End of the Line Part Deux, in Which Facts Are Twisted and a Scandal Comes to Light

 

     As we saw yesterday, Edward S. Wheat Jr. was the last surviving child of Emma Spence Wheat.  Edward's grandfather had brutally murdered his father, shooting him in the back on a Nashville street, and his two brothers were deceased.  The last days of Edward Jr.’s life have been reconstructed here using mainly contemporary newspaper articles -- not an ideal source, but other than dry vital records, are all that’s available.  

     It should be kept in mind that journalistic standards in the 19^th century were basically nonexistent. The primary goal of papers then was not to impart the facts, but to titillate readers and make money. If that could be achieved by altering a story, reporters had no qualms about doing so.  As an example, another of my ancestors who died during this era was linked, in a fanciful newspaper account, to a US senator of the same name when in fact no such connection existed. The articles in Edward Jr.’s case  are full of false assertions, some possibilities and, I assume, a few facts.  Bearing that in mind, this is the story of Edward’s demise.

     The first I learned of Edward’s death came in the form of a short notice in a Nashville newspaper informing its readers Edward had died the previous day in St. Louis and his remains were expected in Nashville for burial.  Missouri death records and a burial permit added the bare-boned facts such as his place of death, 814 South Fourteenth Street in St. Louis, the date, 14 June 1892, and the cause, gastroenteritis accompanied by heart failure.  That scant information left the St. Louis newspapers to reveal the sordid story behind those facts which they were happy to do:

    

     There are some obviously false claims in the above story.  For one, it alleges Edward’s father was killed “about a year ago in a fight", when in fact he had died eight years earlier and certainly not in a fight.  It also states that Edward Jr. was living in St. Louis for the two years before his death but no trace of him is found in city directories and the line on his burial permit for length of residence in St. Louis was left blank. Further, he was arrested in Nashville the month before his death after a fist fight with another young man, and an obituary in a Nashville paper noted he was visiting St. Louis at the time of his death. The part about Sallie Chamberlain knowing him in Nashville is also false. With a bit of sleuthing I found "Sallie" was in fact Clara Mayer, the daughter of immigrants, who was born about 1870 right there in St. Louis.  In the year 1887 Clara married a man named Charles Allen from whom she separated three months later and afterwards divorced.

     The wording of the article is also curious in that it does not say Edward Jr. died at the residence of Sallie Chamberlain, but that he passed at, “a house kept by Mme. Sallie Chamberlain”.  That and her alias immediately aroused my suspicions.  Also, how strange is it that the doctor who attended Edward refused to certify his death but shortly after relented and did so?  Were I a cynical woman, I might suppose some form of persuasion may have been deployed.

     My doubts about Sallie, aka Clara, were confirmed by another death notice published in a rival newspaper that read, “Edward S. Wheat, a wealthy and well-connected young Tennessean, died yesterday morning in a disreputable house, No. 814 South Fourteenth Street…”.  It went on to invent his last words as, “Allie, the disgrace is all over”.  The part about Edward being an alumnus of the Keeley Institute, an early center for the treatment of alcoholism, may be true though I've found nothing more to support that and no further articles about Edward's time in the city. 

     The St. Louis newspapers are however, filled with stories about Clara Allen.  They mention her handsomely furnished parlors there at number 814, the elaborate funeral she provided for Darling, her beloved Scottish Terrier whom she had buried in Pickett's Cemetery in a custom made white coffin, along with accounts of dances and robberies that took place at her home over the years.  Clara Allen was only about aged thirty when she died in 1899, leaving a sizeable estate to her sister’s family.  Interestingly, that sister, Emma Mayer Fairham, lived for a time on Chamberlain Street in St. Louis, quite possibly the inspiration for Clara's nom de guerre.  When Clara’s home was listed for rent after her death, it was not only identified by its address, as were other listings in the real estate section, but also as, “the former home of Clara Allen”.  The inventory of her estate makes fascinating reading, a music box worth over $700 in today's money, a piano valued at over $1,600 today, and an expensive gold bracelet, along with five beds, (one brass), assorted rugs, draperies, and decorative objects.

     The heartbreaking truth seems to be that Edward S. Wheat Jr. developed a fondness for alcohol and died in a St. Louis bordello. It's unclear how much his mother knew of the details surrounding her son's death, but scandal spreads quickly and only 300 miles lie between Nashville and St. Louis.  Emma, her family now gone, must have at least had an inkling of the circumstances.  According to her obituary, she died at her home in Pensacola, Florida in 1920 and was taken to Nashville for burial.  Thus ends the story of this once promising family.