1940 High School Graduation

An admission ticket to a graduation ceremony was among family pictures I received recently.

The small red stub was for entrance to the commencement exercises of Central Commercial and Technical High School on June 19, 1940. The event was held at South Side High School. Both these schools were in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.

Whose graduation was this?

My first guess was my paternal grandmother, Beulah Bernice Cook (1921-1940). She was the right age and her family lived in Newark in the 1940 census.

Yearbooks for Newark are online at Archive.org.

Cog 'N' Pen, the yearbook of the graduating class of 1940, features Beulah!

Photograph of graduating senior Beulah Cook
Central Commercial and Technical High School

The school as it appeared in 1940

The building that housed this high school still stands, though it is now part of the campus of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. It sits on Summit Street and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Boulevard (formerly High Street) between Warren Street and New Street.

Modern day aerial view of campus buildings
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey
Google Maps

Central High School was constructed around 1910 and 1911. These pictures are also available on Archive.org. Eberhardt Hall is visible in the background with its eyebrow dormers. Eberhardt Hall still stands today. It was constructed in the 1850s to house the Newark Orphan Asylum.

Construction of Central High School on Summit Street

In Newark today there is a school called Central High School that credits its descent from the Central High School founded in 1911. 

Another Lutter Baby 1914

In an effort to find out what became of Baby Boy Lutter, born May 9, 1916 in Newark, New Jersey, I looked up a death certificate for Richard Quackenbush.

An index of deaths in New Jersey can be found through Reclaim the Records or Ancestry. In spite of the name of this database at Ancestry ("New Jersey, U.S., Death Index 1848-1878, 1901-2017"), there are no indexes for the years 1904-1915 and 1930-1948.

Index of Deaths in New Jersey
Richard Quackenbash died December 1916 in Newark

I have all of the Lutter death certificates through 1965. Baby Boy born 1916 is not among them. Although Baby Boy was born with the surname Lutter, his parents were not married. His death certificate may be under his mother's surname- Quackenbush.

This is why I wanted to view the 1916 death certificate for Richard Quackenbush.

Death certificate of Richard Quackenbush, died December 27, 1916
at Newark City Hospital, Newark, New Jersey.
Cause of death tubercular meningitis.
Father- O.W. [out of wedlock]. Mother- Margaret Quackenbush.
Burial- Evergreen Cemetery. Undertaker- Jas M Vaughan.

I was on the right track; however, this is another child created by my great grandfather and Margaret. This child was born June 30, 1914 in Newark- according to his death certificate.

This was unexpected.

I have all of the Lutter birth certificates through 1924. How did I miss this Lutter baby born in 1914?

An index of births is available online through Reclaim the Records and Ancestry. Nothing matched this birthdate in the year 1914 in Newark under the surname Lutter or Quackenbush. Next I searched by the exact date. SUTTER. The surname was misinterpreted in the index as Sutter instead of Lutter.

Birth index New Jersey at Ancestry
This is an index of the index.
The certificates are on microfilm at the Archives in Trenton, New Jersey.

Sutter born June 30, 1914 in Newark.
This is Ancestry's index of the New Jersey geographic birth index.

Image of the geographic birth index.
Sutter, baby of H. and M., born June 30, 1914 in Newark, New Jersey.

This index is as close as you can get to the birth record from home. Because I was physically inside the New Jersey State Archives while viewing this index, I could then view the microfilm roll of births for 1914 and copy the certificate for baby Sutter. Howard Lutter was listed as the father.

Birth certificate of Baby Lutter, indexed Sutter.
June 30, 1914 at Newark City Hospital, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.
Father- Howard Lutter, age 27, occupation brakeman.
Mother- Margaret Quackenbush, age 18.

Baby Lutter/Sutter became Richard Quackenbush. Two year old Richard was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. This cemetery lies in three cities- Newark, Elizabeth, and Hillside, New Jersey. I called the cemetery office for the location of this grave and was told that he was buried in the baby section. These are tiny, single plots, usually with no markers.

Another avenue to pursue is the funeral home or undertaker. James M Vaughan was a lesser-known undertaker. I do not know what became of his business and those records. He died in 1954 and was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in East Orange.

I have not found baby Richard in the 1915 New Jersey State census.

