Week 5: Oops
My grand-aunt Elsie May Williams was the sixth child born to Minnie Casto and Owen Williams, just two years younger than her brother Lester who was my grandpa. I never met Elsie because she died under tragic circumstances long before I was born but I was curious to find out more about her short life.
The Williams family lived in the town of Wolcott in Princeton Township, White County, Indiana, when Elsie was born. Minnie was 26 years old and Owen was 29 at the time. In the 1910 U.S. Census the family lived in a rented farm home on Black Oak Road where Owen worked as a ditcher installing farm tiles and Minnie worked at home raising the children. By the 1920 Census the family had moved to another rented farm in nearby Jasper County. Elsie was no longer the lone little girl in the family. Four sisters had been born to keep her company, spaced every two years: Leola, Eliza, Katy, and Della. Elsie, age 11, was attending school and could both read and write. Her two oldest brothers—Russell (18) and Louis (16)—were no longer attending school but siblings Renolt, Lester, Leola, and Lena were.
Somewhere between 1920 and 1923 the Williams family moved from Jasper County to St. Joseph County and Elsie left school. On 3 August 1923 she married a man named Ray Bowman. In August of that year Elsie would have been only 15 ½ years old so instead of her correct birth year (1908) on the marriage certificate, she wrote 1907, making her appear to be over 16 at the time.
Elsie may have needed parental consent to be married at 16. Currently, 16 year-olds in Indiana can marry someone no more than four years older with the consent of a juvenile court judge. Ray Bowman stated his birth year as 1902, which would have made him a little more than 4 years, 7 months older than Elsie. Despite Elsie's young age, she must have been in love and hoped to have a long and happy marriage, but that wasn't to be.
Within three years of their marriage Elsie and Ray had separated and Elsie's life seemed to spiral out of control.
On 11 Nov 1926 Elsie rode to church with her family at Bethel Tabernacle, 129 N. O’Brien Street, in South Bend. She stayed in the car while everyone else entered the church and wrote a note to her family explaining why she didn’t want to live any longer. From some hiding place in the car she took out a bottle of carbolic acid, an easily obtainable disinfectant, and drank the sweet-smelling clear liquid. The immediate severe burns in her mouth and throat caused her to cry out, but a rushed trip to hospital wasn’t enough to save her.
When I found Elsie's obituary it said that her husband Ray had died a few months before November of 1926 and it suggested that Elsie had begun to date another man but had a disagreement with him, leaving her in “fatal despondency”.
The cause of death was stated as Phenol poisoning suicide. Phenol is the poisonous substance in carbolic acid. There was an inquest into her death. As seen in the death certificate below, the number 155 written under the cause of death means "death by suicide", as listed in the International List of Causes of Death from that period. Elsie was listed as Miss Elsie Williams, a single woman, and not as Elsie May Bowman, a widow. That seemed curious.
It made me want to find out more about this ill-fated marriage and more about the man she had married. When I looked further I noticed that Ray and Elsie’s marriage certificate stated that Ray had one previous marriage. A little research told me that on 21 Jul 1920 Ray had been married to 18 year-old Jessie Thorp by a Justice of the Peace in Cassopolis, MI.
But then Ray married Elsie on 3 Aug 1923.
Jessie filed for divorce from Ray on 29 Sep 1924, more than a year after he had married Elsie. The divorce was granted two months later on 29 Nov 1924. Ray was a bigamist! Jessie was the libellant in the divorce, citing non-support for the cause. Apparently it wasn't noticed that, besides not providing support, Ray had married Elsie while he was still married to Jessie.
Elsie and Ray separated at some point between their marriage in 1923 and her death in 1926. Had she found out about his bigamy and betrayal? Was the story about Elsie being despondent over a new man in her life a fabrication? Had she realized what an "oops" she had made by making a terrible choice for a husband and decided that she couldn't go on living?
I decided to find out all I could about this scoundrel Ray Bowman that young Else had married. On 12 Feb 1927, only three months after Elsie’s death, Ray married was married to his third wife, 18 year-old Fredia Ward. Ray and Fredia were divorced on 12 Jan 1935 after she filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion. Ray and Fredia had two small children when the divorce was granted.
After that divorce it became harder to document Ray Bowman. In the 1940 U.S. Census I found a Ray Bowman who was born 1905 in Michigan. The enumerator recorded that Ray was a resident of Danville, IL, was married to a Martha Bowman, and had a 3-year old daughter named Charlotte. Ray’s birth year was fluid throughout his life; each marriage he gave a different year so this may have been him.
In February of 1942 Ray registered for the draft. He was living in Whiting Lake, IN. His birthplace was given as Decatur, MI, with a birthdate of 28 Jul 1904. Living at the same address was a Phyllis Bowman, presumably his wife. In the 1950 U.S. Census Ray Bowman lived in Bangor, MI, with wife Phyllis and two sons, Charles (2) and Ray Allen (1). After the Census, no records were found until his death.
Ray’s Michigan death certificate information:
Ray Bowman
Arlington, Van Buren Michigan
Born 28 July 1904 Died 14 Jan 1981
Ray’s Social Security Death Index information:
Born 28 July 1903 Died Jan 1981
Ray's birth year varied until the very end. One thing is certain, though: Ray did not die before Elsie did like her obituary had stated.
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