George A. Switzer’s 3rd Wife: Who Was Elizabeth G.?

SHORT ACCOUNT OF MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER’S LIFE is given in the fam­ily his­tory. It’s com­prised mostly of his two mar­riages — first to Net­tie Booth who died of tuber­cu­lo­sis in 1890, then to my great-grandmother, Clara­belle Eastin.

Clara­belle died in a car acci­dent in Macomb’s pub­lic square in 1916. George was at the wheel. From that point on there is no men­tion of any­more wives — not in the fam­ily his­tory, not in any­thing my mother or any other rel­a­tive ever said.

So imag­ine my sur­prise when I found George in the 1920 cen­sus mar­ried to some­body named Eliz­a­beth G. He was 65 years-old by then and retired, Eliz­a­beth was 50. They were liv­ing in Macomb, Illi­nois and my grandfather’s sis­ter is included in the house­hold. It’s per­haps sig­nif­i­cant that my grand­fa­ther is not, instead liv­ing with his half-brother Ralph.

Of course the obvi­ous ques­tion is why was Eliz­a­beth G. not included in the story of George Switzer’s mar­riages? And I sup­pose the obvi­ous answer is that she and my grand­fa­ther had a falling out. It wouldn’t be the only time he had trou­ble coex­ist­ing with his in-laws and from the account of his mother’s death, it’s clear he was dev­as­tated by her loss — per­haps even blamed his father for it. Maybe George’s remar­riage only added insult to injury.

A Pic­ture Worth a Thou­sand Words?

Then there’s the busi­ness of the 1924 fam­ily reunion pic­ture. George is front and cen­tre — the slen­der fel­low with the black bow tie. On the right he’s flanked by his sis­ter Min­nie and her hus­band Ezra Wet­zel. Far­ther right are two broth­ers and their wives. To the left where you’d expect to find George’s wife there is no one. And again, far­ther left are my grand­par­ents and two other couples.

Cou­ples. They’re all sit­ting together. Except my great-grandfather and his third wife. She was def­i­nitely alive in 1924, in fact, she out­lived George who died in 1928. So where is Eliz­a­beth G.? Of course, there could be a per­fectly inno­cent expla­na­tion — she was ill, she was away vis­it­ing rel­a­tives — any­thing is pos­si­ble. But taken with her absence from the fam­ily his­tory, it seems there’s more to the story.

Records have remained frus­trat­ingly silent regard­ing Eliz­a­beth G. Her maiden name is a mys­tery and I’ve only been able to find her in the 1920 and 1930 cen­suses. In a strange way, per­haps because she the first “unknown”, Eliz­a­beth G. has come to sym­bol­ize all the other name­less women in my tree, and the power that soci­ety [Read: men] had over them. I hope one day I’ll dis­cover her story but until then the ques­tion remains ~

Who was Eliz­a­beth G. and why did my grand­fa­ther erase her from our fam­ily history?