Minnie Harms gives us said juicy tidbit in a section entitled "Scandal":
Ernstine's [Ernstine Fuhrmann Pingel Harms Blohm, mother of Henry Harms, Sr.] 3 daughters with Johann Harms lived on neighboring farms. Ida married Charles Chester and as she grew older had a "weakened mind". Mr. Chester had another woman living with them and it was said he disposed of Ida and buried her in the woods but no one could prove it. She never had a funeral. Ida had 2 children, Art and Tressie (in high school with Aunt Ella [Rossow]). Another daughter, Jennie, was the child of the other woman.Great story, isn't it? — wife and mistress under the same roof, and a murdered woman lying buried in the woods around Big Maple Lake to this very day?
However, I don't have a shred of documentation to support it. For example, I can't find a record of marriage between Ida Harms and Charles Chester. (I can't even find a census record of Ida Harms' existence.) I haven't seen any mention of a wife of Charles going missing in any of the newspapers I've read, including early issues of the Gazette from 1889 to 1898. On the other hand, I was only skimming through those early issues in search of something else, and I haven't searched all the available newspapers from the time Charles reached marriageable age (let's say 18 years old, so about 1889). Minnie doesn't give us a time frame for this "scandal," but surely it was prior to 1898, when Charles married his last wife, Constance, who lived to nearly 70 years of age; thus Minnie (born 1897) must be repeating what someone else told her — perhaps her parents-in-law.
So at this point the only thing I can accept as true is that such a story was ever told in the neighborhood about Charles. That in itself is interesting.
5 comments:
Charles E. Chester married Dora Foreman on 8-15-1893 in Hobart. He married Constance McClain Booty on 12-27-1898 in Hobart. Constance was 1st married to Charles Booty and had Charles, Frank, George & Arthur. Then her 2nd marriage was to Charles Chester and had Theresia, Jennie, Sela, Constance, Robert & Vincent. Did Ida Harms ever exist?
I don't know. As I mentioned, I couldn't find her in the census, but that certainly doesn't settle the question. I am really curious to know what circumstances could have inspired this story, if it isn't true (and everything we know thus far says it isn't).
This IS an intriguing story! Makes one wonder about it since nothing is based on documented information...this was such a smaller community back then it would seem like it would be difficult to make up such a whopper of a tale and have it survive in the telling if there wasn't at least some basis of fact in it!! If only we could transport ourselves back in time to check this out!
Stories sometimes get distorted through telling and re-telling, or lapses in memory -- e.g., "Michael Carrozzo bought a farm near Hobart" has over the decades morphed into "Al Capone had a hideout in Hobart" -- so I suppose it's possible that someone with some kind of connection to Charles Chester could have provided the basis for this rumor, and then as it got re-told, Charles became the star ... I just can't imagine who the original star was!
Charles E. Chester married Dora Foreman on 8-15-1893 in Hobart. In the divorce decree dated 21 Dec 1898, he got custody of the two children he had with Dora, namely Artie and Theresa. He married Constance McClain Booty just two days after the divorce was finalized. I don't think there was an Ida who married Charles, it was Dora. Dora did have a "weakened mind" and died in an Illinois state hospital in 1908.
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