Monday, October 10, 2022

Edward Clifford Stolp: A Mystery Solved

Among the many images in Minnie Rossow Harms' steamer trunk was this photo of a young violinist, taken probably circa 1912.

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(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.


Handwritten notes on the back identify him as Clifford Stolp.

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I've mentioned before that Clifford and his ultimate fate were a mystery to me. But recently I came across a short article in the Hobart Gazette of January 21, 1943, announcing, without much explanation, his death on January 9. However, that gave me a time frame, which made further research practical.
I found this article from the Nashville Banner of January 13:

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(Click on image to enlarge)

It helpfully explains who his wife and daughter were, as otherwise I would not have known. The only marriage record I had previously found for him was of his 1922 marriage to Dorothy Featherston (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index) and that one, it appears from the 1930 Census, ended in divorce. Clifford and Estelle married sometime around April 1941.[1] I do not know what brought Clifford to Tennessee in the first place, but now he rests there forever.

Here is another article from the January 21 Oak Leaves (Oak Park, Ill.).

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((Click on image to enlarge)

Both articles, you will notice, give January 10 as the date of his death.

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The Gazette mentioned that Clifford Stolp "was an uncle to Billy and Carol Ann Stolp" of Hobart. Those were the children of his brother, Willard, who married Clara Shearer in 1929 (Indiana Marriage Collection). The Gazette added that Clifford had "numerous other relatives and friends in Hobart, having resided here at one time" — which we know, from the 1920 Census. He was, of course, related to the Rossows, and hence to the Harmses.

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[1] "Marriage Licenses," Nashville Banner, 14 Apr. 1941.

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