On January 10, 1910 a story in the Pantagraph reported on the attempted suicide of the wife of a "Dr. Stewart." The Pantagraph was very circumspect in reporting this incident. The only identification of the woman was that she was "Mrs. Dr. Stewart." The first name of Dr. Stewart was never given, nor was the name of the woman. The incident took place in Dr. Stewart's office in the Corn Belt Building. Probably many Pantagraph readers would have been aware of who this woman was. However, this represented a mystery to be solved to me!
On the day in question, Mrs. Stewart was found on the floor of an inner room of the office by a doctor from a neighboring office. She had taken belladonna to end her life and was taken immediately to the Brokaw Hospital. No motive for her attempt was given.
Dr. P. L. Stewart was listed as a physician in the Corn Belt Building in the city directory of 1909, but their residence was not listed.
In February, 1910 the question of motivation was answered to my satisfaction. Mrs. Corinne Stewart filed for a divorce, citing the infidelity of Dr. Pierre Stewart as grounds. The co-respondent (the person with whom Dr. Stewart was unfaithful) was even named -- Dolly Green. This was not their first go round in the divorce court. Corinne and Pierre had first married on March 26, 1903 and were divorced on October 1, 1905. Dr. Stewart then promised to treat her better and on November 5, 1905, the two were married again. But on Christmas Day in 1909 Mrs. Stewart became convinced that Dr. Stewart was once again unfaithful, and she left their home. The couple had one child, a boy who had been born blind. Corinne Stewart requested custody of her son and support from her husband, who sometimes made as much as $200 in a month. Whether she received maintenance from Dr. Stewart is not known, but the next two census reports indicate that Dr. Stewart did not work as a doctor after he returned to his home state of Indiana, adding to the mystery of Dr. Stewart. Did he lose his license to practice medicine because of moral turpitude?
So in two articles of the Pantagraph, we have the story of the sad marriage of Corinne and Pierre. Corinne had tried, despite betrayals, to make the marriage a success. Possibly she persisted for the sake of her little boy, Sidney. (The photo to right was added to the Findagrave website.) Pierre remarried twice (his second wife died, and she wasn't the notorious Dolly Green) and had one more child. Corinne married again, in 1915, to Joseph Arthur Devereaux. Sidney lived with them and took the name Devereaux, giving that name to his wife and two children. He worked in 1930 as a switchboard assembler and in 1940 as a janitor in Chicago. It is a little difficult to understand what sort of janitor a blind man could be, but Sidney looks like a happy person in this photo with his banjo.