Wedding Bell Blues

Mary Elizabeth Lentz Protz – my paternal grand-mother

 Mary Elizabeth Lentz was the grandmother I never knew.  Born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, she was the 5th child and 3^rd daughter of William Lentz and Elizabeth Stoebener.   Mary was born on the 15^th of August, 1887 and her birth was followed by another five siblings, all male.  Mary attended St. Paul‘s German Evangelical Lutheran Church where she was a member of the choir.   Services at St. Paul’s     were in German and so we can assume that Mary spoke the “mother” language fluently.  A number of newspaper articles find Mary and her siblings involved in several community events, most often centered around the church. 

Mary found employment in one of Wilkes Barres many Lace Factories where she was eventually made a forewoman.  While being promoted to “forewoman” meant that Mary was a reliable and trustworthy worker, we can imagine that being a forewoman required her to spend much of her day on her feet, walking to and fro among the lace workers, supervising their work. 

Mary’s older brother, William, worked as a clerk in the downtown Kresge store.  We can imagine that this is where he met William C. Protz, who was also employed there.  W.C. (as he came to be known) had a brother, Charles Frederick who was also employed at the Lace Factory.  Perhaps the three young men became friends and spent free time together.  We don’t know the details but we know that W. C. eventually met our Mary.   The two became engaged and were married by Reverand Lindenstruth of St. Paul’s Church in the parlor of his home in December 1917. 

By this time, W.C. was working in the Milwaukee area for the National Tinsel Mfg. Co.  According to a newspaper article, he left Milwaukee rather suddenly and returned with his new wife, Mary.  The two settled down to begin their life together. Mary quickly became pregnant with their first son, William Frederick.  Shortly after the birth of William, Mary became pregnant again and soon delivered another son the couple named Robert Henry.  Although we don’t know for sure how the couple arrived at the names for these small tots, we do know that Mary had brothers named William, Robert and Henry.  The German custom at the time was to name the first born son after the fathers father.  W.C.’s father was named Augusta and as he was already deceased, it is possible that they named William for either Mary’s father, her brother (whom we suspect introduced the couple) or just because they liked the name.  The second son, Robert Henry was most likely named for two of her younger brothers. 

Whether it was the cold weather, W.C.’s business related travel, homesickness, or something else, W.C. and Mary filed for divorce less than three years after their marriage.   The divorce decree listed "desertion" as the reason for the split and Mary was “awarded” a $25,000 settlement which would be roughly $344,542.33 in todays’(2021) dollars.  The divorce made front page news in the January 1921 Manitowoc Pilot.                        .                                                

Mary moved to Detroit where her mother and some of her siblings had re-located.  W.C. remained in Milwaukee.  It is likely that Mary needed assistance in raising her two young sons as by this time, she was also suffering from consumption or Tuberculosis which her father had had.  She was not the only individual in her family to come down with the dread disease, her brother Albert also suffered the same malady.  Mary was eventually admitted to East Lawn Sanitarium where she died in 1934 at the age of 34, leaving her two small children in the care of her mother, Elizabeth, and her younger brother, Walter with whom she and the boys had been living.  Walter had a good job with a local bank and eventually became the bank President.  It was Walter who directed Oakland Cemetery to plant geraniums on the grave of his mother, Elizabeth, each spring.  Mary was interred nearby but within a crypt in the Mausoleum on the same grounds.

In 2013, my niece, Emily Protz Sontag and I made the trip to Detroit to visit various family related sites.  We found the house on Shaftsbury Street and because it was being remodeled, were able to enter and explore.  We were able to walk the grounds of East Lawn Sanitarium and while it has been torn down, it was easy to see and to imagine the attractiveness of the site.   We found Mary’s crypt and her mother, Elizabeth's grave in the Oakland Cemetery.  Emily, her great great grandchild, attached a butterfly to Elizabeth’s stone and we both laid a bouquet of baby’s breath at the base of Mary’s crypt.