Two Accounts

I have only recently begun to put together the stories my mother told me about her early life, evidently made up by her relatives to spare her the truth, and the reality as published in the newspaper.
The true story has become available due to Internet Access to the Archives of the Brooklyn Eagle. I am grateful to be able to uncover this. It explains a lot for me. I am also grateful my mother died before I found these articles. I’m glad she was spared.

The story my mother told me:
“My mother met my father in a bowling alley. He was engaged to someone else at the time. She was determined to have him. They were married at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights. My mother wore black, to be different.”

Brooklyn Eagle: March 3, 1895
SCHREINER--- MORAN
A quiet Lenten wedding took place Friday evening at the Church of the Messiah, Green and Clermont Avenues, when Miss Edith Moran of 402 Washington avenue was united in marriage to Mr. S. Van B. Schreiner of this city. There were present the bride’s mother who gave her away, Mrs. E. F. Kretzschmar, her grandmother, Mrs. E. C. Lewis; her sister, Miss Ethel Moran; Mrs. Leeds and Mr. Will Watts, who acted as best man. The bride and groom left for an extended wedding tour in the South.

“My mother and father went to Europe on their wedding trip. I was born in Wiesbaden at Great Aunt Sarah’s house. They wrapped me in an American flag so that I would be a citizen.”

“My mother made my father sell the West India Company Stock he had inherited from his Uncle. She didn’t want her husband ‘in trade’. Then the babies started coming. She was pregnant with her third child and she didn’t have enough money. She told my father to go to Holland and buy the stock back. She was so upset while he was gone that her sister and cousins came over and got her drunk. It didn’t help.”
“When my Father got to Holland they laughed at him.”

The story told by the Brooklyn Eagle:

THE BOGUS CHECK TRICK
___________
Said to have been worked by Schreiner
___________
Arrested in Virginia on Complaint of the Clarendon Hotel Proprietors
Well Connected in Brooklyn

Brooklyn Eagle, December 7, 1897, pp. 4.
Detective Sergeant Roche of the headquarters squad and George D Clum, a clerk of the Clarendon Hotel left town last night for Suffolk, Va., to claim as a prisoner S. V. B. Schreiner, alias Vernon Webb, who was arrested in Suffolk at the request of Superintendent McKelvey on a charge of having obtained money from the proprietors of the Clarendon hotel by means of a bogus check. It is not at all unlikely that when Schreiner is brought to trial here will be a number of complaints against him.
Schreiner dresses well and has good manners. He married a stepdaughter of the late Dr. Paul Kretzschmar, once supervisor-at-large. According to the police, the wife soon separated from Schreiner, and is now living with her mother.
Superintendent McKelvey said today that on the strength of his associations on the hill the young man had been successful in passing checks on merchants who, under other conditions, would have been more conservative in their dealings.
The action against the accused was brought by the proprietors of the Clarendon Hotel. He had been living there in style until the hotel people began pressing him for his bill. He disappeared from the city on September. After having induced the clerk at the hotel to give him a receipted bill for $43.15, the amount of his indebtedness and $20.47 in cash in exchange for a check for $63.62, drawn on the Sprague National Bank, it was alleged by R. C. Tucker & Co., to the order of S. V. B. Schreiner. The check was sent to the bank and was returned indorsed “no account”. When the hotel authorities began to look for the young man they found that he had disappeared. The case was given to the police. The local authorities traced him from place to place and finally located him in Suffolk. Va..
Schreiner appeared first in Suffolk on November 8, with letters of introduction to former Mayor Pinner. He was well introduced and seemed to prosper until work came from this city that he was wanted. Then he was placed under arrest, protesting in the meanwhile that he was not the man who was sought for by the local police. He had been selling stock for the Mutual Building and Loan association of Richmond, Va. When arrested he had only 1 cent in his possession and he owed four weeks board at the Commercial Hotel of Suffolk.

Special to The Post
The Washington Post (1877-1954); Dec. 8, 1896; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post,(1877-1990) pg. 8
GAY AND CLEVER, BUT A FORGER.

