The Hyphen Family Lineage

Thanks to the research by Jim Flack, much more information on Edwin is now available, and his life appears to be a little storied. He married at the end of March 1903 in Fort Wayne, Allen Cty, Indiana, to Irene Eckert, whom he divorced less than three months later. In 1911, he married Ethel Long, and they relocated to Buffalo, Erie Cty, New York, where he worked as a clerk (as counted in the 1920 US Census).

According to the census records, by 1930 Edwin was living alone in Buffalo, working production and later as a bartender. Ethel is found in the 1930 US Census living with her mother and brother back in Fort Wayne, listing herself as widowed and working as a dining room manager for a local hotel; in 1940 she's found working as a maid in Fort Wayne, living with the Zeig family, still describing herself as widowed.

As Edwin was still alive, I have to imagine that he and Ethel parted on somewhat acrimonious terms, and neither one sought either the expense or the trouble of a divorce. It's also possible they divorced and simply didn't want to discuss it afterwards; I've not yet found a divorce record for them. As Edwin was hundreds of miles away, Ethel may have found it more expedient to simply tell everyone she was widowed, knowing that it was unlikely that anyone not close to her would know the truth.

Edwin is buried in Lindenwood with the bulk of the rest of his immediate family in Lindenwood Cemetery in Fort Wayne, Allen Cty, Indiana. He may have prepared these arrangements himself, but as both of his younger sisters survived him by decades, it's also quite possible that one of them arranged to bring him "home" and have him buried with his parents in Lindenwood. It is unknown at this point if he maintained contact with one or both of them through the years after his move to Buffalo, but it seems likely.