As Bruce
is currently unwell, he suggested I fill a gap with a post on the bad boy of Watch Tower History, Albert
Delmont Jones. What follows is slightly abridged from a series of articles last
year on my own blog, but many of which started life here a number of years ago.
Enjoy? - Jerome
Contents
An
introduction
Family
matters
Theology
Albert’s
theology and Zion’s Day Star
Richard
Heber Newton – as featured in Day Star
Selling
shirts
The
many wives of Albert
Overview
and Carrie
Isabel
Bambina
Margaret?
Albert’s
end
A
fanciful last testament
An Introduction
Believed to be Albert
Delmot Jones c. 1900
as taken from Separate
Identity volume 2
This is a long post about the bad boy of Watch Tower
history “Albert Delmont Jones” (hereafter abbreviated to ADJ). He was one of
CTR’s early associates, writing for ZWT before starting his own paper Zion’s
Day Star in late 1881. Within a year he had deviated drastically from ZWT
theology, and the rest of his history became a cross between Icarus and
Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress.
I wrote a number of articles on him over the years
and what follows is a slightly abridged rewite (but with slight updates on
occasion) in an approximate date order of events. It is admitted that ADJ’s
post-ZWT history has little to do with Watch Tower history. But I found it both
wryly amusing and sad in turn. If your focus is strictly on ZWT history then by
all means pass this material by.
First is the briefest summary of ADJ’s post-ZWT
careeer. Zion’s Day Star became The Day Star and ceased to be Bible-centric. By
the end of the 1880s, the paper was gone and ADJ was in trouble both in
business and matrimony. His first wife Cassie divorced him on the grounds of
infidelity.
In the 1890s he reinvented himself in St Louis as a
businessman extraordinaire. He dropped the common name “Jones,” added the name
“Royal” and with a flourish became Albert Royal Delmont. He was involved in a
blind pool investment scheme (basically where investors invest “blind” without
knowing where their money is going – not the wisest of moves). The scheme, as
did most things involving Albert, ultimately went sour and there was a court
case. What the newspaper account does is to tie the different names of Albert
together.
So here in July 1896 we have the Albert Delmont
Jones’ blind pool case. One of the main witnesses (and possible co-conspirator)
is Wiliam J H Bown. He is billed as Delmont’s brother-in-law. ADJ’s ex-wife
Cassie was originally Cassie Bown. So here we can see that Albert Delmont Jones
has morfed into Albert Royal Delmont.
It’s interesting that William Bown is called ADJ’s
brother-in-law because ADJ had married again by this time, to a young Society
beauty half his age, Isabel Agnes Mulhall. The couple moved to Chicago and ADJ
tried again, this time linked to a company called Albert R Jones and Co.,
commission merchants. (The name Delmont was dropped this time.) A R Jones and co. were expelled from the
Chicago Board of Trade according to the newspaper cutting below.
Prior to this ADJ had tried his hand at publishing
again. The 1900 Chicago census has him down as Albert Delmont and occupation as
editor. For a long time we didn’t know what he edited after the long defunct
Day Star. We now know his new venture was called American Progress. It is not
known how long it lasted as no copies appear extant.
It was only a matter of time before the marriage of
ADJ and Isabel hit the buffers. Albert’s money went, and so did she. The
newspaper cutting below written in popularist style has the inference that
Albert’s manly charm was not the mainstay of their relationship.
For a fuller reproduction of this cutting see the
subheading “The Many Wives of Albert” later in this post. He was still Albert
Royal Delmont at this point.
A third marriage followed which has historical
interest in that wife number three, after she was rid of him turned up in the
infamous Fatty Arbuckle court case as Bambina Maud Delmont. For those who love
trivia and conspiracy links, Arbuckle’s own third wife was Addie Oakely Dukes
McPhail, the former wife of Lindsay Matthew McPhail, who was the son of Matthew
Lindsay McPhail who had helped lead the new covenant breakaway from the Society
c. 1909. You really couldn’t make this stuff up.
There may even have been a fourth marriage for ADJ –
the evidence is circumstantial but it would have been in character.
By the end of his life the name “Royal” had gone the
same way as “Jones” and he was simply listed on his death certificate as Albert
Delmont. He died alone and destitute, his death certificate giving his family
as unknown. He was, in fact, survived by at least two ex-wives and several
children. They obviously did not know where he was, and likely did not care.
Buried in a pauper’s grave, his part of the grave site was taken over by a
freeway extension. Yes – as is suspected of many a disappeared gangster - ADJ
is literally buried under the freeway!
Family Matters
There are several Delmont Jones names in this
article, so our main quarry, the editor of Zion’s Day Star, will continue to be
referred to as ADJ.
If you type in Delmont Jones and Pennsylvania on
the Find a Grave site, as well as other genealogical sites, you will find five
different Delmont Jones listed. Due to research errors and misunderstandings,
these five names only relate to three people – ADJ’s grandfather, father, and
younger brother. ADJ’s first wife’s grave is also on Find a Grave if you know
where to look as is one of his children, also an Albert D Jones.
