Ellen (McNamara) van Wettering (1854-)

One of the sadder stories I have come across while going through the Bergen County newspapers, is that of Mrs. Ellen Van Wettering, nee McNamara. She married Simeon van Wettering before 1876, as their first son John is born in 1876 in New Barbadoes, Bergen County. They have 8 children between then and 1895.

The Van Wetterings were a prosperous first generation immigrant Bergen County family of Dutch descent. The parents immigrated between 1852 (when they had a child in Holland) and 1856 (when they had a child in New Jersey). Both Simeon and his brother Fred’k P. were veterans of the Civil War. They served in Comp. C, 22nd Reg’t NJ Volunteers. They served 9 months, from 1 Sep 1862 to 25 Jun 1863. There is other interesting stuff about the Van Wet(t)erings, but this story is about Ellen.

In the 1880 census Ellen and Simeon are enumerated with their first two children. Ellen was listed as Irish.  In 1900 they are not living together: Simeon is living in Hackensack (Ward 1) with five children: Simeon, Mary, James, Daniel and Joseph. Simeon states he was married 23 years, immigrated in 1855, and was naturalized.⁽¹⁾ Ellen seems to be enumerated in Teaneck Township, Bogota borough, as a servant in the household of Albert Bogert. She also states she is married 23 years, she had 9 children, 7 living, and immigrated in 1880 (which is either not true, or this is not Simeon’s wife).⁽²⁾

However, Ellen is frequently in the news.
Bergen Index on 25 Mar 1890, pg. 1, col. 3

Under the heading “Not the first time” a story appeared of Mrs. Ella Van Wetering, being arrested for disorderly conduct. She apparently tried to hit her husband with an ax, in a drunken rage.

Unfortunately it does not give her husband’s name, so we cannot be sure it is Ellen, and they would have had more than 2 or 3 children, as the article states, so we cannot be totally sure. But then: Bergen Index 4 Jul 1890, pg. 1, col. 6

Under the heading “On the Warpath Once More” a story appeared of Mrs. Ellen VanWettering, wife of Mr. S. VanWettering, who went on a rampage, because she wanted the money her husband was paying to clear his debt to Mr. Zinn, a grocer on Hudson Street in Hackensack. She picked up a rock, chased her husband around the  store, broke a window with her head, and threw the stone at Mr. Zinn, hitting him in the chest. She ends again up in jail.

What I find so sad, is that this woman is clearly mentally ill, and probably an alcoholic. But all she gets is jail, while her husband is portrayed as a saint. Yes, she certainly was violent, but there seems to be no compassion. She is portrayed as incorrigible, worth only of being locked up.

As these episodes happened in 1890, and she still had children with him until 1895, they must have continued living together. I need to go back to the newspaper, and see what else is there. We indexed the vital records of the Hackensack Republican and the Bergen Index, so did not pay attention to crime reports until later, when I had found the name as a Dutch immigrant. I will need to go back, and pay attention going forward, to find out what happened to this unfortunate woman. Her husband died in 1914, I’ll have to check his obituary, to see whether it mentions his unfortunate wife.

Our attitudes toward mental illness have changed, thank goodness, and hopefully if she lived now, she would have been able to get help before she turned violent. Don’t tell me about the “good old days!”

(1) Household of Simeon van Wetering. “United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (<https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6QHS-4TV> : 5 August 2014), New Jersey > Bergen > ED 28 Hackensack town Ward 1 > image 41 of 53; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
(2)Household of Albert Bogert. “United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (<https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6XCQ-KWW> : 5 August 2014), New Jersey > Bergen > ED 40 Teaneck Township Bogota borough > image 23 of 23; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).