The Wives of Uncle Sam

Back in 2008 I wrote about the FBI file for my great uncle, Samuel "Stanford" Ophan Van Every

A wife of his had written the following in July 1918

War Department
Information Bureau
Washington, DC

Gentlemen: I was married to S.O Van Every, March 20, 1917 in Jacksonville Fla., my husband gave his age then as 28 but on June 5th of last year he very suddenly grew to be 32 he did not register for the draft ... Mr. Van Every deserted me last December in Little Rock Ark. when he went to Oroville Calif. and Martinez, Calif. and became engaged to another ... Mr. Van Every I learn has been married before he married me but had not a divorce.

I would like to know where I stand...He is a native of Texas, his parents live in Fabens, Texas ... Before the war he was pro-German.

Very Truly
Mrs. SO Van Every

The FBI file also indicated that an agent visited the parents of my great uncle, and evidence was provided that Samuel was actually 32 years old. His wife had been the one lied to, and not the government, so the government was fine with that. The FBI apparently also wasn't interested in investigating the accusations of bigamy. (There was a war; their focus was elsewhere, perhaps.)

By 2010 I had answered most of my questions about the FBI file. With a few exceptions.

1) I had names, and dates of marriage for wife #1, and the author of the above letter, but no evidence of divorces

2) I had no name for the woman he allegedly became engaged to in 1918. And I didn't know if they actually got married. Half of that has changed.

Below is a timeline with the information I now have.

• Jan 15, 1886 - Birth, San Marcos, Texas
• Jan 22, 1906 - Marriage to Esther Dahlin, Travis, Texas
• Aug 1, 1906 - Birth of Son, Everett Vanevery
• June 1, 1910 - Divorce filed

• 1911-1916 - Marriage to Elsa/Elsie Diebel
• 1914-1917 - Death of Elsa/Elsie Diebel

Several un-sourced online family trees state the marriage occurred in 1916, and Elsa died in 1917.
There is a tombstone in Goliad, Texas, for an Elsa D. Vanevery, and it says she died on May 21, 1914.

Elsie's name appears in family history notes of one of Samuel's sisters, so I am sure she was at one time married to Samuel. I'm just not certain about the dates. If the tombstone is hers, the marriage obviously occurred prior to May 1914. My grandmother's first husband, Alfred "Jack" Connevey, was a boarder of the Diebels in the 1910 census, so I would like to find out more about Elsie.

• March 20, 1917 - Marriage to Amy Johnston, Jacksonville, Duval, FL
• April 14, 1918  - ex-wife Esther Dahlin marries Charles Haynie
• June 4, 1918 - Engagement to Blanche Shuttler, Oroville, Texas (this is the newest information. Newspaper clippings below)
• July 1918 - Amy Johnston writes to the War Department
• Feb 1920 - Blanche Shuttler and "Mr. Van Every" are attendants at another wedding in Oakland, CA.
• April 1, 1924 - son Everett drowns in Barton Creek, Travis, TX
• 1930 Census - Samuel is living in Kansas City, Missouri, and allegedly has a wife named, Myrtle. His sister, Myrtle (my grandmother) may have visited her brother enough that a landlord, or neighbor, may have provided inaccurate information.
• Sept 18, 1933 - He is listed as a widow on his death certificate. The informant was my grandmother.

Wed, Jun 5, 1918 – 6 · The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.comFeb 27, 1920, Le Mars Semi Weekly Sentinel, (Le Mars, Iowa)


Further Notes:

1) Enough time elapses between June of 1918 and Feb 1920 that it isn't clear if my great uncle married Blanche Shuttler, and then they divorced, or if they were never married. It is possible that the letter Amy Johnston Van Every wrote to the War Department stopped the marriage from happening. It does make me wonder whether Blanche and my great uncle remained friends, and how tense the situation was when they were both attendants at another wedding in 1920.

2) As to Amy Johnston Van Every’s charges of bigamy, if Elsa/Elsie Diebel died before Samuel married Amy, he appears to be exonerated. Which is the case, if the tombstone is for Elsa, which I suspect it is. Samuel was married twice before Amy; one marriage ended in divorce, and the other in death. The 1918 engagement doesn't appear to have been followed by a marriage. Unless there is yet another wife that I have not uncovered.