So, first the grandfather. Three of the Find a
Grave entries relate to him! There are two entries for a Delmont Jones, b.
August 3, 1803. One has him dying on December 30, 1878 and an almost duplicate
record states December 29. They have him buried in the Turner Cemetery on
Squirrel Hill, Allegheny County. This location was originally correct. Census
returns for Peebles Township (Squirrel Hill) and old maps show the original
Delmont Jones owning farming land in this area. It was eventually annexed into
Pittsburgh in 1868.
The Turner Cemetery still exists, but is only
half an acre in size and was abandoned around 1880 when the church beside it
that maintained it was closed. As a result, a number of those buried there were
later moved. This included the first Delmont Jones, who was one of the last to
be buried there. He was reinterred at the Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh on 25
March 1899. This was quite a common practice. As small community graveyards
closed and the land often reused for other purposes, many families had
relatives transferred to the new-style park-like cemeteries that were needed to
cope with the dramatic increases in population. So there is a Find a Grave
entry for Homewood Cemetery with a Delmont Jones, b. unknown, and died 1899 –
which is a misunderstanding of what happened. On the other hand, this entry
does show his gravestone with the correct date of death, 30 December 1878. It
is likely that a gravestone was first placed at Turner cemetery and then moved
with him, although this version looks of more recent origin.
Thanks are due to Find a Grave correspondent
Rich who kindly gave me permission to reproduce the photograph at the head of
this article, and also checked out the details of the discrepancy. One mystery
- there was another Jones, this time a Watson Jones who was moved from Turner
to Homewood on the same day, transported in the same container, and reinterred
in the same grave as Delmont. Watson Jones died from epilepsy in 1866 aged 25.
However, this does not link up with any known names in the Delmont Jones family
tree. Perhaps they were moved together and reburied together, just in case.
However, only Delmont’s name appears on the gravestone.
Next, we come to the second Delmont Jones, son
of Delmont Jones (Mark 1), and the father of ADJ. This Delmont Jones was born
in Squirrel Hill, Allegheny, 1831 and died in 1894. His wife’s obituary
describes him as a well-known Civil War veteran who served as an engineer in
the United States Mississippi gunboat fleet. He and his wife Martha are buried
in the South Side cemetery in Pittsburgh. This time thanks are due to Find a
Grave correspondent Rob who gave permission for me to reproduce the photograph.
The stone lists five names – Delmont Jones, his wife Martha Jones, and then the
remaining surnames are of the Frasher family. One of this Delmont Jones’
daughters married a Frasher, so this will be her and some of her family.
Next, we come to the actual generation of ADJ.
ADJ had a younger brother called – what a surprise – Delmont Jones again. This
Delmont Jones (1874-1923) is buried in the Union Dale cemetery, Pittsburgh.
Alas, there is not a stone, or at least a photograph of one, and it is unknown
whether other members of the family were buried with him. The name Delmont
Jones turns up in a number of Pittsburgh records, and often relate to this
Delmont rather than ADJ – just to confuse researchers.
The Union Dale cemetery was also the final
resting place for ADJ’s first wife. She is buried with her father and mother in
the Bown family plot. The Jones name is mentioned because the inscription has
her down as Caroline M Bown (1858-1933), wife of Albert D Jones. ADJ’s infant
son, listed as Albert D Jones, born and died in 1883, is buried there with her.
That is probably the only reason that ADJ is mentioned on the stone, since
Caroline divorced him for infidelity after four children and around twelve
years of marriage. One suspects that the D in the middle of the infant’s name
is likely to be another Delmont.
The photograph has not reproduced well, but
Caroline’s inscription is on the stone on the left in the picture.
Unfortunately I never heard back from the person who took the photograph, so
can only credit it to the Find a Grave site.
Having dealt with
his forebears and namesakes we can now turn our attention to the main
attraction, ADJ himself.
Theology
Albert’s Theology and Zion’s Day Star
Albert Delmont Jones started Zion’s Day Star in late 1881. It was
not long before he veered quite drastically fom the basic theology of Zion’s
Watch Tower. He explained his new viewers in Zion’s Day Star for January 1884:
In fact, we were
never so thoroughly convinced as now, that the Four Gospels of the New
Testament have comparatively no inspiration about them! Very many of the New
Testament teachings do not correspond with those of the Old, but do, on the
other hand, flatly contradict them! Peter draws a clear-cut line between Jesus
as the man and his after exalted state as Lord and Christ. Note this well, for
it is a death blow to the Miraculous Conception theory!
We question the
inspiration of the Four Gospels, and we challenge those who teach such a theory
to harmonize it with Daniel’s prophecy! To claim that Peter, James and John
were inspired, is simply child’s talk! Let us look well to what we pin our
faith; or upon what we build an argument; and especially when using statements
found in either of the four Gospels or Acts of the Apostles!
You ask, then,
what is our opinion of him? (Jesus). We answer, it is that he was a man.