I reviewed what I had uncovered about the life of Howard Lutter.

Howard Lutter and Ethel Laurel Winterton married in Newark on September 17, 1910. The first child of this marriage was my grandfather, Clifford Lutter, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 18, 1915.

Howard had already made a son, Richard, with Margaret the year before Clifford was born.

The next year, 1916, Howard and Margaret had twins. The female twin died. Then Richard, age two and a half, died.

In 1918, Beryl, the second and final child of Howard and Ethel, was born in Newark.

Howard divorced Ethel in 1927. He narrated the movements of the family in the 1910s. He failed to mention the children he made with another women that overlapped the birth of the children of this marriage.

Responses of Howard Lutter in his divorce action
against Ethel Laurel Winterton, 1926

In 1928, Howard remarried to Fiorita Lorenz (1890-1969). In 1923, Howard began renting a house from her and her then-husband, James Howard Winnie (1887-1957). Howard described Ethel as a disinterested wife and mother. Because Howard married his landlord soon after their mutual divorces, I suspected that Howard was not a good husband. This suspicion was reinforced when I discovered that he made three children with Margaret while making children with Ethel, his wife.

The earlier baby that Howard created outside his marriage indicates a more involved relationship with Margaret, who was only 17 years old when baby Richard was conceived.

Still missing is the male baby born on May 9, 1916.

Adoption of Hibler by Cook 1880

My great-grandfather, Eugene Everett Cook (1898-1979), was born and raised in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. He moved around within New Jersey and New York before retiring to Florida, where he died.

Although Cook is a common surname, I look into people with this surname who reside close to my family, especially if they share a given name as well.

Lawrence Eugene Cook (1872-1942) also lived in Newark, but was born in Swartswood, which is in Sussex County, New Jersey- fifty miles northwest of Newark.

Database Social Security Applications and Claims Index

Lawrence's birth was not found in the birth ledgers circa 1872. This is not unusual. He also was not with his parents, John and Idell, in the 1880 census. Mistakes and omissions are not unusual.

1880 United States Federal Census
101 Sheffield Street, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
Household of John Cook and Idell. No children.

John Cook was born in England. My Cook line was in the United States when it was created in 1776. I figured there was probably no connection, so I did not venture further down that rabbit hole.

On Family Search, while browsing results of full-text searches for Eugene Cook in Newark, I found some documents about this other group of Cooks.

Lawrence Eugene Cook was adopted by John Cook and Idell. Lawrence and Idell were half-siblings. Their birth surname was Hibbler. Their father was Jacob Hibbler (1815-1880). He also used the spelling with one B, Hibler.

Petition of John Cook and Idell to adopt
Lawrence E Hibbler, 1880

Order granting adoption of Lawrence E Hibbler
by John Cook and Idell, 1880

John and Idell petitioned to adopt Lawrence on October 1, 1880. The family relations were explained. Idell was from Jacob's first marriage to Eliza Vliet (1820-1868). Lawrence was from Jacob's second marriage to Melinda Vanatta (1832-1872).

Family tree of Lawrence Eugene Cook, born Hibbler

Using the surname Hibbler, Lawrence Eugene was found in the 1880 census living with his father, Jacob, and other members of the "Hibler" family in Newark.

1880 United States Federal Census
Hibler households at 31 Astor Street, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey

Adoptions were not commonplace. Children could live with people other than their parents without any paperwork or judicial action. As for Lawrence Eugene, Jacob's advancing age and pending death probably prompted this adoption.

Jacob Hibbler died November 11, 1880. He was buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Newark.

Death certificate of Jacob Hibbler
November 11, 1880 in Newark, New Jersey

Although the petition for adoption stated, "said minor has no estate or property in  his own right," Lawrence was left property in his mother's will in 1872.

Will of Melinda Hibbler
Signed October 22, 1872
Stillwater, Sussex County, New Jersey

Lawrence was only eight years old as his father was dying in 1880. Someone with legal authority needed to handle his share of his mother's estate; hence, this rare adoption was sought.

Lawrence Eugene Hibbler/Cook married Etta May Coursen (1874-1942). They had one daughter, Iliff Velmar Cook (1896-1961). The name "Iliff" is probably a family name. There is an Iliff Burying Ground in Sussex County.

