Skip to main content

Unraveling A Mystery: Part 3 (1913)

ESTABLISHING THE FACTS

After finding the articles about Agnes Tinkler, I wanted to know if this person was indeed family.  A search of the Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre-1916 database on the Illinois Secretary of State website revealed the death of only one person named Tinkler in 1913 in Macon County: Alice Tinkler.  I obtained the death certificate from the state archives which confirmed that Alice was the daughter of my great-great grandparents, John Tinkler and Lizzie Wright and therefore, Agnes’s sister. 


So, the previously unknown family tragedy was true!


Alice worked as a chambermaid in a hotel.  She was barely eighteen when she took her own life by taking carbolic acid on the evening of 13 May 1913.  The place of death was at the corner of Main and Prairie Streets, at or near the district known as the Wabash Shops in Decatur. 


As for Charles, I don’t believe that he ever existed.  The newspaper must have misidentified Alice in the first article. 
 
Here is the final newspaper article I found on Agnes Tinkler.  From the Decatur Review, Sunday Morning, 18 May 1913, page 18 (Decatur, Illinois):

THE POINT OF VIEW

"The case of Agnes Tinkler, sent to the county jail because she would not answer questions put by the grand jury, brings to the front a situation that has often puzzled the courts.


Two months ago Agnes was sent to the girls’ home at Geneva, and presumably she is there for some time.  As is the case with many others, she doesn’t like the home; for a change she would as soon be in the Macon county jail for a while, perhaps a little sooner.


And so Agnes is brought before the court and is threatened with jail if she persists in refusal to answer questions.  That fate doesn’t disturb her appreciably; possibly she rejoices in the thought of staying away from Geneva a while longer.  Back to jail she goes, but this does not get answers to the questions that are put.  The record says she is punished for contempt, but she may be looking at the result as a reprieve that was worth going after.  Whether or not you can punish an individual may depend on his or her point of view."
 

TIME TO DIG FOR MORE RECORDS


So, what now?  I am sending a request for a copy of the coroner’s inquest records and the court records to find out more about this story.  Stay tuned.
 
Labels:
Location: Decatur, Illinois, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Celebrating 20 Years of Discovering My Family History

Researching my family tree is an all consuming hobby.  Unfortunately, there are not enough hours in the day to devote to genealogy when there is also work, family and friends, obligations, and all the good and bad that goes with living life.  I first embarked on this journey 20 years ago, when my mother and I bought a PC and connected to the Internet for the first time.  Anyone remember dial up?  I used to come home from my long commute, start dialing up to CompuServe, have dinner, and wait to connect to the Internet.  It usually took 30 minutes.  Fast forward to now, when I lose patience if I get disconnected for a few seconds...
Post a Comment
Read more

Solved! Mystery World War I Soldier Identified

In 2016, I inherited some of my grandmother's personal papers. This included some postcards from the early 20th century to her paternal grandparents, Frank and Mary Ellen (Ingersoll) Bryant of Los Angeles.  They were originally from Bloomington, Illinois.  The earliest postcard in the collection was from a soldier, Warren Allen, sent from Paris, France in about 1918.  When I originally shared this on my blog, I did not know how Mr. Allen was related to the family. There was also a 1930 postcard from Alice Allen of South Bend, Indiana addressed to "Dear Cousins": 24 November 1930 Postcard from Alice Allen to Mrs. R. F. Bryant from family collection. It turns out that Mary Ellen had a first cousin, Alice Louella Ingersoll, who married William E. Allen in Bloomington on 24 September 1890.  They had at least three sons, Howard, Warren, and Herbert, born in the 1890s.  Twenty-four year-old Warren William Allen (1893-1970), was working as a bookkeeper and residing in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mystery Mail from World War I Soldier

Mystery Mail from World War I Soldier The above postcard or carte postale is the oldest item in my grandmother's postcard collection.  A W. W. Allen sent the card via soldier mail from Paris, France, to Mrs. Frank Bryant of Los Angeles, California.  The front depicts an early 20th century street scene at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  The message says, "Paris 4/13 [April 13th] - I'm having a short vacation and a wonderful time.  W. Allen."  Mrs. Bryant (nee Mary Ellen Ingersoll, 1862-1936), originally from Bloomington, Illinois, relocated to Los Angeles with her family in the early 1910s.  She was my grandmother's grandmother.  Mr. Allen is not a known relative.  So who could he be?  Perhaps he was a neighbor or a family friend.  There could be another connection.  There is a later postcard postmarked November 25, 1930, from Alice Allen of South Bend, Indiana, to Mrs. Bryant which starts wit...
1 comment
Read more