where Ancestry lets us down. I wish more family stories were published, because documentation is simply not enough to really get to know your ancestors. The next document we have for Tracy is his marriage license to Barbara Hill on 01 Jun 1916. He's not in Middlebury anymore, either. He's now in Detroit, Michigan, and there's no way to find out why using Ancestry. No information on newspapers.com, either. Nor Family Search. No one has him on Wikitree, either, and I am the one who, during this course of study, made his Find-A-Grave memorial. Nevertheless, that's where he was in 1916: Detroit.

A clue might be dropped for us in 1913, however, for that is when his father, Frank, divorced his mother, Josephine. It was extremely difficult to get a divorce in New York in 1913, even though Frank had been living on his own for quite some time. It could be that the Howard relatives in Michigan enabled Frank to come to Michigan to get the divorce. Josephine, in the meantime, was living with a man named Myron Shay. I wish Ancestry would let us have a "partner" feature. I listed Myron Shay as her husband, even though they were never married. I know absolutely nothing about the relationship they may have had with each other, just that they lived together. Myron died in 1926. I couldn't find an obit.

Frank filed for divorce in Bay County, Michigan, 08 Nov 1912. It was granted to him 09 May 1913. Frank rightly claimed his reason for divorce was desertion. One scenario might be that his son, Tracy, tagged along and just decided to stay. It may be that Tracy met his first wife Barbara Hill there. They were married 01 Jun 1916. Meanwhile, Frank went back home to New York.

Tracy registered for the draft in 1917. He listed his occupation as auto mechanic. Oooooo! Pretty new occupation there! He worked for the Winston Motor Car Company, and we might now have the reason he moved to Detroit, the car capitol of the U.S. Wonder how or where he learned his mechanic skills?  He tried to dodge the draft by claiming his wife as a dependent. As this was the beginning of the whole draft system in the United States, that was a valid and legal excuse. Those Civil War wives surely had a difficult time when their husbands left them behind to fight in that bloody war. On Tracy's draft registration, it stated that he was of medium height, medium build with light blue eyes and dark brown hair. A picture would have been nice.

The whole wife thing didn't work out, though, for he was eventually drafted but not before filing for divorce 19 Aug 1917. Divorce was pretty frowned upon in 1917, nor was there such a thing as a no-fault divorce. The reasons for divorce had to be sensational, and they were. The alleged causes given in this Michigan document were things such as desertion, adultery, and extreme cruelty. It feels like it was a pick-from-this-list type of situation, and Tracy chose "extreme cruelty." This tells us nothing about Barbara's personality. The marriage just didn't work out, and that's probably all there is to it.

Tracy entered the military with the final rank of private serving on an Aero Squadron at the Aviation Repair Depot. Being a mechanic, he would have had a lot to offer in working on the newfangled airplanes. I don't know what his Squadron Number would have been. On his application for a military stone, it states he was in the 878, but this squadron was located in Dallas, Texas. His military record that is on Family Search states 87th, but this also was located in Texas. Another military card again states 878. I guess he could've gone to Texas; I have no documentation otherwise. It's just that on the application for the military headstone, it says New York, which is marked out with red pencil and corrected with Michigan. It's so interesting, though, the history of flight in the United States and how many advances were made on this new technology just because of that war. On another note, his rank on the application was "sergeant," marked out by that same red pen and corrected to "private."

As I was proofreading this story, I decided to go back and look once more at the headstone application. I noticed for the first time that his enlistment date was 27 Mar 1918 and his discharge date was 28 Mar 1918. Hmmmmm.

Tracy's divorce from Barbara Hill was granted 05 Mar 1919, and, in the city directory, he is listed as a machinist. He married again 23 Apr 1920 to a young woman from his hometown in New York named Frances J. Kerwin. I can't find Tracy on the 1920 census records, so I'm guessing he was traveling when the census enumerator went by, moving back home to New York. After their marriage, they settled down in Buffalo, New York, and Tracy became the manager of Liberty Auto Repair.

Liberty Auto Repair
Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection

What I think was Liberty Auto Repair
Courtesy Google Maps, proper attribution given

By 1923 things apparently weren't going so well at home. He eventually moved into an apartment above the shop, and Tracy's divorce from Frances was finalized in October 1925. I couldn't find the divorce records for this one, but the divorce was listed on Frances's marriage license when she married Arthur Snyder the following year. At first I was like, "Did Arthur even know she was divorced?" Because on their wedding announcement in the paper, she is listed as "Miss Frances J. Kerwin."

