Proof in a Picture

After acquiring and reading the divorce papers of my great grandparents, Howard Lutter and Laura Winterton, I reviewed Laura's photographs.  This picture of her cooking is especially humorous because one of the causes of the divorce, as cited by her husband, was that she did not cook.  Indeed, Laura does not look happy in this photograph, standing over the stove.

What is in a Name?

Someone asked about the first name of my great grandmother, Laura Winterton (1891-1962).  She died before I was born; I was told that she went by the name "Laura."  As I found her records, I saw that she also used the name "Laurel" and "Ethel."  She is not named on her birth certificate.  I entered the varying names into a chart to notice any pattern.  I'm not sure that there is a pattern.

For some clarity, I turned to prior generations to see who Laura may have been named after.  The source of the name may be a paternal aunt, born around 1858, listed as "Laura E. Winterton" in the 1860 and 1870 census; and dead before the 1880 census.

The Wife of the 1920s

In the prior post, I featured the divorce records for Howard Lutter and Laura Ethel Winterton, 1926.  Laura was cited for not cleaning, cooking, caring for the children, and for working outside the home.

Today, we may find such expectations quaint, but this was the world in which Howard and Laura lived.

I found some modern-day sentiments that could have expressed Laura's disdain over her situation.  Underneath are quotes from the divorce record.

"A man expects his supper on the table after working all day."

Howard:  "She wasn't going to waste her life taking care of kids."

"She was a woman that didn't take care of her home."

"I don't like housework.  I don't care for it.  I don't want to do it."

"I am doing my half.  I am working."
"I am doing my duty supporting you and my children and you have to do your part."

"Mrs. So and So doesn't have to do it.  They have a maid.  I don't see why I have to do it."

"She had a nice position . . . and didn't want to come back."

"I scrubbed floors, I gave the kids baths.  At night went to the store, washed dishes."

Wife:  "I was born to be a lady and I don't like housework."
Husband:  "You were not born to be a lady."