EVANSTON'S RICHEST WOMAN (68) ELOPES WITH CAR SALESMAN (29) - Part Three - Sarah Vowell Brown Deynzer and Harry C. Wils

If you have not already read Part One and Part Two of this tale, you should read them before reading Part Three:

https://undereverytombstone.blogspot.com/2022/04/evanstons-richest-woman-68-elopes-with.html

https://undereverytombstone.blogspot.com/2022/05/evanstons-richest-woman-68-elopes-with.html

Part One tells the story of the first marriage of Sarah Vowell.  In 1885 Sarah (Sadie) Vowell married Renaissance man Edwin F. Brown.  Although they spent the last five years of their marriage apart, there was a death-bed reconciliation just before Brown's death on February 15, 1912.  With a Last Will and Testament executed just two days before he died, Edwin Brown left his widow $3 million ($87.7 million today).

Part Two tells the story of the second marriage of Sarah Vowell.  In 1921 when she was fifty-seven years old, she married twenty-five year old bond salesman John G. (Jack) Deynzer after a whirlwind courtship of twenty-four days.  Not surprisingly the marriage soured and the couple was finally divorced in 1929 after a five-year-long trip through the court system.

I ended Part Two with the query "...can we rest assured that she learned her lesson - that she would never again marry a boy-toy who appeared at her door trying to sell her something - or would she???"  This month we will find out that indeed she did not learn that lesson.

As a sixty-five year old widow/divorcee, Sarah Vowell Brown Deynzer did not change her lifestyle much at all.  She remained in the cadmium-yellow main house "Windiknowe" that she and her first husband built in 1892 on the shores of Lake Michigan south of the Evanston Lighthouse.  

The 1930 US Census shows Sarah still living at Windiknowe which had an official address of 569 Milburn Street in Evanston.  She had reverted to using the last name of her first husband, "Brown".  She had a "Guest" living with her, forty-five year old Birdie A. Olin.  Sarah reported she was "Divorced." Birdie was "Single."  Sarah reported that her house was not a farm, that it was worth $400,000 ($6.5 million today).  Sarah had no occupation; neither did Birdie.  They did, however own a radio.

(Birdie A. Olin died May 22, 1931 at the age of forty-six.  There was no Death Notice in any of the Chicago newspapers.  She was buried May 25, 1931 in the Olin Family Plot at Chicago's Graceland Cemetery - Maplewood Section, Lot 161).

All across the country the newspapers could not wait to report the next chapter in the Sarah Vowell Brown Deynzer saga.  Here's the Chicago Tribune's version from October 21, 1931:

And here's a photo of the happy couple:

 

Before we check in on the honeymooners, let's see what we can dig up about Husband #3, Harry C. Wils.

Harry Carl Wils was born on St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 1902 in South Bend, Indiana.  He was the only child of Arthur C. Wils (1869-1952) and Johanna Fenske (1876-1946).  Arthur Wils was a Teamster, but later in life he took a job as an elevator operator in an office building.

I was unable to find the Wils family in the 1910 US Census, so we get our first look at young Harry Wils in the 1920 US Census.  The 1920 US Census finds seventeen year old Harry living with his parents at 2120 Cleveland Avenue in Chicago: 

2120 N. Cleveland, Chicago

His father Arthur is fifty years old; his mother Johanna is forty-three.  Both are naturalized American citizens.   They were renting their apartment.  Arthur is an elevator operator in an Office Building.  All three of them speak English.   

On August 31, 1924 Harry Wils married Helen L. Graves (1905-1929) in Indiana.  The bride was eighteen; the groom was twenty-two.  Helen was 1/32 Cherokee Indian.

Harry and Helen were blessed with a son, Harry Lee Wils (1925-1977).  He was born in Chicago on September 23, 1925.