By January 1884 there was a doctrinal gulf between CTR and Nelson Barbour
and CTR and John Paton. But in comparison the theological chasm between CTR and
Albert Delmont Jones had now reached Grand Canyon proportions.
Sadly
for researchers the actual January 1884 Zion’s Day
Star quoted above is not extant. At this time of writing, only a few copies of
this paper in circulation. They are December 25, 1884 (by which time it was
simply the Day Star) and a few issues from 1886, as pictured below.
There is a bound volume covering most of 1886 in the Library of
Congress, Washington, DC. But it is fragile and oversize, and extracting
material from this source is a bit like pulling teeth.
So where does the January 1884 quote come from? It comes from an
article in the Church of God/Age to Come weekly paper called The Restititution
for July 27, 1887, page 3.
A lengthy sermon by Dr L C Thomas is reprinted as given at
Wyoming, Delaware, and Thomas quotes from the January 1884 Day Star. The quote
is probably a series of extracts that Thomas put together as one to give the
flavour of Jones’ theology. Thomas was NOT impressed, and specifically attacked
the editor of the Day Star for being a Josephite. A Josephite is someone who denies
the concept of miraculous conception for Jesus, and who therefore believes
Joseph to be his natural father. Many Age to Come readers of The Restitution
were Socinian in outlook (i.e. they disbelieved in a literal pre-existance for
Jesus). Josephites would argue that they were simply taking the concept one
step further.
CTR of course had a great deal to say about how he viewed Jones’
changing theology in both early ZWTs, as well as a summary in Harvest Siftings.
Richard Heber Newton – as featured in Day Star.
Photograph from the Fitchburg
Sentinel, Mass, for April 22, 1891
What links the Scopes monkey trial of 1925, this blog’s resident
bad boy, Albert Royal Delmont Jones, of the ill-fated Day Star, and Charles
Taze Russell of Zion’s Watch Tower? The answer is Richard Heber Newton.
Your first reaction may be – who?
To give a flavor of the man, check out first this
newspaper item from the Aurora Daily Express for November 22, 1892. (The same
story was also published in The Times, Trenton, N.J. November 19, 1892, and the
Lincoln Evening News, Nebraska, November 25, 1892, and no doubt other papers of
the day).
The clipping shows that Newton was widely known in his
day. His “misfortunes” included being charged with heresy. In truth, he was to
be charged with heresy on three separate occasions during his career, in 1883,
1884 and 1891, but as a sign of liberalizing theology the matter was always
fudged so that he kept his position. The newspaper above, which relates to the
1891 episode, noted that Newton was “exonerated”, although dryly commented that
“not proven” might be more accurate.
More than a decade after Newton’s death America was to
be fascinated by what was popularly called the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925. A
substitute high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating the
Butler Act which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded
school in Tennessee. Although the fundamentalists won the skirmish of the day
and Scopes was found guilty, his conviction was overturned on a technicality.
Long-term the fundamentalists lost ground as far as future legislation was
concerned, although the Butler Act actually stayed on the books until 1967.
But in covering the case, most journalists highlighted past cases
where an attack on a literal interpretation of the Bible had put people in the
dock, including clergymen like Dr Richard Heber Newton. Several newspapers
mentioned Newton being charged back in the 1890s with “debased churchmanship” -
in other words heresy. The cutting below comes from the Daily Northwestern
(Oshkosh, Wisconsin) for July 10, 1925:
The same story appeared in other papers such as the Wisconsin
Rapids Daily Tribune, July 9, 1925, and the Lima News, Ohio, July 10, 1925.
According to the small print, Newton had demanded a formal trial, but when this
demand was met, the plaintiffs failed to appear. And Newton was viewed as a
champion of liberal theology as opposed to literalists and fundamentalists.
So who was this man, and what was his connection with “truth
history”?
Richard Heber Newton (1840-1914) was a prominent American
Episcopalian clergyman and writer. From 1869 to 1902 he was rector of All
Souls' Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City. He was a leader in the
Social Gospel movement and as evidenced above, a firm supporter of Higher
Criticism of the Bible. He came to prominence and notoriety in the early 1880s
with a series of sermons later published in book form (copyright 1883) entitled
“The Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible”. This work clearly nails his colors to
the wall.
While commending the Bible as literature that could work on the
emotions, Newton’s stance on inerrancy and inspiration was clear. His premise,
bluntly and vigorously expressed, was that (in his own words):
It is wrong to accept its utterances indiscriminately as the words
of God.
It is wrong to accept everything recorded therein as necessarily
true.
It is wrong to consult it...for the determining of our
judgements and the decision of our actions.
It is wrong to go to it for divination of the future.
And it is wrong to manufacture out of it any one
uniform system of theology.
Preaching this material from the pulpit and publishing
it for the masses outside of his own church drew strong criticism in certain
quarters – hence the repeated charges of heresy and attendant newspaper
notoriety.