Funnily enough, Tracy had his first child when he was married to Frances. Virginia Mary Howard was born 19 Jun 1925. I have a feeling, though, that Virginia's mother was Tracy's third wife, Cecil McLouth. Again, Ancestry has no perimeters for this situation. We really don't know, do we? And so I listed Cecil McLouth as "unknown" mother, and I really hate that. Maybe I should just go ahead and change it to biological. Virginia claimed Cecil as her biological mother, and so probably should I?

I'm not sure why, but these two New Yorkers were married in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Tracy stated that he had only been married once before. I wonder which marriage he was denying. It would have to be the first one, right? Because I'm pretty sure Tracy was with Cecil prior to his divorce from Frances. At least this time, however, the marriage seemed to take.

After their marriage, it appears they may have lived above the auto shop for a while. In the 1930 census, however, Tracy, Cecil, and their two young daughters were living with a Paul Lua and his wife in Niagara Falls, New York. The youngest child of Tracy and Cecil's, Lois Jane, is listed first of the family as Paul's niece. The other three are listed below that as "lodgers." Weird. I poked around a little bit to see if I could figure out who this Paul Lua was, but without any luck, and it's not something I wanted to spend a lot of time on. At any rate, by the time of the 1934 Niagara Falls City Directory, the family was in a comfortable home in the suburbs and Tracy was listed as a salesman. Of cars perhaps?

By the 1940s census, Tracy has moved up in the world and the family was living in a nice brick bungalow on Memorial Parkway in Niagara Falls, New York. Tracy was listed as an accountant.

That's about all the documentation Ancestry has to offer on Tracy Lee Howard. He unfortunately died in 1947 at the young age of 51. By the time of the 1950 census, Cecil had already remarried. Their two girls lived into adulthood, were married, and each had children of their own.

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC

Suicide and Divorce of Elias Howard II's 3 Wives

Johann Gottfried Hauer (John Godfrey Howard) Family Line

Elias Howard, II (1805 - after 1940)

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by Carolyn Ann Howard

This post was updated 15 Aug 2021

I've been divorced twice, unfortunately, and my heart always goes out to anyone having to go through this ugliness. I've also dealt remotely with the suicide of a friend, and, as someone with an interest in the culinary world, I'll never get over the death of Anthony Bourdain

Playing off that introduction, it's interesting how the sons and daughters of John Godfrey Howard dispersed themselves throughout the United States, particularly Godfrey's son, Elias. This son was born 22 Oct 1805 in Grafton, New York. He moved, along with his parents, brothers and sisters, to Middlebury, New York in or around 1831.

The reason for the move from Grafton to Middlebury is unknown, but I'm working on the relationship between Godfrey Howard and the Brust and Vader families. The Vaders came to Middlebury in 1820 and may have talked the Howard family into later doing the same. In Grafton, the Howards were a part of Rensselaerwyck, working as tenant farmers. Things were about to get ugly there as the tenants were starting to revolt. Moving to Middlebury, now that I understand it better, was probably a really good idea.

Once the family arrived to Middlebury, Elias was firstly married to Joann or Johanna. They had 2 children, Joanna and George Washington Howard. After the birth of these two children, poor Joanna died. We know nothing more of Joanna or her daughter, Joanna.

Elias was secondly married to Katy Vader. After this marriage, George Washington Howard, Elias's son with Joanna, ran away from home, never to return. It was said that he didn't get along with his stepmother. I'm amazed how this young man, at the age of 14, successfully ran away from home in New York and went all the way to Michigan, battled in the Civil War, took a wife and had a family!

Elias and Katy had 12 children that I can tell at this point in my research. One of those children was named after his father, Elias, and this son is the subject of our story today. 

According to papers from The Middlebury Historical Society of old-timer memories, Elias II died a lonely old man who had no children. But that's the end of the story. Here's the beginning:

Elias II was born sometime in the 1850s, that prosperous decade prior to The Civil War. In the 1860 census, he was living with his parents, brothers and sisters. He was 9 years old, according to the census enumerator.

In the 1870 census, Elias II was 20. All his grown brothers and sisters were out of the parent's home. Only the three youngest were there, all under the age of 17. Elias, interestingly, was living with his brother Simeon. He was still single and listed as a farm laborer. This was in Middlebury, New York.

