THE SECOND WIFE OF SHERWOOD ANDERSON TENNESSEE CLAFLIN MITCHELL

THE SECOND WIFE OF SHERWOOD ANDERSON TENNESSEE CLAFLIN MITCHELL

 

 

1.       Tennessee Caflin Mitchell

                 Alias: Jennie, Tennie, Tennis, Tenne

               Claflin Anderson Mitchell

               Born: April 18, 1874 Jackson South Central Michigan

              Died: December 20, 1929 153 East Erie Str. Chicago Cook County Illinois

              Spouse: Sherwood Berton Anderson

             Partner:   Edgar Lee Masters

              Parents: Jay Perrin Mitchell                  

                             Martha Content. “Mattie” Stockham/Stockholm

               Occupation: Sculptress /Music Teacher/Piano Tunner

              Cause of Death:  Organic Heart Disease, Arteriosclerosis

              Age at death: YRS: 55 MOS: 8 DYS: 2

             Burial Date: December 31, 1929

              Informant:  Mrs. Joseph Deck of Clinton Arizona [Sister]

              Death Certificate#: 36815

              Marital: Divorced

              Interment: Cremated Ashes Scattered around Unknown Chapel Graceland Cemetery Chicago Cook County Illinois

 

 

2^nd Wife Tennessee Caflin Mitchell

Married: July 30, Chateaugay Lake Franklin County NY

Separation: 1922

Divorced:  April 4, Reno Washoe County Nevada

Marriage To Tennessee Caflin Mitchell

Sherwood and Tennessee were living their summer idyll, waiting until they were free to marry, Cornelia’s suit for divorce was going forward.  After the divorce was granted on July 27, a Thursday, Anderson’s copies of the official papers were put in the mail.

 

He went over got the papers from the mail himself.  Then, doubtlessly greatly relieved, he returned to Camp Owlyout where Tennessee awaited him together with:

Alys Bently Eidth Westcott,

 

Who agreed to be marriage witness,.  The four of them drove north by car some thirteen miles to the Town of Chateaugay the place where Alys had been born and the nearest community of any size.  Here they picked up Justice of the Peace M.J. McCoy and headed west by the state road that ran through woods toward Malone.

 

Sherwood Anderson A Writer in America Volume 1 By Walter   B. Rideout Introduction By Charles Modlin

Pg 222:  The University Press of Wisconsin Press  ISBN: 0-209-21530-x  Date: 2006

 

Chateaugay Town Court [Franklin County New York}

45 East Main Street

Chateaugay NY 12920

Phone [518] 497-6931

Marriage Certificate

Upper Chateaugay Lake NY—Marries Tennessee Mitchell Three days after divorce from Cornelia

 

Sherwood Anderson A Writer in America Volume 1 By Walter   B. Rideout Introduction By Charles Modlin

Pg 219:  The University Press of Wisconsin Press  ISBN: 0-209-21530-x  Date: 2006

 Note: Confirm Location of  Sherwood Anderson: as to where He married Tennesse Calflin Mitchell

 

Married: July 1916 Chateauguay New York

1916: Winesburg, Ohio Stories begin to appear in Periodicals; divorce from Cornelia Lane Anderson; spends summer at upper Lake Chateaugay, New York marries Tennessee Mitchell there:

 

1924: Divorced from Tennessee Mitchell Anderson; marries Elizabeth Norma Prall;

 Source:

Southern odyssey: selected writings by Sherwood Anderson pg XXiV

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=7y1y1aEyU-EC&pg=PR23&lpg=PR23&dq=Cornelia+Lane+Anderson&source=bl&ots=fogZ4pcjHn&sig=iup5P8yM8HDX3AARWtRWmRrymsI&hl=en&ei=mjwhTZubOsT68AbRkv3PDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Cornelia%20Lane%20Anderson&f=false

 

17. The Chicago Telephone directory lists “Mitchell Miss Tennis” at 1244 Stone in October 1915 [p565] and Anderson Tennis Mitchell” at 12 east Division in October 1916 [p. 22].  Since the Chicago Annual Directory, which was then published each August, lists “[Mitchell] Tennis” as residing at 1244 Stone Street in its 1916 issue [p. 1298]

 

“Anderson Tennis Mitchell—there is no Anderson Sherwood” entry—at 12 East Division in the Oct. 1916 through June 1921 issues.  In November 1922 issue, Tennessee and Sherwood are listed with the same phone number and address 153 East Erie.

Sherwood Anderson A Writer in America Volume 1 By Walter   B. Rideout Introduction By Charles Modlin

Pg 746:  The University Press of Wisconsin Press  ISBN: 0-209-21530-x  Date: 2006

 

Divorce Based on Desertion Anderson claim Mitchell deserted him.

Ex-Wife of Anderson Novelist, Found Dead

New York Times

Published December 27, 1929

Sherwood Explanation for divorce:

Sherwood Anderson obtained a decree of divorce from Tennessee Mitchell Anderson at Reno, on April 5, 1924, after six years of separation.  He obtained the divorce on the grounds of UNJUSTIFIABLE DESERTION.

 

The action was not contested.

The Anderson married in July, 1916.  Anderson has since remarried.  [Referring to 3^rd wife Elizabeth Norma Prall]

 

Sources:

New York Times Archives

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FB0F15FA3F5F177A93C5AB1789D95F4D8285F9

 

 

His own problem to solve was Tennessee.—And that Tennessee was “much pulled together” and enjoying her job.  Sherwood apparently felt this an opportune time to write her he sent Otto Liveright at letter to be forward to her requesting that she appoint a Reno attorney to represent her so as to expedite divorce proceedings since his Nevada residency would be completed in some two and a half months.  Tennessee refused on the grounds that she might be implicated in the divorce proceedings against Edgar Lee Masters, who had recently separated from his wife.  Later in June Anderson wrote her directly with the same request, and again she refused now insisting that proceeding would be delayed “Until such time as divorce would not hurt her economically.

 

Whatever, Tennessee’s motives for the delay may have been it is impossible now to known; Sherwood, hardly an unbiased observer, put them down simply as “just a kind of dogged determination not to face simple facts unwillingness to make the gesture that would be most gracious and fine.” He decided not to repeat his request but foresaw that the legal proceedings would drag on beyond the mid-August termination he had hoped for.

 

 

Sherwood Anderson A Writer in America Volume 1 By Walter   B. Rideout Introduction By Charles Modlin

Pg 513-14:  The University Press of Wisconsin Press  ISBN: 0-209-21530-x  Date: 2006

 

Before leaving Reno the twentieth Anderson, now a “bona fide resident of the County Washoe,” filed suit for divorce on the complaint that the defendant [Tennessee] had deserted him for “more than one year last past”; and since the defendant lived outside Nevada and could not receive a personal summons, he made affidavit that the summons be published in the Nevada State Journal. The Order for Publication was signed by District Judge George A. Bartlett, and it was probably at this legal proceeding that Anderson first met the man who became his best friend during the months he would still have to reside in Reno.

 

Sherwood Anderson A Writer in America Volume 1 By Walter   B. Rideout Introduction By Charles Modlin

Pg 517:  The University Press of Wisconsin Press  ISBN: 0-209-21530-x  Date: 2006