These five key points of Newton’ theology would all be
at obvious odds with the message found in CTR’s Zion’s Watch Tower of the day.
But in the 1880s they would be manna from heaven for Albert Royal Delmont
Jones.
In the 1880s, after already
having fended off two charges of heresy, Newton would write extensively (and
sometimes exclusively) for Jones’ Day Star Paper.
The
August 19, 1886 issue lists around 60 of Newton’s
sermons being available in the Day Star pages. And some were exclusive to
editor Jones at this point. For example:
A similar advertisement for the same pamphlet showed that it was
given away as a free gift to all new Day Star subscribers:
This clearly shows that in 1886 the most prominent
theological voice in Albert Royal Delmont Jones’ Day Star was that of Richard
Heber Newton.
Whether Charles Taze Russell ever knew of Newton’s connection with
Jones is not known, but Newton was sufficiently famous (or infamous) to make
him a specific target in Zion’s Watch Tower. ZWT for July 1, 1892, carried a
lengthy article (including a cartoon) that took up 10 of the magazine’s 16
pages. (See reprints pages 1417-1420).
CTR started by laying into Protestant clergy in general who
preached higher criticism, describing them as “men honoured with titles such as
neither our Lord not any of his apostles ever owned...who receive salaries such
as no apostle ever received...(and) who are recognized as among the best educated
in all things pertaining to worldly wisdom...but which prefers to arraign that
revelation before an inferior court of fallible human philosophers and
incompetent judges who vainly overrate their own knowledge and wisdom.”
He continued, “What wonder that the pews are also sceptical...
They are handing stones and serpents to those who look to them for food... As
for the average nominal Christian...he is just ready to swallow these
suggestions of unbelief.” The Towers had warned about these developments from
the very early issues.
Having lambasted the clergy in general, CTR next turned his
attention to the Rev. R. Heber Newton in the particular, mentioning him by name
three times. After one lengthy quote from Newton, CTR derided his theology:
(capitalization mine):
“Here is a REPUDIATION of all that Christ taught on the subject of
the “things written” which “must be fulfilled,” a REPUDIATION of all his
quotations from the Law and the Prophets; a REPUDIATION of his repeated
statements of God’s choice of...the seed of Abraham as heirs of the promises
that of these should come the predicted Messiah; (and) a REPUDIATION of his
statement of the necessity of his death.”
The last point hit at the heart of CTR’s theology. His attack on
Newton’s preaching continued: “But whilst showing Christ to have been a
wonderful Jew, and the great exemplar for both Jews and Gentiles, he (Newton)
utterly REPUDIATES him as a Savior in the sense that the Master taught – that
he “gave his life a ransom for many” – “to save (recover) that which was lost.”
CTR applied Matthew 7:22 to Newton – “those who say Lord, Lord,
yet follow not his teachings...It is the duty of every true disciple to rebuke
them; for the outward opponents do far less harm than those who wear the
Master’s name whilst denying his doctrine.”
CTR concluded his lengthy attack on Newton with the words:
“As a further element of this discussion the reader is referred to
Chapters ii, iii, and x. of MILLENNIAL DAWN, Vol. 1. And thus we rest our
argument for the present; urging all who have “laid hold upon the hope set
before us in the gospel” to hold fast the confidence of their rejoicings firm
unto the end – to hold fast to the Book, And how much more easy it is and will
be for those who have learned the real plan of God and seen its beauty to stand
firm upon the Bible than for others. Too many, alas! It is a jumbled mass of
doctrinal contradictions, but to us it is the foundation of a clear, definite,
grand plan of the ages. So grandly clear and symmetrical is the wonderful plan
that all who see it are convinced that only God could have been its author, and
that the book whose teachings it harmonizes must indeed be God’s revelation.”
Albert D Jones’ reliance on Newton to fill his Day Star pages in
the 1880s, and CTR’s lengthy and specific attack on Newton’s theology in the
early 1890s, shows the gulf that now existed between CTR and his former
co-worker. There were a number of people over the years who parted company
with CTR and founded their own journals – Paton, Adams, von Zech, Henninges –
but at least they retained a more or less fundamentalist approach to scripture,
and could have a framework within which to debate their own proof texts. The
same was true with other religious journals, One Faith, Adventist, and the like.
But the
infidel Jones had gone one step further. In ZWT for May 1890 CTR reviewed the
history of the developing “truth movement” in a lengthy article entitled
Harvest Gatherings and Siftings. Concerning Jones’ paper (Zion’s) Day Star, he
wrote that “within one year it had repudiated Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and
within another year it had gone boldly into infidelity and totally repudiated
all the rest of the Bible as well as those portions which teach the fall in
Adam and the ransom therefrom in Christ.” He also noted that of that date
(1890) the Day Star was “now for some years discontinued”. The whole article
was reprinted with some amendments in the special 1894 issue of ZWT entitled A
Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings.
