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
2nd 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
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;
Southern odyssey: selected
writings by Sherwood Anderson pg XXiV
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 3rd
wife Elizabeth Norma Prall]
Sources:
New York Times Archives
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
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