S. V. B. Shriner (sic), Alias Vernon Webb, Was a Social Favorite at Suffolk,
Special to the Post.
Suffolk, Va., Dec 7-- Detective Sergeant James H. Roche, of Brooklyn, arrived today and took charge of S. V. B. Schriner, alias Vernon Webb, who was yesterday arrested on the charge of forgery. Schriner agreed to go without requisition papers. He is accused of flashing bogus checks on the Clarendon and St. George Hotels and several mercantile firms in Brooklyn, where he was once a prosperous broker.
Sergeant Roche says Schriner’s pretty young wife, whose father was Dr. Kretchmaur (sic), former supervisor-at-large in Brooklyn, has a monthly income of $500. Owing to her husband’s love of wine women and sporting life Mrs. Schriner doesn’t live with him any more. Webb, as he was known here, passed as a single man, and his arrest will leave a void in several girls’ hearts. The choir of the First Baptist Church will miss him, too. Schriner was versatile as well as clever.

Brooklyn Eagle Tuesday Dec. 8, 1896; page 14
SCHRINER SANG IN THE CHOIR
The Fugitive Was Making an Effort to Be Good,
SAYS HE HAD REFORMED
The Local Police Got on His Trail for Passing Bogus Checks in This City and Tracked Him to Virginia, Where He Was Making a Fine Reputation. Married a stepdaughter of the Late Dr. Paul Kretzschmar.

When Detective Sergeant Roche of the headquarters squad reached Suffolk, Va., yesterday in his quest for S. V. B Shriner, alias Vernon Webb, who was wanted in this city on a charge of having obtained money dishonestly by means of bogus checks, he found that the clever young man had so ingratiated himself in the good opinion of the people of Suffolk that no less than three clergymen were interested in him and were willing to declare that he was a much abused man. Schriner is a very clever person. He is well educated, well bred and a very bright young businessman. His marriage to a daughter of the widow of the late Dr. Paul Kretzschmar took place at the Hotel St. George about three years ago. It was in a sense a runaway match and the mother of the bride was very indignant and left the hotel where she had been boarding with her family, angry because she thought that Captain Tumbridge, the proprietor, had know of the engagement and had not told her of it.


There are four complaints against the prisoner. He had resolved to leave the town early in September and, it is alleged, on the day that he left Brooklyn, September 5 last, he placed five of the worthless checks that he had drawn on the Sprague bank. The victims were Balch, Price and Co., the Hotel St George, the Clarendon Hotel, a grocer named Indig and Journeay and Burnham. The latter firm has not as yet made a complaint. When Schreiner had collected all the money he could get he went directly to Richmond, Virginia where he applied to E. B. Thaw, the officer in charge of the agencies of the Mutual Guarantee Building and Loan Association, for employment. He was boarding then with a man named Pierce and he had been in his house but three days.
"I'd like to hire you," said Mr. Thaw, "but I must have references."
"Do you want a man with references or a hustling business man from New York?" Said Schreiner, who introduced himself as Vernon Webb.
The reply pleased Mr. Thaw and he went no further, but engaged Vernon Webb on the spot. He said to the detective yesterday that the young man's business methods were perfect and he proved a model agent. Webb established branches for the company in Covington, Stanton, Norfolk and Suffolk, and they all flourished. He went to Suffolk on the 8th of last month, put up at the Commercial hotel and made many friends in the town. He had been in the habit of drinking, unfortunately, but he gave up that bad habit, joined the Methodist Church of the town and as he was a remarkably good tenor singer, his services in the church choir as a soloist was an acquisition which the members were justly proud. What he did with his money is not exactly known, but the simple fact remains that, while he was making a good salary, he managed to run up a bill of something more than $38. at the hotel.
His arrest as S.V.B. Schreiner, on advises from Superintendent McKelvey, came as a shock to his friends. He denied that he was Schreiner and said to his friends in Suffolk that he would be able to clear himself. The arrival of the Brooklyn detective and the clerk of the Clarendon hotel, who had cashed his bogus check, took all the starch out of him and he relinquished all claims of innocence. When the detective visited him in jail Schreiner was entertaining no less than three clergymen who were interested in his case. When his identification was made complete he said that he was willing to return to 'Brooklyn without a requisition. He was arraigned at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon before Justice ---ia of Suffolk. The magistrate was unwilling to let him go without a requisition. The Detective said that he was anxious to catch the 4 pm train for the north. "Are you willing to go with me without a requisition?" he asked the prisoner.
"Yes," was the reply; "willing and anxious."
Thereupon he was discharged by the local magistrate and an hour later was on the train for New York. Prisoner, captor and witness reached the city this morning and one of the first persons to meet the fugitive was his wife. The greeting was most affectionate. Schreiner was taken before Justice Walsh, and his lawyer pleaded not guilty in his behalf. By his request hearing was postponed until the 16th inst. He went to jail pending negotiations for his release on bail which will be furnished by his wife. He says that he is glad to be back in Brooklyn.