The
dates (“one year” then “another year”) line up perfectly with the first
publication of Newton’s credo “The Right and Wrong
Uses of the Bible”. To then allow Newton his weekly pulpit in the Day
Star pages would make perfect sense to Albert D, but illustrates how just far
(by CTR’s terms of reference) he had gone beyond the pale.
Selling Shirts
It is known that A D Jones once worked in one of CTR’s stores. He
also branched out into the shirt store business on his own account.
Below is an advertisement from the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette
for November 6, 1883. The firm of Jones and Littell is operating from Pitstsburgh,
but they have several branches. One of these branches is at 335, Fourth Avenue,
New York.
As shown below, this was the address of Jones’ (Zions) Day Star.
In the December 25th 1884 issue of Day Star there are
several advertisements under Furnishing Goods. Below are three. The one in the
middle is J M Littell (billed in the ad as the successor to Jones and Littell
of Pittsburgh) with its surviving Pittsburgh address. Albert D Jones and James
Littell appear to have parted business company by this time, although Jones’
paper still carried advertising for Littell’s solo venture. But topping and
tailing the Littell advertisement are advertisements for another company. Do
you want a Wamsutta Muslin Night Shirt? Or how about White Dress Shirts? The
American Shirt Store can assist you. And the address of the American Shirt
Store? Yes - 335, Fourth Avenue, New York.
There were several businesses at this address around this time
including a photographic studio and The Tiffany Glass Company. But it is surely
no coincidence that a shirt store in Pittsburgh bearing the name Jones, and its
successor, are both linked to the same address as the ill-fated Day Star.
Perhaps in retrospect, Jones would have done better just sticking
to selling shirts.
The Many Wives of Albert
Overview and Carrie
We have all heard of the many wives of Solomon, or the many wives
of English King Henry VIII. We don’t know for sure how many times our boy
Albert Royal Delmont Jones attempted matrimony, but the title still has a
certain ring.
Wife number one was Caroline (Carrie) Bown. She had four children
with Albert. One died in infancy, the other three all married and had families
of their own. Carrie was buried in the Bown family plot in Pittsburgh when she
died in January 1933. After her marriage ended she made her home with her
daughter, Ella and family.
Wife number two was described as Society beauty Isobel Agnes
Mulhall. The newspaper cutting below, already partially reproduced above, describes
the history and subsequent demise of their relationship. It is written in what
we would call in the UK “tabloid style.” How accurate the details are I do not
know, but it makes entertaining reading. Isobel subsequently led a flamboyant
life. She made the newspapers in 1935 by eccentrically throwing money out of a
train. However, she appears to have really liked money, and really liked Albert
when he had some. She died in 1939.
The St. Paul Globe for September
15, 1903.
Wife number three – Bambina – now there’s a name! Her history will
be given more detail below. Sometimes she is Maud Bambina Delmont, and
sometimes she is Bambina Maud Delmont. Sometimes Maud has an E on the end, and
sometimes not.
After her divorce from Albert – assuming there ever was a divorce
– Bambina married John Hopper in 1912. Neglecting to divorce Mr Hopper properly
she committed bigamy by then marrying a Cassius Wood a little early. In the
1920 census she is down as a corsetiere with her own shop; other reference
works give less flattering occupations. She latched onto vivacious, promiscuous
starlet Virginia Rappe at the infamous 1921 party Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle
attended. When it all went bad and Virginia died in hospital, Bambina was
initially the star witness against Arbuckle – until it was established that at
the time she claimed to see and hear certain events, she was otherwise occupied
in another bedroom. The LA District Attorney Matthew Brady had political
ambitions riding on this case, which was basically an excuse to put the whole
of Hollywood on trial. He ensured that Bambina never went anywhere near the
witness stand during three trials, in spite of repeated requests from the
defense. As soon as the first trial went
to the jury (a hung jury of 10-2 for acquittal) Bambina was done for bigamy.
There may have been some sort of deal to get her off with probation. See the
news item below.
Oakland Tribune for December 11, 1921
Wife number four? There is a question mark over this one, but see
subheading “Margaret?” below for a possibility.
Albert’s slippery slope gained a certain momentum as the years
rolled by. For those of an artistic bent, as noted in the opening paragraph of
this post, take a look at William Hogarth’s 18th century series of
paintings called The Rake’s Progress.
Isabel
I know
that the second Mrs Albert (Royal) Delmont (Jones) is off the topic of Watch
Tower history, other than perhaps a footnote. However, her assessment of men
which you will find at the end of this article is an interesting comment in
itself. Isabel Mulhall (Delmont) was a fascinating character. Albert obviously
thought so, as newspaper articles of the day describe how he was first smitten just
by her seeing her picture. It was downhill all the way from then on.
Albert
and Isabel were married in 1896 and divorced in 1903. The Washington Post
stated that this was after Albert met “financial reverses.” Isabel briefly went
on the stage, before becoming Mrs Sidmon McHie.
Somewhere around 1906 she was in the news for accusing her chauffeur of
blackmail, a man who was then employed by Mr McHie. Sidmon was a Wall Street operator and
publisher – and millionaire – you could smell the money. At a hurried secret
ceremony they married in 1909. (see The Washington Post, August 1, 1909).
