The Not-Well-Kept Secret Marriages in Marin
By Carol Acquaviva
Our local newspapers are a critical resource for genealogists. Published announcements of births, marriages, and deaths do much to enhance family tree research. Newspapers are also a good source for learning the dirt about your neighbors. A recurring piece of gossip was the revelation that a couple had “secretly wed.”
In 1902, it took the tragic death of millionaire property owner Herman A. Tubbs to reveal that he had married. One evening, Herman, his new wife of six months — the former Mrs. Alice Meader-Jeffreys — and a friend set out from their home on a hill in Sausalito, via a carriage cart pulled by horse. The three hadn’t journeyed far before the “sunset gun” was fired at nearby Fort Baker, startling the horse off the path and causing Herman to fall and break his neck. Herman was killed instantly while the two passengers suffered non life-threatening injuries.
Some immediate newspaper reports that detailed the accident specifically stated that Herman was unmarried and lived with his aged mother, Susan, in Oakland. But the misinformation wasn’t due entirely to hasty reporting, as only a few individuals knew that Herman and Alice had wed.
Herman’s funeral was held in Oakland, and Alice, now twice widowed, did not attend due to the injuries she sustained. Herman left behind an estate valued at $164,344 to be distributed in equal parts between Alice and his mother Susan, with Alice also securing the Sausalito hillside villa. “It was not known by members of the deceased family that he had married,” the Sausalito News reported later, “until after the will was found.”
Also in 1902, San Rafael’s Fourth of July Queen was not “Miss O’Brien” but actually “Mrs. Stevenson.” The bride, who had been married in a Catholic Church in Redwood City a month previous, explained:
“We [Margaret and Charles] had no intention of fooling anybody, but had been secretly married a month before the [Fourth of July] celebration began. I did not want to be a candidate for queen, but my friends put me in the contest and I was elected.”
Margaret was stuck. “Under the circumstances I could not divulge my marriage, and went under my maiden name. My mother was told of the wedding shortly after it took place, and my brothers were told tonight.” She added in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, “We will tell my father this evening, also.… I don’t see that I could have done differently.”
The summer of 1902 was full of secret marrying, as at the same time, Willette Harrison, the sixteen-year-old daughter of former Marin County Sheriff Henry Harrison, wed Eugene W. Biscailuz in San Francisco. Willette’s parents were not pleased, and the couple were promptly remarried by a clergyman. Eugene and Willette soon moved to Los Angeles, where Eugene became a deputy sheriff, an under-sheriff, and eventually the head of the biggest sheriff’s department in the country, that of Los Angeles County. He stayed with the department for 51 years until his retirement in 1958. The couple was married for 48 years, until the time of Willette’s passing in 1950.
In 1910, Charles H. Spotswood, age 20 married Florence Buchignani, age 17. Charles was the son of a prominent San Francisco hardware merchant and Florence had recently graduated from the convent of Notre Dame and began preparing for entry into the convent of Santa Clara. Friends since childhood, the couple eloped in San Rafael on a Friday before a justice of the peace. They returned to their parents in San Francisco, “received the usual forgiveness,” and were remarried on Monday at the Church of the Holy Redeemer in San Francisco. It appears that Charles and Florence divorced two years later.
In January of 1910, Nettie Koenig and Thomas Nichols’ secret was made public. They had been married the previous spring in Suisun, Solano County, and had not let on, even to close friends. Nettie, like Margaret O’Brien Stevenson above, had been crowned Queen of the carnival in 1908, and her friends still called her “Queen Nettie.” She was employed as a bookkeeper and proofreader for the Marin Journal newspaper, the same that announced her nuptials. One might assume that she had approved of the publication of this previously secret information.
Secret marriage in 1910 came in threes. In January, Henry St. Clair Boyd — son of the late wealthy capitalist Alexander Boyd (no relation to the Louise Boyd family)— wed May (or Mary) “Minnie” Ryan, a school teacher in Kentfield and herself from a well-known San Rafael family, in a church service in Healdsburg. A few weeks later, Henry was ordered before a judge for a debt related to a diamond ring and a stick pin for Minnie. An article in the Marin Journal indicated that Henry’s mother, Jean, learned of the nuptials, did not approve of the son’s “conduct and marriage,” and refused to assist him in his court settlement. Jean responded, “The young woman in question is a person I would meet under no circumstances. I would see my son go to jail before I would pay for anything purchased for her.” At press time, Minnie had quit her teaching job and the couple was honeymooning in Southern California.
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat was responsible for announcing news that was supposed to be secret: the marriage of G. McBride Smith of Santa Rosa and Ruby Penrod of Petaluma, who were married in San Rafael in March, 1915. Smith was circulation manager of the newspaper at the time. Eight years previous, Smith had married Miss Wilhelmina Alice McHarvey in Petaluma. The same newspaper said that no engagement had been announced, and the wedding “will be a surprise to their friends in Santa Rosa.”
Florence Filippini was the daughter of Nicasio rancher John Filippini and his wife, Ora, both noted Swiss immigrant pioneers. Marino Charles Tomasini’s family owned a nearby ranch, and the two young adults had been long acquainted. One Thursday morning in 1912 at San Rafael High School, it was revealed that Florence had wed Tomasini six months previous, in Stockton. Upon hearing the news, Florence’s fellow school students congratulated her. The Marin Journal reported, however, that Florence took off: “[T]he girl bride did not at all enjoy the fun, and fled from the school, and may not resume her course, though she would have graduated in June.”
Note: Marino and Florence had two children, Henry and Earl. Sadly, Florence became a widow in 1926 after Marino passed away from tuberculosis. Florence subsequently remarried Fred Knecht. To learn more about Florence and her life, her oral history interview is part of our Anne T. Kent California Room digital archive.
Sometimes newspapers are more explicit in describing the public and private reaction to secret unions. Egbert (Bert) C. Burtchaell and Olivia S. Jacobs, both of San Rafael, were married in January of 1901 in San Mateo. Olivia’s father was Frank J. Jacobs, who owed a well-known plumbing business in San Rafael. Bert’s father Peter was the nephew of James Tunstead, an early Marin County sheriff.
It wasn’t until June that the elopement was made known. “There was parental objection to the marriage owing to the youth of the parties,” said the Marin Journal. The reporter continued:
“Mr. Jacobs expressed surprise and regret at the hasty action and Mr. Burtchaell is grieved that his son should disregard his wishes and advice, he having opposed the courtship for a long time.”
The Daily Independent Journal acknowledged the Burtchaell’s marriage fifty years later, noting the well-regarded couple’s successful relationship:
“This Saturday, Mr. and Mrs. Burchaell are celebrating their golden wedding. Invited to a reception at the I.O.O.F.F. hall in San Anselmo are 350 friends… who will be assisted in receiving by their three daughters [Olivia, Shirley, and Doris]. The golden wedding celebrants have three grandchildren. Many of the guests will be church and Masonic affiliates. ”
For more gossip involving elopements and other milestones, use the California Digital Newspaper Collection to search the Marin Journal, the Marin County Journal, and the Marin Tocsin (digitized by the Anne T. Kent California Room), as well as the Sausalito News, the Mill Valley Record, the San Anselmo Herald, the Tamalpais News, and many other area and statewide historic newspapers.