New York Times file; Dec. 9, 1896, page 2



SCHRINER SANG IN THE CHOIR
The Fugitive Was Making an Effort to Be Good,
SAYS HE HAD REFORMED
The Local Police Got on His Trail for Passing Bogus Checks in This City and Tracked Him to Virginia, Where He Was Making a Fine Reputation. Married a stepdaughter of the Late Dr. Paul Kretzschmar.

When Detective Sergeant Roche of the headquarters squad reached Suffolk, Va., yesterday in his quest for S. V. B Shriner, alias Vernon Webb, who was wanted in this city on a charge of having obtained money dishonestly by means of bogus checks, he found that the clever young man had so ingratiated himself in the good opinion of the people of Suffolk that no less than three clergymen were interested in him and were willing to declare that he was a much abused man. Schriner is a very clever person. He is well educated, well bred and a very bright young business man. His marriage to a daughter of the widow of the late Dr. Paul Kretzschmar took place at the Hotel St. George about three years ago. It was in a sense a runaway match and the mother of the bride was very indignant and left the hotel where she had been boarding with her family, angry because she thought that Captain Tumbridge, the proprietor, had know of the engagement and had not told her of it.

New York Times file; Dec 9, 1896, page 2



Grandmother Goes Bail


Shreiner’s Wife Will Help Him

S. V. B. Schreiner, alias Vernon Webb, who is charged with swindling the Clarendon Hotel, in Brooklyn, was brought back to that city yesterday by Detective Sergeant Roche from Suffolk, Va. There are several complaints against Schreiner. He is a well-educated young man. About three years ago he married a daughter of Dr. Paul Kretschmar at the St. George Hotel. His wife met him upon his arrival in Brooklyn yesterday and gave him an affectionate greeting. She is wealthy in her own right, and has offered to settle a competency on him if he will give up his wild ways. Schreiner spent last night in Raymond Street Jail. His wife will furnish bail today.

Brooklyn Eagle; Monday Oct. 30, 1899
MRS. SCHREINER DIES OF CRIMINAL OPERATION
Made a Deathbed Confession Accusing Dr. Harvey, a Manhattan Practitioner.
CHARGES AGAINST HIM BEFORE
Coroner’s Jury Found Him Guilty of Malpractice on Another Brooklyn Woman Who Died.
Mrs. Edith Schreiner of 331 Park Place died this morning at her home from the result, the attending physician says, of a criminal operation performed, it is alleged, at 144 West Twenty-third Street, Manhattan. The case was reported to Coroner Burger by Dr. Charles H. Goodrich, who later swore to a complaint to the effect that Mrs. Schreiner had confessed to him that the operation which has made her so very ill, had been performed by a man calling himself Dr. Harvey, at the address mentioned. ---------------
The case is of more than usual interest, not only from the prominence of the victim, but because of the fact that it is only a short time since a young woman died in St. Catherine’s Hospital under similar conditions, who before her death identified “Dr. Harvey” as the man who had been responsible for her fatal illness.

“My father died when I was 9 years old,(1905). I didn’t know I had a father. Aunt Ethel dyed all my cloths black. He had been killed in a car crash in San Francisco. He had gone there to live with a friend from his School in Brooklyn. The friend said, “come out here and get a fresh start.” The Friend had one of the first cars in San Francisco and the breaks failed on one of the hills. They crashed and burned. The family of the Friend asked permission to bury them together in their family plot.”

When my mother was dying I said to her, “Mom, would you like to be buried with your mother?” I guess the question came out of my need to reconcile them.
“ Your father and I were never divorced. I want to be buried on top of him. I don’t want to be with my mother. She killed my brother.”

I have been unable to find and official account of my grandfather’s death. Now I understand why my mother and her sister had no contact with their father after their mother’s death. Her family probably cut him off socially and financially.