Isabel
thereafter went by the name of either Isabel M McHie or Isabel D McHie, and one
assumes the D stood for Delmont. She must have had financial assets of her own
or been given some by Sidmon, because in 1919 she and her husband made wills
leaving the other partner as main beneficiary. This became complicated when
they separated acrimoniously in 1925. In 1926 an agreement was forged where
Sidmon would give her certain assets and also pay her an allowance of a
thousand dollars a month for as long as she lived. But there was a condition.
The sixth covenant of the document said: “It is agreed that the parties shall
live apart and separate and shall not annoy or molest each other.”
Salmon
stopped paying the allowance in 1932 claiming in subsequent legal proceedings
that Isabel had indeed continued to annoy and molest him. He divorced her in
1936 on the grounds of HER “cruel and inhuman treatment.” (See Fifth Avenue
Bank of New York v. Hammond Realty Co., Court of Appeals for Seventh Circuit,
October 30, 1942).
Isabel
made the newspapers quite regularly. One occasion she was locked in the brig of
a steamship for causing a disturbance. (According to the Milwaukee Sentinel for
December 20, 1942, she tried to sue the Cunard Steamship Line for $100,000 over
the incident, but the company successfully proved she had been – quote -“obstreperous”).
When choirboys practiced at a church opposite her she played Caruso records at
full blast! (The same citation from Milwaukee Sentinel). A ruckus at a
Baltimore hotel resulted in her being committed to an asylum but she escaped
when a Brooklyn clergyman (or someone dressed as one) came to visit with a
heavily veiled woman, who exchanged places with her. (This of course is if the
Brooklyn Standard Union paper for May 13, 1931 is to be believed.)
In 1935
she made the news again when she was “taken from a train” after throwing large
sums of money out of it. From the New York Evening Post for March 22, 1935.
Isabel
died in 1939 at the age of 63, after an exciting if not exactly happy life. She
had been living at the home of her mother, Susan Mulhall, and her final resting
place was at the Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium, Queen County, New York.
You can check this out on Find a Grave.
Her
paranoia was indicated by her will, which provided substantial funds for an
autopsy and investigation in case she had been poisoned.
Then the
fun started again. Who would inherit her sizeable fortune? Her father, who had
deserted the family nearly 60 years before, suddenly reappeared to make a
claim. The Milwaukee Sentinel for December 17, 1942 managed to snap a tender
moment on the court steps between her parents.
A
younger person called a protégé, also made a claim. And ex-husband Sidmon, who
was still alive, made a claim. And the squabble went on until 1943, when
finally her wishes were granted. (See Bingham Press, February 15, 1943). So
where did the rump of her fortune go? It was left to a dog’s home that trained
guide dogs for the blind.
And here
is the punch line. Maybe it was the absent father, maybe it was the two husbands
(both old enough to be her father, and including of course our own ADJ) – but
she planned a sculptured bust of herself in her own memory, headed by the words
which also adorned her stationery. It was a quote originally attributed to Mme
de Sevigne (1626-1696):
THE MORE
I SEE OF MEN, THE MORE I ADMIRE DOGS!
Bambina
Albert
Delmont Jones (now calling himself Albert Royal Delmont) married Bambina Maude
Scott on September 29, 1904. He was around 50 years old at the time and (if the
1920 census is to be believed) she was 21. A 1922 newspaper has a claim that
her first husband was a Cincinnati millionaire. Cincinnati was certainly one of
ADJ’s past locations. (Interview question: “Tell me, Bambie, what was it about
this 50 year old millionaire that first attracted you to him?”) Bambina liked
the name Delmont and kept it through several subsequent marriages, including
John Hopper and Cassius Wood. In 1922 she was last heard of (under the Delmont
name) planning to marry a Lawrence Johnson.
As noted
above, in the newspapers she is sometimes Bambina Maud Delmont and sometimes
Maud Bambina Delmont and Maud sometimes has an E on the end, and sometimes not.
But the “Delmont” is consistent.
Bambina
liked getting married, but didn’t always finish the paperwork for her divorces
and was subsequently charged with bigamy on one occasion.
In the
1920 census returns she was running her own shop in Los Angeles selling and
fitting corsets.
Bambina’s
claim to fame (or infamy) is her part in the Roscoe Arbuckle scandal. Fatty
Arbuckle was a silent film comedian who was huge (in more than one way) in his
day. He is probably remembered in film circles today as the man who gave Buster
Keaton his start in the movies.
Arbuckle
was savaged by the media when he was suddenly arrested and accused of rape and
murder after a 1921 party in San Francisco. The victim was a small part actress
named Virginia Rappe. The charge was subsequently reduced to manslaughter.
Arbuckle went through two hung juries before being cleared at a third trial
where the jury were out for all of six minutes, using five of them to write a
statement making a formal apology to him for the injustice he had suffered.