1880. Mind blown. Elias II was living in Hampton, Michigan, in Bay County. This is not necessarily the mind-blowing part, because his sister Polly was also there with her husband as was his brother, Leonard, and another sister, Elvira, with her husband. What is mind-blowing is that he was living in a Hampton boarding house with a dozen others, with an occupation of laborer. He listed his parents as both being born in Vermont. It feels like Elias should know better than that. His parents were both born in New York. Was he intentionally being flippant? Did he really just not know?

10 Jul 1881. Elias married a servant girl, Mina Woods. Cannot for the life of me find out much about this woman, Mina, which might be short for Wilhelmina. Her parents were born in England, according to the 1880 census. Mina was born in Michigan. In the 1880 census, she was 19 and living as a servant in the home of Albert Schuler. We know from the marriage certificate that Elias was still living in Hampton. In the 1880 census, Mina was in Merritt, Michigan. Both Hampton and Merritt were in Bay County.

Elias II and Mina were married under 5 years, as Elias II married his second wife 25 Mar 1886. We do have documentation of this first marriage with Mina Woods but no divorce record. It was easy to divorce, though, just move on. A couple didn't even have to go through the courts. Just start over. Easy. Although to start over might mean a move to a different town where no one knew who you were.

Elias denied this marriage on future census records.

It was disgraceful for a woman to be divorced at this time in American history. So if a person did get a divorce, legal or not, they usually claimed themselves as either widowed or unmarried. Since a woman's status depended on her being married, widow was the way to go. But good for Mina, though. She owned her divorce. In the 1900 census, she declared herself divorced. She at that time lived with the Charles Irving family as their servant. She no longer lived in Merritt but in Elias II's town of Hampton. On the census record, she stated that she had no children and had never been pregnant. I was unable to unearth any further information on Mina at this time.

25 Mar 1886. Elias II married his second wife, Ella May Bennett. They had a least one daughter, Frances G., who was born in 1888. In 1900, Elias was living with his brother Simeon... again.  In the 1910 census, nothing on Frances. 1920, Frances was married to Otto Bauss, a German immigrant. They lived in Kansas City, Missouri. It feels that someone else must have reared her or perhaps she ran away. Can't find any census records for her mother, Ella, but on her mother's second marriage certificate, Frances is not listed as her daughter.

Another possibility for a son, according to my father's records, was Elias III. No records found.

One last possibility for a child is that of a son, Frank M. Frank is listed with Elias and Emma on the 1894 census. That's the only record I have for Frank. And where is Frances? If Frank is 7 in the 1894 census, that makes him born the same year as Frances, 1888. Is Frank and Frances the same person? Were they twins?

11 Feb 1897. Back in New York, Elias II's mother, Katy Vader, died. According to her obituary, Elias II was the only living child not to be at her funeral.

23 Jun 1900. Elias II was again living with his brother Simeon as a day laborer. No wife. No children. Just Elias. By himself. This census record shows both parents correctly as having been born in New York. He was listed as married, which is true, but not for much longer. He was no longer living in Bay County, Michigan, but back in Middlebury, New York.

22 Aug 1900. Elias is granted a divorce from Ella. The reason? Desertion. She did not dispute it.

Ella was most likely a force to be reckoned with. She was on her own at the age of 14, working as a seamstress. After she left Elias, she worked as a clerk in a department store, The Boston Store. In the city directories, she claimed herself a widow of Elias. Six years later, she married a doctor.

06 Apr 1910. Elias was married the third time to Addie Belle Peck. They were married in Middlebury, for Elias would never leave his original hometown again.

1910. Elias II was living with his 3rd wife Addie Belle. Her father also lived with them, William Peck. Elias II stated his occupation was that of farmer. His father-in-law was listed as a carpenter.

1920. Elias II was still living with just Addie Belle, as his father-in-law died in 1911. He continued to be listed as a farmer. He would be all alone once more in just about a year for Addie Belle killed herself in 1921.

1930. Elias is 72 and living alone. His occupation was none. His father was listed as being born in New Jersey and his mother as being born in Pennsylvania, even though, again, they were both born in New York.

I do not know when Elias II died. I couldn't find him in the 1940 census on Ancestry. I did find him, though, using FamilySearch.org. He was living at the Wyoming County Home, which would be equivalent to our modern day nursing home, except conditions may or may not have been very good. According to that census record, he had been there at least 5 years.

We cannot access the 1950 census records quite yet - almost there! If Elias's name is listed there, he would be nearly 100 years old.

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC