Where was Pierpont Seidler in 1900?

The family of August Seidler was a bit of a mystery. I knew he was married twice, but had no hard data on him. In 1900 he was living with his mother Amalia and two sisters, and he was listed as widowed, but no children were listed as living with them. In 1920 he was enumerated with his second wife Elizabeth and one daughter, Ruth born in 1907.

Recently I found August and Elizabeth in the 1910 census with four children: Pierpont, 18 yrs old; Eleanor, 14 yrs old; Celeste, 12 yrs old; and Ruth, 3 yrs old. According to the census August and Elizabeth were married 19 years, and it was a first marriage for both. This of course did not jibe with my data, but August was listed as a jeweler, which I knew he was.

Thanks to FamilySearch I found birth records for all three children, that matched the ages of the children in the 1910 census. In the birth records the parents are listed as August Seidler and Clara Hook or Huch. August is also listed in the 1905 NJ State census, with Elizabeth and the three children.

Now the problem remains: where are the children in 1900? Searching in various census databases I found Eleanor and Celeste listed in the St. Joseph’s Home in Peekskill, Westchester County, NY. Eleanor and Celeste are listed as pupils at the Academy of Our Lady of Angels, and not as inmates at St. Joseph’s.  There are some inconsistencies:  their father is listed as being born in Germany, while he was born in New York,  and Celeste is listed as 2 yrs old, but born in 1890!

But Pierpont remains elusive. It seems likely that he was also somewhere in a boarding school in the time between the death of his mother and the remarriage of his father, but so far I have not able to find him. But at least I know a lot more about this family than I did before.

Addendum.
A nice blog post about St. Joseph’s can be found at Mary Nunn Maki’s Blog “Growing up in Willow Creek“