1880 Census and More

In 1880, the decennial federal census was recorded. This was the first census that provided the relation of every member of the household to the head.

Did you know that additional information was recorded on people who had special needs and/or lived in institutions because of these needs? The database at Ancestry is titled U.S., 1880 Federal Census Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes. Let's use the term "supplement to the census."

I just discovered this and thought I'd share my findings.

Please note that the terms used for these people and institutions were standard for the year 1880. Most have fallen out of use today and seem archaic or degrading.

Searching the 1880 census will not give results in the supplement to the census. These are separate databases at Ancestry. A potential match might appear in the "Suggested Records" column if you click on an entry in one database.

How would you know to look for someone on the supplement to the census? Either because they are enumerated as an occupant of an institution or because they answered in the affirmative to the questions about health.

1880 federal census questions about health

Question 15: Is the person [on the day of the Enumerator's visit] sick or temporarily disabled, so as to be unable to attend to ordinary business or duties? If so, what is the sickness or disability?

Question 16: Blind,

Question 17: Deaf and Dumb,

Question 18: Idiotic,

Question 19: Insane,

Question 20: Maimed, Crippled, Bedridden, or otherwise disabled.

Words or a slash mark in these columns merit a visit to the supplement to the census. Additional information was collected about the nature and length of the condition. This may or may not be accurate.

Specific to Newark, Essex County, New Jersey were several institutions, triggering the residents to appear on both the 1880 federal census and the supplement:

-Newark City Alms House on Elizabeth Avenue. Date of admission is on the supplement.

-Home for the Friendless on South Orange Avenue. Date of admission and number of brothers and sisters is on the supplement.

-Essex County Asylum for the Insane on Camden Street. Supplement includes illness, length of current attack, number of attacks, and age at first attack.

-Protestant Foster House on Belleville Avenue. Supplement includes date of admission and circumstances of birth.

Information, including spelling and indexing, can vary from the census to the supplement. The correct person can be confirmed because the enumeration district, page number, and line number of the census are included in the supplement.

Mary Staats (1840-1892) has possibly four entries in the 1880 census and supplement.

1880 United States Federal Census
476 Mulberry Street, Newark, New Jersey

In the 1880 federal census, Mary was enumerated at 476 Mulberry Street in Newark with her husband, Abraham, their two children, and a servant. [Indexed as Stadts at Ancestry.] For the question about occupation, "keep house" is scratched out and "insane asylum" written above. The box for "insane" is ticked.

1880 Federal Census Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes.
Enumeration District 65.

Mary is listed in the supplement. We know this is Mary because of the enumeration district, 65, in the upper left corner. Next to Mary's name is the page number, 15, and line number, 43. [Indexed as Staats at Ancestry.] Additional information is that Mary suffers from mania, which struck for the first time one year ago when she was 39 years old. Also, she is currently housed at Newark Asylum.

So I checked for her in the 1880 census in the Asylum, Enumeration District 68.

1880 Federal Census
Essex County Asylum for the Insane, Camden Street, Newark, New Jersey.
Enumeration District 68.

In the 1880 census, there is a woman named Mary Staats listed at the Insane Asylum. [Indexed Stoats at Ancestry.] But her age was given as 68 years, birthplace New York.

1880 Federal Census Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes.
Essex County Asylum for the Insane, Camden Street, Newark, New Jersey.
Enumeration District 68.

The supplement provides a few more details. Still 68 years old, married but also widowed. Suffering from her first bout of mania for four months.

The information provided about Mary in her home is probably more accurate and reliable because a family member spoke with the enumerator. At the institution, the enumerator did not speak to every inhabitant because of efficiency and because most occupants may have been too incapacitated to relay accurate information. The informant at the institution would not have personally known the accuracy of any specifics.

The takeaway is to look for additional information in the supplement if someone answered yes to a health question in the 1880 census, or if they resided as a pauper, orphan, or mentally or physically impaired person in an institution.

Scrapbook of Charles Lutter 1934

My grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980), kept a scrapbook of newspaper articles.

New picture of my grandfather, Clifford "Charles" Lutter.
Probably circa 1934. Date and newspaper unknown as of this writing.

I must recommend to anyone who clips articles from anywhere (including now online) note the source: Title of newspaper, location, date, and page.

