Belle Charlotte (Grosse) Trenholm (1893 - 1966)

Born 15 Dec 1893 in New York City, New York, United States

Died 24 Mar 1966 at age 72 in Tacoma, Pierce, Washington, United States

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Biography

Belle Charlotte Grosse was born in NYC in December 1893. Her parents were immigrants Adolph August Gross[e] from Germany, and Karoline "Carrie" Kohn/Cohn from Bohemia (Czech territory, then part of Austro-Hungary, with pockets of majority ethnic German population). Adolph and Carrie had migrated independently, and were married in NYC in April 1891. Belle was the second child and first daughter of the couple. Her older brother Milton was born in January 1892.^[1]

Belle had six siblings. Between the birth of the youngest two, William in February 1902, and Paul in February 1904, the family relocated to Pierce County, Washington State. In 1909 Belle was listed as a waitress in Tacoma, living at 1219 South I, with her father and brother Milton.^[2] In the 1910 census, much of the family was living at a poultry farm at Lakebay, WA, although Belle was working as a maid in Seattle on census day.^[3] The 1910 Seattle directory indicates Belle had also been working as an office receptionist, and living at the YWCA.^[4]

In October 1910, 31-year-old Beauchamp Pinder arrived in Seattle.^[5] Some time between then and March 1911, a relationship developed between him and Belle, whose 17th birthday occurred in December.^[6] Beauchamp had been separated from his short-term, headline-making wife Marie Mayo since at latest April 1910.^[7] The pair made their way to San Francisco in the spring of 1911, in part to settle Beauchamp's divorce, and their exploits made the papers.^[8] Belle had been slyly listed at an Oakland hotel as Beachamp's wife, and this fact featured in newspaper reports of the divorce proceedings.

Although Beauchamp's divorce was granted, it appears he and Belle never married. Their son Alwyne was born at Lakebay, WA in December 1911. Belle's 18th birthday occurred just two weeks later.

Beauchamp was a mining engineer, assayer, and gold prospector, and his work took him through various parts of his native British Columbia, Alaska, and the Yukon Territory. Subsequent to Alwyne's birth, Beauchamp began working in Juneau, where his brother Frank had already established himself. Belle and Alwyne primarily remained in Washington while Beauchamp worked in Alaska through 1914.^[9] From summer 1914 through spring 1915 the three lived in Prince Rupert, BC, where they purported to be a married couple with child.^[10] Beauchamp returned to Juneau for about a year to work as an assayer, and then in summer 1916, mid-WWI, he entered a local militia at Victoria, BC.^[11] In February 1917, Beauchamp entered the US from Victoria with his destination contact listed as wife Belle Pinder, Seattle, and $400 in his pocket.^[12] This appears to be the last documented contact between the pair.

It remains unclear how and why Belle and Beauchamp's relationship ended.

At San Francisco In April 1919, at age 25, Belle married one George Macbeth Trenholm, Jr, a sailmaker about to be discharged from the US Naval Reserve.^[13] George's ship, the USS Marblehead (C-11) had returned from the Caribbean to Mare Island in February.^[14] It's likely the pair had met prior to this period, given that George's ship had been most recently re-commissioned at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in April 1917.

Belle established herself in Southern California,^[15][16] while George was off working (or playing) on various merchant ships.^[17] It is unclear whether Alwyne was with Belle during this period. In 1924 Belle successfully obtained a divorce. Citing reports from the American consulate that George was deceased overseas, she found he was actually alive and well in Central America. His lack of communication and support over those months and years constituted desertion in the eyes of the court, so a divorce was granted.^[15]

At Long Beach Belle had worked as a real estate broker, but by 1925 she and Alwyne had moved to New York City, where she worked as an insurance broker.^[18][19]

By 1930 Belle had returned to Seattle, where she lived with her brother Albert Grosse,^[20] while son Alwyne lived with other Grosse relatives and attended the University of Washington.^[21]

By the mid 1930s both Belle and Alwyne had traveled through and remained in Asia, in Alwyne's case at least partly motivated by retracing the steps of his great grandfather George Rideout Pinder.^[22] Belle had been living in Kobe and Beijing (then known as Peiping),^[23] and later Tokyo and Shanghai, at times living with Alwyne in Japan.^[24] During this period she was associated with future diplomat George H. Kerr, who was a student in Japan.^[25] The tensions leading up to WWII led Belle to return to the US in early 1939,^[26] where she listed her address as "[c/o] Sister Mrs. Florence Hager, 1724 SE 57th Ave, Portland, OR". Shortly thereafter Belle applied for a social security number, giving her full name as Belle Charlotte (Gross) Trenholm [sic].

