After years of searching & speculating, I think we've (two cousins and I) have finally cracked what might be considered a brick wall. Whether you want to call it a brick wall could certainly be debatable, as the information that we lacked never kept us from researching generations further back, but certainly kept us in the dark about the eternal "why?".
Why the load of philosophical rambling? Well, as it has been for as long as I can remember, the easy part was defining the problem. In this case: why did my great-grandfather, who was born David West Wolfe in Lewes, DE, change his name to Charles Everett Clinton?
As with any 'why' question there are quite a number of facts that have to be examined, which I have done extensively here, here, and . . . here
A summary of those examinations you ask? Certainly . . . while using his birth name, David W. Wolfe married Rebecca Belle Crenshaw (Belle) in 1898 in Bonita, Montague Co, TX. Belle was 20 years his junior. Between 1898 and David's death in 1942 in Los Angeles, they moved no fewer than 13 times (and those are the ones we know about), living in states as far apart as California, Arkansas, and Kansas, and many in between. The moves were not easy, 1) because they were often cross-country--think multiple moves to & from CA; 2) because between 1899 and 1920, they had 13 children, 9 of whom lived to adulthood. Sometime in or slightly before 1904, David most likely changed the name as Charles Everett Clinton, Jr. was born and you can't very well have a 'Jr.' without a 'Sr.' as an eponym. Great-grandpa David/Charles was a butcher.
Thus the 'why?'
The possible explanations that I grew up hearing started with (from earliest to latest): Explanation 1) Great-grandpa changed his name because there was a criminal with his same name and he didn't want the authorities bothering him again. Explanation 2) Great-grandpa was trying to evade an ex-wife - courtesy of his son, Uncle Howard. And Explanation 3) Great-grandpa was in fact a criminal himself--my supposition, but in my mind, being creative as I am, I saw him as 'the butcher' rather than simply 'a butcher', gallivanting across country to cover up a string of serial killings and never actually getting caught (I was about 18 when I came up with the murder part), but the thought that he might have been another type of criminal was always the more likely scenario as a part of the third explanation.
However, life seldom presents anything as grand as we imagine, and ironically enough, it turns out that 2 of the 3 explanations were, at least in part, true. Almost as if Great-grandpa were playing a version of 2 truths and a lie or more appropriately, we were creating one for him.
1) False
2) True. Great-grandpa, as David W. Wolfe, married a woman named Fannie Johnson (of Delaware). With her he had 2 children, William & Margaret, both of whom married and had children, so there may be cousins through David/Charles who still have the Wolfe name. (Ironically, William and his family, followed by Fannie had relocated to Montana by 1920 and William's wife and 2 of their children were in San Diego, California by 1930, perhaps in search of our elusive progenitor).
3) True . . . ish. Great-grandpa was a criminal, more appropriately a debtor (which in England would have landed him in debtors prison, so true after a fashion), and I'm waiting on more details on this from my cousins with whom I'm working. But one of them has found newspaper articles showing that the courts in Delaware repossessed his property in payment of his debt.
So . . . there you have it. Not an answer for why he chose Clinton, which we probably will never know. Not nearly as glamorous as 20+ years of searching (yes, I actually remember talking about this as a 5 year old when we visited Uncle Howard) would have led you to believe it might be. But an answer nonetheless and one that I'm elated to have found.
The funny thing is, now that I've found out 'why' . . . what do I do next?
As long as this is, please know that I can go into much more detail if you want, or if you want to see some of the details of the documents.
Now, about those Delaware Wolfes . . . all those Reeces (and I don't mean the candy).
Happy Hunting!
AFN
DCC
19 May 2010
Athens, Georgia