There
was little doubt that Virginia Rappe’s death was preventable. Health problems
exacerbated by a series of abortions made her fragile, and she didn’t get
prompt or proper care when she was taken ill. But the lurid accusations against
Arbuckle all originated with Rappe’s companion who crashed the party, namely
Bambina Maud Delmont. While Wikipedia cannot be called the most accurate of
sources, it does quite a nice line in character assassination: “Delmont had a
long criminal record with multiple convictions for racketeering, bigamy, fraud
and extortion, and allegedly was making a living by luring men into
compromising positions and capturing them in photographs, to be used as
evidence in divorce proceedings.” The
Weekly World News in 1961 veered into alliteration by accusing her of being a
“Tinseltown tart.” Her unsubstantiated testimony at the original hearing got
Arbuckle indicted, but then the prosecution deliberately kept her far away from
all the actual trials, because her obvious inability to tell truth from fiction
would have immediately sunk their case.
Bambina
capitalized on the notoriety and went on the stage. From 1922:
And then
she disappeared very suddenly from the historical record. But this was the
third Mrs ADJ.
When you
consider ADJ’s history after his “fall from grace,” it would appear that some
people just seem made for each other.
Albeit
briefly.
Margaret?
We know that Albert Delmont Jones is in the
1900 census for Chicago. He calls
himself Albert Royal Delmont now and is married to Isabel and gives his work as
“editor.” He claims to be 44, and she is 23. Isabel Agnes Mulhall was to become
quite a character in her own right, as we have already reviewed.
Then he was to have a short lived marriage to
the infamous Bambina Maud Scott.
Then in the 1930 census ADJ turns up, elderly
and alone, in a state almshouse/hospital in Delaware shortly before his death
and burial in a pauper’s grave that year.
I believe we may have found him in the 1910
census with wife number 4, although there are queries as detailed below. He is
now calling himself Albert R Delmont and claims to be 48, married for three
years to Margaret White, aged 28. He is now living in Campbell, Kentucky.
By this time he has no occupation. And he is
living in the home of his in-laws, James and Johanna White. If this is the
right person, this would be a fourth marriage – after Caroline Bown, Belle
Mulhall, and Bambina Maud Scott.
A marriage register shows they were married on
19 September 1906, but gives no other information.
The age given in the 1910 census return is little
less than his real age. But as with previous wife Isabel (and probably
Bambina), Margaret is at least twenty years his junior. Men who marry much
younger women often shave a few years off their age, along with taking up
tennis, and cycling around in Lycra on a top-of-the-range bicycle!
However, there are two queries in the above
scenario. First is that this Albert R Delmont claims to come from Virginia. Albert
was born in Pennsylvania; however he grew up in Virginia. He and his family are
found in that State in the 1860 census (when he was 6) and the 1870 census
(when he was 16). So this could be ADJ covering his tracks from yet another
past life. And this is the only Albert Delmont thrown up in the 1910 census
indexes.
Second is the 1920 census. It is easy to find
the same family still living in Campbell, Kentucky. Father-in-law James has
died and Johanna White is now the head of the household with the same children,
one of whom is Margaret Delmont. There is no Albert R in sight. Margaret claims
to be only 34; however, the initial in the appropriate column suggests she has
put down as a widow! But I cannot find any reference to any Albert R Delmont
(or variations) dying between 1910 and 1920.
There are so many negatives about ADJ that a
faked death or insurance scam, or just good riddance and I stand a better
chance as a widow than as a deserted woman or divorced woman – all these
scenarios are possible.
And I cannot find hide nor hair of ADJ under
any combination of names in the 1920 census. However, the 1925 census for
Buffalo, New York, has an Albert K Jones as a roomer in the Florida Hotel, aged
70 (the right age) and “retired.” The middle initial K looks very much like it
could have been intended as an R. But then our Albert turns up as a kind of
elderly vagrant in 1930.
This search is still ongoing and readers are
invited to search too. The problem is – what variation of name might he have
been using?
Albert’s end
Above is
the death certificate for Albert Royal Delmont Jones. It is a sad document.
Albert died at the New Castle County Hospital, Delaware, on May 15, 1930. This
was originally called the New Castle County Almshouse, and was a last resort
home for people who were elderly, single and poor. The certificate shows he was
76 (linking in with a known birth year of 1854) but that is about all the
history it contains. Albert wasn’t then around to provide any more information.
So next of kin, occupation, place born – all these sections were “no
record.” Fortunately when the census was
taken earlier that year, Albert Delmont was listed as an “inmate” and was lucid
enough to state that he was from Pennsylvania, as were his parents. Hence the
match.
Even
though ADJ was a bad boy, I find it sad that no-body knew who his family were,
and there was no-one to claim him. At least two ex-wives and two of his
children were still alive at that time, but obviously no-body knew or perhaps
even cared what had happened to him.
