Genealogy Story – The Reno Nevada Connection

My maternal grandmother, Sara [Blackman] Pierpont, was the middle child of three. She had an older brother, Stanley, and a younger sister, Edna. This story is mostly about Stanley, but Sara and Edna both figure into it.

The Blackman family, Clarence and Alice [Talmadge], lived in Prospect, CT. Stanley was born in 1893, Sara in 1898, and Edna in 1906. Stanley was a salesman. He married a girl, Bessie Riggs, from Newburgh, NY in 1913 when he was 20. They had two sons. The first, Elmer, was born in 1914 in Waterbury, CT. But following WWI, they were evidently not doing well financially, and by 1920 they had moved in with Bessie’s parents and her sister back in Newburgh. It was there that their second son, Stephen, was born in 1923.

Meanwhile, in 1919 Sara had married a young man who lived nearby in Prospect, Harold Pierpont. They began what would eventually be a family of five children – Clarence (1920 – named after his maternal grandfather, but always called “Zeke”), Alice (1922 – named after her maternal grandmother, but always called “Allie”), Sylvia (1924), Richard (1926 – but always called “Dick”), and Violet (1929).

In June of 1929, Clarence Blackman passed away, followed only three months later by the passing of his wife Alice. The three Blackman children decided that the house in Prospect should be given to Edna as Stanley already had a family and a job and Sara was raising her family in Waterbury – just a few miles away. So at the age of 23, Edna, now a single lady with no parents, became the owner of the family home in Prospect.

However, it appears that things were not going well in Stanley’s life. Just a few months later (in the 1930 census), Stanley can be found living with his younger sister Edna in the family home in Prospect (where she is listed as the head of house). Bessie and her two sons were still living in NY with her parents. Stanley and Bessie had separated.

By late that same year, even more changes were in store. Stanley had evidently begun courting a lady in Hartford, Eda [Beaupre] Lapointe. But Eda was already married to her husband Victor and had two daughters, Joyce and Hope (then ages 11 and 7). Since Eda was still living with her Victor in 1930, it can only be speculated why she was agreeable to being courted by Stanley. Perhaps it was because Victor was Canadian and made frequent trips back to Quebec to visit his family and Eda wanted to become more “American”. Whatever the reason, Stanley and Eda wanted to get married, but since they were both currently married to others, they needed a “quickie” divorce first and the only place to do so was in Nevada.

So in the middle of a cold winter day sometime in mid-December of 1930, Stanley and Eda set off on a cross country drive from Prospect, CT, to Nevada. Eda’s two daughters, Joyce and Hope, went along for the ride, and so did Edna.

I heard stories about this when I was growing up, but like many stories I believe that things got changed a little in the telling. My uncle Zeke thought that this happened in the late 1920’s, but he was off a year or so. And my mother (Sylvia) thought that Aunt Edna went along as a chaperon, but I suspect it was more as someone to watch the two girls.

But for whatever reason, Stanley and Eda arrived in Nevada (filed for divorce in Reno on December 16th) and waited the requisite 6 weeks to establish “residency.” On February 2^nd, 1931, Stanley divorced Bessie, Eda divorce Vincent, and then Stanley and Eda got married. I’m not sure if Stanley officially adopted Joyce and Hope at the same time, but they did take on the Blackman last name.

Divorce isn’t a big deal these days, but back in the early 1930’s this was pretty scandalous! And although Nevada had allowed such “quickie” divorces beginning in 1911, it wasn’t until the late 1930’s that it earned the title of “Divorce Capital” due to several Hollywood couples going there for that reason.

After driving back across the country to CT, Stanley, Eda, Joyce and Hope settled into a new life in Hartford. Edna remained in Prospect for a while, then she sold the family home and moved into an apartment in Hartford where she worked for the State government until she retired (she lived in that same apartment for about 60 years). Joyce and Hope grew up, married, and raised their families in the same area.

When I was trying to flesh out my family tree a few years ago, I thought that I should try to track down Joyce and Hope and see what happened to them. I was able to make contact with Joyce’s oldest son, Herb Andrus, who still lives in the Hartford area (he’s only two years older than I). I talked to him on the phone and was able to send him some of the information I had on his step-grandfather’s family. I also learned a few very interesting things.

Our family had always had a close connection to my great-aunt Edna, visiting her in her apartment in Hartford, having her stay at our home on occasion, and having her as part of the greater Pierpont family for Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. My mother and my uncle Dick were the executors of her estate when she passed away in 1997. But we had had little to no contact with great-uncle Stanley and his family as he was kind of a “black sheep” due to this divorce/re-marriage in Las Vegas. But my great-aunt Edna evidently kept in touch – not only with her older brother Stanley, but with his children – both from his first wife and his second wife. While we had been visiting “Aunt Edna” in the assisted living home where she spent her last few years, Herb and his brother had as well – but Aunt Edna had never told us (at least to my knowledge). And Herb’s brother, Scott, even had the middle name Talmadge which had been the maiden name of his step-great-grandmother.

So, while I never knew much about this branch of the family tree when I was growing up, I’m happy to have been able to make the connection with my step-second-cousins.