Mrs. Lottie Zeuch, second wife of Charles F. Zeuch, died Tuesday, March 2, 1926. By the end of April, Charles had remarried his first wife, Stella.
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At the time of their second wedding, Charles was 66 and Stella was 63. They were first married in 1879 and had three daughters. Then, “after a series of petty quarrels,” they divorced in 1894. Two years later, Charles married Miss Lottie Green of New York. Charles and Lottie did not have children, but she clearly considered Charles’s daughters to be her own as well. Lottie’s obituary reads, “Mrs. Zeuch is survived by her husband and three daughters, Mrs. Thomas P. Collins, Mrs. James Brice and Mrs. Leon Ives.”
Following the divorce, Stella moved to Los Angeles and married William Palmer. Their marriage lasted two and a half years before he died on September 27, 1925.
“After the death of his second wife, a month ago, Charles F. Zeuch was lonely in the big house in which he lived at 8012 Lynn Avenue, Vinita Park, St. Louis. He thought of his first wife, the mother of his three daughters, to whom he had been wed nearly half a century before, and he longed for her.” His daughters, who were still close to both of their parents, informed him that their mother still lived in Los Angeles and that her husband had died the previous year. He started writing letters to her. “I wrote to her that I needed her and that she needed me, and that we should let bygones be bygones. Fate had conspired to bring us together again at an age when we could appreciate each other.” Stella came back to St. Louis to marry Charles mere weeks after the first letter. They remained married until Charles’s death in 1936.
It may seem odd that news of Lottie’s death and Charles’s subsequent marriage to Stella were printed in the Alton Evening Telegraph since they lived in St. Louis. However, Charles and Lottie made quite a few connections in Alton. Charles was a life member of the Alton Lodge of Elks, 746, and at one time operated a chicken farm on the Grafton (Alton-Jerseyville) Road. According to the 1913 Alton city directory, he ran a saloon at 630 East Second Street (now 630 East Broadway). He and Lottie also lived in the building while he ran the saloon.
Sources
“Charles F. Zuech Dies in St. Louis.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), July 15, 1936.
“Latest Edition: Not So Dry. Seventeen Arrests for Drunkenness Yesterday. St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO), June 27, 1887.
“Mrs. Charles F. Zuech Dies in St. Louis.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), March 3, 1926.
“Mrs. Charles F. Zuech’s Funeral Friday.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), March 4, 1926.
“Pair Rewed After 32-Year Separation.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO), April 30, 1926.
“Remarries First Wife After 32 Years, Month After Second’s Death.” St. Louis Globe Democrat (St. Louis, MO), April 30, 1926.
Schussele, C. Marriage Certificate, 1800s. Missouri History Museum.http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/204132
“Second Wife Dies; Zeuch Reweds First.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), April 30, 1926.
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