Stollen*, Anyone?

  Ah yes- German fruitcake with nuts...A more fitting description of August Allenspacker is hard to find. James August Allenspacker was born in New York to (Johann) Nepomuk and Sophia Allenspacker on August 28, 1864. He found a (presumably) nice girl named Mary Mulvey, and married her in September 1887. Little is known of their life together, except that they lived in Dedham, MA and had a daughter named Eleanor Vincent.
  At some point before July 1907, they separated, possibly divorced, and he went to Maine. While he was there, he met, wooed, and won Catherine Hurley, a Canadian born Irish girl who spoke mainly French.  They were married July 13, 1907, and had Clayton John on October 1st of that year.  They had 4 children between 1907 and 1918, all born in Maine- Clayton (1907), Theodore (1912), Pauline (1914), and Catherine (1918). By the time the 1920 US census rolled around, they were living in Dedham. 
 Here is where we depart certified fact and enter the land of family legend...
It has been passed down that shortly after arriving in Dedham, Catherine was at the local market doing her grocery shopping, when she overheard some local gossip. The only words she could understand were "August" and "other wife" (or possibly "second wife"). Understandably upset, she went home and confronted him about what she had heard. No one seems to know the content of that conversation, but the result may well have been scandalous- he had her committed to Medfield State Hospital, where she would spend the rest of her life.
  Of the children, we know that Clayton and Teddy stayed with their father, as they were 'old enough' to be put to work. Catherine and Pauline were taken in by members of the local Lutheran church, who took pity on the girls.  Teddy spent most, if not all, of his adult life in and out of the state facility in Wrentham, in treatment for alcoholism. As far as I have been able to discern, he never married. Clayton, Pauline, and Catherine all married and had families. 
  I like to think they all lived 'happily ever after', but if they did, I wouldn't have so many stories to share : )






*Stollen is a rich, sweet, yeast bread filled with dried fruit and nuts and often marzipan and dusted with confectioner’s sugar. Germany’s answer to “fruitcake”, Stollen has been made in Germany since 1329.