Based on events mentioned in the articles, I determined that these clippings were from the year 1934.

The Newark Star Eagle was published in New Jersey in the year 1934 and is not online. I would suspect that the articles were from this newspaper because Clifford lived in Newark. I did not find these articles in any of the newspapers that are online. I searched some unique phrasing within the articles on sites such as GenealogyBank, Newspapers, Old News, Google, Chronicling America, and the Newark Public Library. Nothing matched.

Some of the articles were written by "Charles Lutter." Others list no author. My grandfather used the name Charles in addition to Clifford.

Page from the scrapbook of Clifford Lutter

"People Are Dumb" sounds like something a Lutter would write.

The topics were often covered in articles across the country, but these exact articles are not online.

Peter Kaliscik, age ten, was severely injured by electric shock while playing on train tracks of the Long Island Railroad in Brooklyn, New York. Doctors told the boy, who was fully alert, that he was going to die. Modern-day healthcare workers would probably not approach a child with such bluntness. Newspapers across the country carried very similar articles about this incident, which occurred November 12, 1934.

"Little Boy, Electric Victim, Will Die." Newspaper unknown. 1934.
Spoiler- he lived.

Peter died November 13, but twenty years later, in 1954. In 1942 he married Theresa VanHouten and had children.

The next step was using this alternate name of "Charles Lutter." This produced articles that were likely about Clifford.

Charles Lutter, age 21, of Newark, found a skeleton in 1936.
This matches the age of my Clifford Lutter, who was born in 1915.
We don't hear much about Bound Creek.

Other men were also named Charles Lutter. One was close in age to my Charles/Clifford:

Charles Lutter, born in Bayonne in 1912 to John Ernest Lutter (1882-1944) and Emma Otto (1885-1964). Charles moved to Newark after his 1936 marriage to Catherine Radoshvic (1916-1983). He lived in Staten Island, New York prior to this.

So my grandfather, Clifford "Charles" Lutter, was the only person who went by Clifford or Charles Lutter living in Newark born around 1915.

In the back of the scrapbook are eight lines of writing.

He is utterly active; but, in time, no
movement is fortuitous, or without a
motive; his will is always active, his actions
have a definite aim. If he shows
violence, it is in order to insure
execution of his commands- to show
that he has strength to overcome anything which opposes him.

Family Documents: Clifford Charles Lutter, Mason

Among inherited family documents is now a single paper establishing Clifford Charles Lutter as a 32 degree Mason. He signed December 4, 1971 in Newark, New Jersey.

Document establishing Clifford Lutter (1915-1980)
as a Freemason 32d Degree

Signature of Clifford Lutter December 4, 1971

A few years ago the document surfaced that established Clifford's father, Howard, as a 32d degree Mason. Howard signed exactly 39 years before his son.

Document establishing Howard Lutter (1889-1959)
as a Freemason 32d Degree. 

The flat marker of Howard's burial location
(Glen Haven Memorial Park in Sylmar, Los Angeles, California)
is engraved with the masonic symbol of square and compass with the letter G center.
Photograph courtesy of Bill Burgess.

Surprise Babies of 1916

My great-grandparents, Howard Lutter (1889-1959) and Ethel Laurel Winterton (1891-1962), were married in 1910 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. This union produced two children, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980) and Beryl Enid Lutter (1918-1989).

Beryl and Clifford, early 1920s,
at their maternal grandparents' home in Holmdel, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Howard divorced Ethel Laurel in 1927 for abandoning him and the children. Fiorita Winnie testified against Ethel Laurel. In 1928 Howard and Fiorita married.

In the last article, I wrote about Ernst Lutter, who died in Newark in 1916. A DNA match prompted me to realize that I had not collected the Lutter deaths from the year 1916.

Two Lutters died in New Jersey in 1916. One was Ernst. The other was a newborn baby of Howard Lutter and Margaret Quackenbush. Not the same Margaret as my cousin Margaret Quackenbush (1899-1940).

Death Certificate
Female baby Lutter died May 9, 1916
in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey

As I sat in the Archives looking at this death certificate, I was surprised. Howard had made a baby outside of his marriage. And- this document was out there, waiting for me to find it.

