A series of announcements about people seeking to have their marriages annulled drew my attention in the Pantagraphs of the 1910s. One common reason for seeking an annulment was that the marriage had taken place too soon after a divorce. In the 1910s divorced people had to wait two years before remarrying. This must have made it hard on women who were unable to support their children on the slim wages a woman could earn. But it also discouraged people from getting divorced and immediately marrying the person who may have motivated them to seek a divorce.
Goldie Phares was one such woman. She had obtained a divorce from her husband, Frank Phares (upholsterer) in 1918 and married Leslie D Simpson (railway motorman) the next year. Her argument in court in June 1920, was that she did not realize her marriage was illegal when she married him in 1919. However, when Goldie Phares appeared in the 1920 census along with her two daughters, Hazel (age 3) and Evelyn (age 3 mos), also living in her home was a lodger, Leslie D Simpson. Goldie gave her marital status as "widow" to the census taker (Frank died in 1972), and she did not have any occupation.
When Goldie died in 1953 she was noted to be the wife of Leslie D Simpson and the mother of 4 children, three daughters and one son. When Leslie died in 1967 he was noted to be the father of one daughter and one son and the stepfather of two daughters. When he died he had most lately been a city bus driver. The timing of the second daughter seems a little questionable, but perhaps Goldie's relationship with her first husband was more fluid than their marital status would indicate. His obituary acknowledged Goldie's second daughter as his daughter.
In 1916 Donald D Bowers approached the court with a request for the annulment of his marriage to "Minnie." He argued that Minnie was only 14 years old when he married her and that the marriage for that reason was invalid. She had been sent back to her family. Four years later Donald D Bowers married "Pansy." She filed for a divorce alleging cruelty and failure of support of his wife and child in 1922. Donald D Bowers worked at the candy factories in Bloomington. He had no success in the field of matrimony and the last names of his wives were not preserved in the Pantagraph.