The Morning Union 6 January 1926 (Grass Valley, California)
Newspapers.com
My great grandmother Emma Lavinia King married my great grandfather Lester Franklin Hayes in San Francisco after the 1906 Great San Francisco Earthquake. They were married on December 1, 1908. Together they had three daughters: Dorothy, Frances and Margaret (Betty; my grandmother). Lester and Emma obtained a divorce December 5, 1924. We do not know all the details of what precipitated the divorce, but the girls remained in contact with their father until his death in 1969.
Nana married a previously married man named George Freeman Van Duzer a few short years after her divorce from Lester. Not a lot is known about George as he died in 1933. We do know that he did provide some stability to Nana and her daughters in the way of property ownership when they returned to Grass Valley. In 1930 the George Van Duzers were living next door to the Benjamin Van Duzers on the Auburn Highway. The brothers George and Benjamin were barbers who originally came from Pennsylvania, probably with their uncle Eugene Townsend who purchased a small fruit farm in Rough and Ready. George was married to Annie Jacoby when they moved to Grass Valley sometime after 1910; I was unable to find any information on her death or if they were divorced previous to 1925.
We don't know when or how Nana met George, but he was present at Auntie Dot's eighth grade graduation in 1925 and the girls called him Daddy Van by then.
George Van Duzer seated with L-R Dorothy (in her graduation dress), Margaret (Betty) , and Fran Hayes.
George Van Duzer seated by himself. These pictures were taken on the prune ranch of Charles and Anna King, Nana's parents, in Santa Clara, California. George must have been an accepted part of the family by the time this picture was taken.
There are no surviving wedding pictures of this second marriage for my great grandmother. In fact, there are no pictures of the two of them together at all. Mom recently found a very small gold ring with the engraving E L H 12 30 26? 24?. It turned out to be Nana's wedding band! She and George were married on December 30 of 1925 and returned from their honeymoon in early January of 1926.
The Morning Union 18 August 1933 (Grass Valley, California)
Newspapers.com
George died on August 17, 1933 after only seven and a half years of marriage at the age of 58. He died shortly after Auntie Fran and Uncle Joe were married on July 22 , 1933. He protested the marriage by calling the sheriff to stop the couple from driving to Reno, which of course still took place as Auntie Fran was in her early twenties. The sheriff did not intervene. I bet that ride to Reno was a fun one!
I am sure there was some animosity between George and the three girls. Divorce is hard on children no matter how it is handled. The girls didn't think he was a particularly nice man. I often wonder what Nana saw in Mr. George Van Duzer. She never talked about him when I was growing up, but that was 40 years after his death. Nana always went by "Mrs. Van Duzer" until her death, kept his ring and made the best of the property she was willed. She never remarried.
George and Nana chose Oroville as their "Gretna Green". This was a reference to the small Scottish village that became synonymous with runaway lovers and became the destination for eloping couples in the 1750's. English law was changed at that time to require a young couple to be 21 years or older to get married without their parents' consent, the marriage had to be public in the couple's parish and presided over by an official of the church. This new law was strictly enforced, with punishment for any clergyman breaking it. Scottish law, on the other hand, did not change and requirements for marriage were much less restrictive. These were called "irregular marriages". Since Gretna Green was right over the border this became the popular place for English couples to marry and flaunt the law.
These days a "Gretna Green" marriage describes a marriage that takes place outside the jurisdiction of the couple's place of residence. George and Nana slipped away quietly and drove 60 miles to Oroville, for reasons unknown. Was it a romantic elopement? Was there some tension in the family? Did they just want a simple, private ceremony? I would love to know the reasons behind their "Gretna Green" marriage!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretna_Green
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/Gretna-Green/
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