I had to find out more. Howard was still married to Ethel Laurel when this child arrived in 1916. Howard and Ethel Laurel stayed together and produced another child in 1918.

There are some avenues on this death certificate for possible additional information:
-hospital
-cemetery
-undertaker

Newark City Hospital no longer exists. It became Martland Medical Center and then was engulfed by University Hospital, which was then engulfed by Rutgers University. They do have an archival collection. More about this later in this article.

Newark City Cemetery was a burial area for the indigent. Nobody claims to know where the records are.

Holle Funeral Home still exists. Other Lutters were processed through this same funeral home. There is no record of this baby in the records.

I did not find a notice of death in the newspapers the Newark Evening News and the Newark Sunday Call.

As I sat at home, I thought to myself that there was no birth certificate for this baby. I had all the Lutter birth certificates issued through 1923. In earlier times, if a baby was born and quickly died, a death certificate may have been issued without a corresponding birth certificate.

I checked my files anyway.

Ten years ago I had indeed copied a birth certificate for a baby born in 1916 to Howard Lutter. I had tucked it away, planning to investigate this other Howard Lutter. This was a disorganized approach and the certificate became quickly forgotten as the ancestors and current life piled in.

Birth certificate of Baby Lutter #2 born May 9, 1916 in Newark.
This had been in my collection since 2014.

Howard Lutter had created a baby outside his marriage. I had been sitting on this information for over ten years.

I noticed a faint "#2" written after the surname. This baby was a twin. I did not have a birth certificate for the other twin at home in my files.

The birth index is now available from home. No such index was available in 2014.

Index of Births in New Jersey 1915-1919
H & M had twins on May 9, 1916 in Newark.
Database online Ancestry

For whatever reason, I copied certificate 357 but not the 356- the first born twin.

Back to the Archives I went.

Birth certificate of baby number 1, a male.
This baby has no corresponding death certificate.

Birth certificate of baby number 2, a female.
This baby died the same day.

Howard Lutter had a son on May 9, 1916 who lived. What happened to him? I do not know. If he survived into adulthood and had descendants, they have not tested their DNA.

I tracked down Margaret Quackenbush. She married, had children, and died. I corresponded with a grandchild of hers. The family had no knowledge of these twins.

The children raised by Margaret's siblings were reviewed in light of this new information. Nobody in the Quackenbush family raised a baby boy with this birthdate. He is not buried in any family plots.

If adopted, he does not appear on the Surrogate's Docket in Essex County, New Jersey. I requested a search of the files, but I do not expect cooperation from the Surrogate's staff.

Doctor D L Golan signed the birth certificates. This was Daniel Leonard Golan (1892-1969). He briefly appeared in the Newark city directory of 1917. He served in World War I, then moved to back to New York, where he married and practiced medicine.

Golann D Leonard physician
1917 Newark City Directory

Dr Daniel Leonard Golann's record of military service World War I
U.S., World War I Jewish Servicemen Questionnaires, 1918-1921
Collection at Ancestry

Dr Daniel Leonard Golann's summary of career before World War I

Dr Golann's questionnaire about his wartime service lists him as an intern at Newark City Hospital from 1915-1916. This comports with the birth certificates.

I visited the George F Smith Library of the Health Sciences at Rutgers University (University of Medicine and Dentistry) in Newark. Thank you to the staff there for meeting with me and showing me historical documents and pictures.

Dr Golann was listed in a chronological recording of interns, but none of his records survive in this repository. The library's archives offered an image of Newark City Hospital as it appeared in 1915.

Newark City Hospital, 1915
Special Collections, George F Smith Library of the Health Sciences

Howard and Ethel Laurel were living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1915. This is where baby Clifford was born. In the divorce papers, Howard explained their moves to New York City, Philadelphia, then back to Newark. Was he travelling for work or to escape personal problems he created?

In 1915, Howard resided in Philadelphia then in Newark.
Does his use of the pronoun "I" indicate that he was not relocating with his wife?

Howard had nerve calling Ethel Laurel a bad wife in the divorce complaint.

We are left with a missing male baby born May 9, 1916 in Newark, New Jersey.

Takeaway research method:

My current method is to log all information into a family tree in Family Tree Maker. Had I done this ten years ago, I probably would not have lost track of the birth certificate from 1916 and two men named Howard Lutter.