Helen Graves Wils died in Chicago on January 19, 1929 from heart disease complicated by pneumonia.  She was twenty-three years old.  Here is her Death Certificate:

Interestingly her Death Certificate said she was "Divorced."  Not according to her Death Notice from the Chicago Tribune of 20 Jan 1929:

Even though her Death Notice said she was to be buried in Rosehill Cemetery, she currently rests next to her parents in the South Side Cemetery, Pontiac, Illinois:

Photo courtesy of Find a Grave volunteer RWCNAC

So, by the time of the 1930 US Census, Harry Wils is a widower with a son.  He has moved back in with his parents in their apartment at 1430 W. Thome Avenue in Chicago.  

1430 W. Thome, Chicago

The rent for the apartment is $82.50 per month ($1,337.00 in today's funds).  Harry's father is now sixty years old and an elevator operator in a hotel.  His mother is fifty-four, Harry is twenty-eight and his son is four years old.  Harry reports his occupation as "Selling Automobiles."  Other sources report that Harry Wils was a salesman for the Packard Motor Car Company of Chicago.

In the fall of 1931, twenty-nine year old Harry C. Wils, a widower with a four old son, called on sixty-seven year old Sarah Vowell Brown Deynzer Brown to try to sell her a Packard automobile.  Instead, she married Wils, and gave him the Packard as a wedding present. 

Sarah referred to Harry as a "former Notre Dame football player."  I could not find any evidence that Harry attended Notre Dame or played football there.  (More on this later.)  Newspapers referred to Sarah as the "aged heiress" or the "grandmother bride."  But, Sarah had plans for Harry, as reported in the Chicago Tribune from October 22, 1931:

Sarah did have a sense of humor.  In a different article reporting her marriage #3, she referred to Jack Deynzer, husband #2 as a "bath curtain manufacturer." 

How did the newlyweds get along?  "Their love was the real McCoy," reported the Shamokin, PA News-Dispatch from July 1, 1932 as they approached their first anniversary:

In a 1934 article in the Shreveport (LA) Times about older women who married younger men, Harry finally revealed what had attracted him to Sarah.  It was not the size of her wallet, it was the size of her ankles.  "She had slender ankles," he revealed.  And the article went on to say that "They're living happily in Evanston today." 

Other than an occasional mention, Sarah and Harry Wils managed to keep their names out of the the newspapers.  This was a refreshing change of pace, especially for Sarah who spent most of the 1920s being mentioned for her hair-brained development schemes for her lakefront estate "Windiknowe."  She had proposed building "A Tent-Colony" for tenants forced into paying too much rent, "An Indian Temple" consisting of thirty-four distinct homes modeled after an an Indian temple whose builders were killed to keep them from divulging the temple's secrets, and finally a "$1,000,000 Unusual Apartment Building" overlooking the lake with roof gardens, a private park and with "many club and hotel features."  Needless to say, the Evanston Zoning Board rejected all of these proposals after countless complaints from her millionaire neighbors.  One of her schemes went all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, who ultimately sided with the Evanston Zoning Board in rejecting her proposal.  Would that Evanston's zoning was still as strict today.

However on May 9, 1937 it was revealed in the Chicago Tribune that Sarah Vowell Brown Deynzer Brown Wils had sold "Windiknowe" to noted developer C. A. Hemphill and Associates who planned to raze the cadmium-yellow "castle" and replace it with a series of luxury homes, four with riparian rights:

It turns out that very quietly (for Sarah) in 1935, Sarah and Harry moved out of Windiknowe but stayed in Evanston.  They rented an apartment at a very well-known building in Evanston - the first one north of Calvary Cemetery on Sheridan Road:

474 Sheridan Road, Evanston

But now Sarah had a Herculean task to accomplish.  She had to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.  She had to downsize from a "castle" where she had lived for forty years to an apartment - a spacious apartment without a doubt, but not a castle.  Finally in September of 1937 she was ready to announce her "estate" sale:

Not only could you buy one (or more) of her treasures, you could wander the halls of Windiknowe before it was razed by Hemphill.  I bet there were hundreds of people in line when the doors opened.  (I would have gone - even just to get a look at the interior of Windiknowe). 

