Amanuensis Monday: The Separation of Ben and Goldie Cruvant

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

Today I’m sharing a newspaper article from a local German newspaper and Google’s translation of an OCR transcript. While not exact, I am hopeful that it is close. It concerns the separation of a great grandmother’s brother from his first wife. 

Sat, Apr 18, 1908 – 5 · Westliche Post (St. Louis, Missouri) · Newspapers.com Because his wife allegedly could not hide her hatred of him, Benjamin Cruvant sued Goldie Cruvant for the injuries. The marriage was concluded on May 26, 1904 in Chicago and the separation took place on April 13, 1907. Cruvant claims to have found that his wife lived under the name Goldie Clover in St. Louis after the separation. The father is looking for the custody of an underage child.

Notes:

1. A June 1907 article describes the disappearance of Ben on April 19 implying it was due to the objections of his parents to their marriage based on Goldie not being Jewish. I had found record of their divorce being filed in 1908, but hadn’t yet uncovered the details of what had been claimed. This article provides a different reason for the breakup, but Ben likely had legal reasons to claim injuries and blame Goldie. This article suggests he sought custody of one of the two children. Both children were residing with the mother in the 1910 census. Goldie’s maiden name was White and it’s unclear why she used the Surname Clover, if that claim is accurate.