The New
Castle County Almshouse/Hospital was located at a small place called Farnhurst,
and was next door to the quite separate Delaware State Mental Hospital. Those
who died at New Castle Hospital who had no-one to claim them for burial
elsewhere were buried in what is now called the “Cemetery in the Woods at
Farnhurst.” (Residents from the mental hospital were buried elsewhere). The
“Cemetery in the Woods” also received the bodies of premature/stillborn babies
and unidentified bodies that turned up in the nearby rivers. Several thousand
people were buried there.
This was
to be ADJ’s last resting place, what was called at the time the New Castle
County Hospital Cemetery. As a Potter’s Field cemetery, there were no named
grave markers. However, small 5” square granite markers were provided but they
only had numbers on them. It appears that a fire at the original building in
the 1950s destroyed the records linking names to numbers. A record of some of
these numbers has reportedly recently surfaced at a record office, but I have
not been able to access it as yet.
But it
gets worse. The cemetery was replaced by another Potter’s Field location in the
mid-1930s, and the original New Castle County Hospital Cemetery was abandoned.
Then in the late 1950s, early 1960s, around 85% of the cemetery was covered up
with the construction of the 1-295 freeway ramp to the Delaware Memorial
Bridge. It was planned to clean up the area and put up a lasting memorial, but
of course, once the road was built, that was the end of that. Apparently about
100 or so granite markers are still visible at the base of the ramp – but you
have to climb a fence and crawl over trash and brambles to get to them – and
they date from earlier decades than 1930.
So what
does this mean for ADJ? As noted at the start of this post, one thinks of the
possible fate of many gangsters who disappeared in times past. In ADJ’s case,
he really does appear to be buried under the freeway.
It is a
long way from genteel grave markers in park-like cemeteries in Pittsburgh.
A fanciful last testament for Albert
This is based on all the various
stories above and is an imagined summary of ADJ’s life, with a lot of
supposition filling in the gaps. It is not to be taken that seriously.
So here I am in this ward. It is
the smell more than anything. Stale cabbage and bad drains. They say we are
fortunate to be here – looked after free of charge. Everything is comparative I
suppose.
It is the noise – some of these
people aren’t right. How did I get here? It could all have been so different.
It started so well. I came from a
good family, we owned land, we were respectable. I worked in stores, and
handled the money. I was really good with money. I mean – OK – life got
expensive and I started to cut corners, but until then, it worked a dream. And I was attractive to women. You wouldn’t
know it looking at me now, but oh yes, they used to go weak at the knees.
First there was Cassie. Quiet,
domesticated. But boring though, so boring. We had those children. What were
their names? I wonder where they are now?
And that Charles Russell. We
started a magazine to tell the world about the coming end of problems. Oh what
it was to have faith. But that’s all gone now. I was an editor. I founded my
own magazine. It was a good magazine – but when I tried to be a bit more
realistic, then some of those people turned against me. We did some good works
though. We raised money for good causes. Some of it may have got lost along the
way – I can’t remember now – but we meant well. I think.
I’d dropped the Jones by now – a
common name, people much preferred the Delmont – in fact, several of my
ex-partners even kept it.
And then there was Isabel. The
papers called her a “raving beauty”. Hmm. All I can remember today is the
“raving.” But we had some fun. Did we have some fun. The parties, the good
times – but then the creditors caught up with me. But she was young, she had
ambitions. And I started to find her tiring, very tiring. I bet her second
husband found her tiring too. Over the years I’ve see her in the newspapers –
no, perhaps I was well rid of her.
And then there was Bambina. What a
name. What a woman. We had several good scams going. But then somehow she
scammed me. I must have been losing my touch. I see she turned up at the
Arbuckle trials – accused of bigamy. Did we ever get that divorce? I can’t
remember. But Bambie – yes, memories of Bambie – I am sure she bounced back.
Bambie always did.
And then Margaret. Well, that was a
mistake. We lived with her parents. I told them a tale. They believed it. But
it was domesticity again. And it was boring, so boring. And all these younger
women I took up with – they all made demands. I got to the point where all I
wanted to do was sleep. It might have
been the diabetes. So I did the decent thing – I really did. Faking my death
like that – it meant she could pass herself off as a widow and claim the
insurance. Yes, that was a good move. I wonder what happened to her? And her
parents? What were their names?
So then it was try and try again.
But now I seemed to have lost the touch. The Midas touch. Huh – the Delmont
touch. But there was always going to be something else – somewhere over the
rainbow. Do you know something? – that would make a good title for a song. If I
wasn’t feeling so ill, I could even try and write something like that. It might
make another fortune.
If I still had faith and still
believed in heaven – but not hell (that’s one thing Charles Russell helped me
with) – maybe I would be a bit worried now. But – I don’t know what I believe.
All those people, I wonder what happened to them. Do they ever wonder what
happened to me? I’m glad they don’t
know. But I’m tired. Maybe there is such a thing as reincarnation, and I can
try and do better next time. But do better? What’s that? Be more boring? Make
more money and this time keep it? I don’t know. I just feel tired, so tired…