Nothing is known publicly about Belle's activities through WWII and immediately afterward. By 1949 she was living in New York City again,^[27] and associated with one Max von Gerlach, apparently the man who inspired Fitzgerald's character Jay Gatsby.^[28]

Belle Charlotte Trenholm passed away in spring 1966,^[29] and was cremated.^[30]

Sources

1. ↑ US Census 1900, Manhattan, NY, District 1, Enumeration 718, Sheet 16
2. ↑ Polk's Tacoma Directory, 1909, page 378
3. ↑ US Census 1910, Seattle, District 1, Enumeration 157, Sheet 9A
4. ↑ Polk's Seattle Directory, 1910, page 686
5. ↑ US Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, Declaration of Intention, No. 641-J, filed August 18, 1913, at Juneau
6. ↑ "Seeks Divorce From Engineer", Oakland Tribune, March 17, 1911, page 16
7. ↑ "Marie Mayo Pinder In Reno", Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 7, 1910, page 3
8. ↑ "Pinder's Presence Of Mind", Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1911
9. ↑ "Frank Connelly Dies On Trail", Alaska Daily Empire, March 24, 1914
10. ↑ US Department of Labor, Immigration Service, List or Manifest of Alien Passengers Applying For Admission [Canada], Victoria, BC, April 1915, Sheet 12
11. ↑ Listings, Victoria Daily Colonist, November 8, 1916
12. ↑ US Immigration Manifest Card, Serial No. 424-97-30
13. ↑ City And County of San Francisco, Certificate Of Marriage, April 5, 1919, Reg No. 1398
14. ↑ US Citizen Seaman's Identification Application, San Francisco, May 19, 1919, No 7193
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1} "Widow's Weeds of 'Dead' Sailor Turned To Grass", Los Angeles Times, August 5, 1924, page 23
16. ↑ Los Angeles Voters List, 1924, lists Mrs. Belle Trenholm, real estate agent, living at 3998 Trinity Street
17. ↑ e.g. Stowaway card, Nor. Korsfjord, April 17, 1921, bound for Cuba
18. ↑ "70-Year-Old Romeo, Of 1,000 Love Notes, Warned By Court", New York Daily News, August 7, 1925, page 111
19. ↑ 1924-1925 Yearbook for McKinley Junior High School, New York City, contains the following: I can imagine myself all over the world in the library, my classroom. -- Alwyne Pinder, A7
20. ↑ US Census 1930, Seattle City, District 2, Enumeration 17-202, Sheet 35A
21. ↑ US Census 1930, Seattle City, District 2, Enumeration 17-84, Sheet 29A
22. ↑ Pinder, Alwyne Compton, Annals Of The Sea, 1961, Tokyo News Service, inside rear cover, reads, ..in order to retrace the adventurous steps of his paternal great-grandfather in Arabia, India, China and Japan.
23. ↑ Japan Chronicle Weekly Edition, April 22, 1937, Mrs. B. Trenholm, American writer who spent some time last year in Kobe, has left Peiping and gone to Sansenpo, Korea, for a few months.
24. ↑ Japan Advertiser, February 1, 1939: Mrs. B. Trenholm, Shanghai newspaperwoman and former Tokyo resident, was in Tokyo Monday on her way back home [to] America. After visiting her son, Mr. A. C. Pinder, and seeing a number of friends, she left aboard the [Canadian Pacific] liner Empress of Japan.
25. ↑ Okinawa Prefecture Archives, George H. Kerr collection, ref. GHK4E01004, contains correspondence with Belle Trenholm
26. ↑ US Department of Labor, Immigration Service, List of United States Citizens landing at Victoria, BC, Empress of Japan, February 11, 1939:
27. ↑ "Wide-Eyed Little 'Buster' Back From Shanghai War", Eugene Guard, April 26, 1948, page 12
28. ↑ Kruse, H. H, F. Scott Fitzgerald at Work: The Making of "The Great Gatsby, 2014, University Alabama Press
29. ↑ Washington State Archives, Department of Health, Death Certificates, July 1, 1907-1962, 1964-1996 - Belle - Trenholm, https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/DigitalObject/Download/e71a1dcf-6087-4e3c-96ca-09fb0b66f7bc
30. ↑ Burial Records, Gig Harbor Church, Rev. Paul . V. Neel, March 24, 1966