The 1940 US Census gives us a wealth of information about Sarah and Harry and puts to rest a persistent myth about Harry.   The Census reports that Sarah and Harry were living in an apartment they rented at 474 Sheridan Road in Evanston.   Their rent was $120.00 per month ($2,390 per month today).  Where is Harry's son Harry Lee Wils?  He is not living with Harry and Sarah.  It turns out that fourteen year old Harry Lee was living with his grandfather - Harry's father - in an apartment at 4406 Magnolia in Chicago.   Furthermore, Harry Lee said that the Magnolia apartment was the same place he was living in 1935!  It appears that when Harry and Sarah left Windiknowe for their Sheridan Road apartment Harry Lee went to live with his grandfather.  Was Sarah a wicked step-mother?  I could see that...

In virtually every report of Sarah and Harry's marriage in 1931, the newspapers stated that Harry Wils had been a football player when he attended Notre Dame.  That is 100% false.  I mentioned above that I was unable to find any evidence that Harry Wils had actually attended Notre Dame.  Harry confirmed my suspicions when he told the census taker in 1940 that the limit of his education was 4 years of high school.   You cannot play football for Notre Dame if you were not a student there.  Sarah probably said "You have broad shoulders and are from Indiana.  We'll say that you attended Notre Dame and played football there."   Or maybe Harry lied to Sarah and said he had played football at Notre Dame - we'll never know.  It was much easier to make up stories about your life in the pre-internet era.  

Here's another whopper from the 1940 Census.  Sarah told the census taker that she was fifty years old when in reality she was seventy-six!  Many people through the years lied about their ages to the census takers, but few would trim 26 years off of their age.  Harry correctly reported that he was thirty-seven.

Harry reported that he was an "Agent for Real Estate" and that he had earned $5,000 the previous year ($102,680 in todays dollars).  Sarah reported that she had "Other Income" but did not say how much.

When you are doing genealogy research you need to remember that people could tell the census taker anything they wanted without furnishing proof or penalty for mis-information.  Be very careful if you intend to use census data as backup for your genealogy research.  It is notoriously unreliable.

       

Sarah Vowell Brown Deynzer Brown Wils died on January 25, 1946.  She was eighty-one years, seven months and five days old.  She and Harry had proved everyone wrong - they stayed married until her death.  Here is her Death Certificate:

Here is Sarah's Death Notice from the Chicago Tribune of 28 Jan 1946:

No mention is made in her Death Notice of her step-son, Harry Lee Wils.

Sarah was buried next to her first husband in the plot she bought at Graceland Cemetery, Chicago (Maplewood Section - Lot: 63 Ex.S. Grave: 4):

What happened to Sarah's husband and stepson after her death?  Harry remained in the Sheridan Road apartment building but moved to a different apartment - 482 Sheridan Road.  In 1946, forty-four year old Harry Carl Wils married twenty-two year old Millicent Edythe Schinkoeth (1924-2001).  It was the third marriage for Harry, and the first marriage for Millicent.  Newspapers reported that Millicent had worked as a model for the Coca-Cola Company in 1941 and was the last ''Yes'' Girl.  They also reported that she was Miss Chicago in 1941 and 1942.  

On March 8, 1947 Harry and Millicent were blessed with a son Donald L. Wils (1947-1990).   Harry and Millicent went on to have a total of seven children together.  

The 1950 US Census reported that Harry returned to selling automobiles.  The details of Sarah's estate are not available but we can assume she left him well cared for. 

Harry Carl Wils died on June 06, 1990.  Here is his Death Notice from the Chicago Tribune from June 06, 1990:

The location of Harry C. Wils' grave is unknown.

Now you know all about Evanston's own "cougar" Sarah Vowell Brown Deynzer Brown Wils.  Quite an interesting tale.  The rich really are different.  May she, Edwin Brown, Jack Deynzer and Harry Wils, rest in peace.