Dorothy Marion Alderton — She was born in Oct., 1889, in New York to Henry A. Alderton and Marion Starr Alderton, the eldest of three children. She was a student at Stanford University from 1908-1912. On Sept. 17, 1912, when a senior at Stanford, she married Herbert Anthony Kellar of Peoria, Illinois, at her parents’ Palo Alto home, with Rev. Clarence Reed, the minister of the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto, officiating. The couple moved to Wisconsin, and then to Chicago, where Herbert worked at the McCormick Agricultural Library. They had one son, James, who died c. 1922. Dorothy was diagnosed with “dementia praecox” — what might be diagnosed as schizophrenia today — around 1924. She was institutionalized, and by 1930 Herbert was living with the woman he would eventually marry as his second wife. Herbert obtained a divorce in Reno, Nevada, on Nov. 8, 1934, but he continued correspondence with Dorothy’s mother Marion up to 1942, the year Dorothy died of cancer.
Marion Starr (Decker) Alderton — She was born in Aug., 1865, in Brooklyn, New York. In 1885, she married Henry Arnold Alderton, a physician; they lived in Berlin in 1890-91 while Henry studied at the University of Berlin. They made their home in Brooklyn, but when Dorothy entered Stanford in 1908, Marion, with her two other children, move to Mayfield with her. Henry, Sr., moved to California in 1912, and took up painting.
Marion withdrew from the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto in June, 1920, in protest against “the attitude taken” by the church in the First World War; the church had a pacifist minister, William E. Short, Jr., in 1916-1917, who resigned to work for a pacifist organization in San Francisco; but by 1918, the church had hired a pro-war minister, F=Bradley Gilman, and had voted to display a U.S. flag on the pulpit. The church’s turn towards a pro-war stand may have been simply pragmatic, since the church received significant financial assistance from the American Unitarian Association, and since the A.U.A. made it a condition of receiving such aid that churches must declare their support of the First World War; however, the church always included both anti-war (e.g., Prof. Guido Marx) and pro-war (e.g., Prof. Melville B. Anderson) members.
By 1924, her daughter Dorothy was diagnosed with schizophrenia; see Dorothy M. Alderton above. Henry, Sr., died c. 1931; Marion died after 1940.
Update: See revised biographies in the second comment below.
Marion was my great grandmother and you’ve got a lot of information wrong about the family.
Shelley Hanan, thank you for letting me know there are errors. Since I wrote this post, I did more research — see below for a more accurate version. If you see errors in the material below, please let me know.
ALDERTON, HENRY ARNOLD, SR. — A physician, he was born on December 28, 1863, in Manhattan, N.Y. He received his M.D. from Columbia University in 1885, and eventually became an aural surgeon at Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital. He married Marion Starr Decker in Brooklyn on March 10, 1885. They lived in Germany in 1890-91 while Henry studied at the University of Berlin. Marion and Henry had four children: Dorothy Marion (b. Oct. 6, 1889), Barbara (b. June 22, 1892), Roger Decker (b. Dec. 30, 1893, d. Sept. 17, 1895), and Henry Arnold, Jr. (b. June 12, 1896).
The family initially made their home in Brooklyn, but when Dorothy entered Stanford in 1908, Marion moved to Mayfield with Dorothy, as well as with Barbara and Henry Jr. In 1912, Henry, Sr., finally retired and moved to California, where he began painting seriously. He studied art at the San Francisco Institute of Art, with Armin Hansen and M. DeNeale Morgan in Carmel, Calif., and also in Pasadena. He specialized in plein-air painting, and his work is in the style of the Post-Impressionists.
He was credited with financial contributions to the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto beginning about 1906, but it’s not clear to what extent he was involved with the life of the church.
Henry spent a year painting in Spain and Portugal in 1920-1921. His daughter Dorothy was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1926, and came to live with her parents, but was soon institutionalized. Henry and Marion traveled to Hawai’i so he could paint in 1927-1928. He died on September 30, 1930.
Notes: 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 U.S. Census; New York City Births, 1846-1909; New York City Marriages, 1829-1940; “Henry Alderton, Sr.,” askART website http://www.askart.com/artist_bio/Henry_Arnold_Alderton_Sr/ 4721/Henry_Arnold_Alderton_Sr.aspx# accessed Aug. 7, 2020.
ALDERTON, MARION STARR DECKER — She was born on August 27, 1865, in Buffalo, New York. By 1870, she was in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her father Andrew, her mother Martha, and her older sister Florence. Her father was financially comfortable enough that he did not have to work.
She married Henry Arnold Alderton, a physician, in Brooklyn on March 10, 1885. Together they had four children: Dorothy Marion (b. Oct. 6, 1889), Barbara (b. June 22, 1892), Roger Decker (b. Dec. 30, 1893, d. Sept. 17, 1895), and Henry Arnold, Jr. (b. June 12, 1896). Marion, Henry, and Barbara lived in Germany in 1890-91 while Henry studied at the University of Berlin.
The family made their home in Brooklyn, until Dorothy entered Stanford University in 1908. Marion accompanied Dorothy to California, and lived in Mayfield with Dorothy, Barbara, and Henry Jr. In 1912, Henry, Sr., retired, joined his family in Mayfield, and took up painting. All three surviving children went through Stanford: Dorothy left Stanford in 1912, Barbara graduated in 1916, and Henry, Jr., graduated in 1919.
Marion was one of the eleven charter members of the Women’s Alliance of the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto on October 21, 1905. She became a member of the church on November 19, 1905. She was chair of the Music Committee in 1915-1916. Along with Alice Locke Park, Marion withdrew from the church in June, 1920, in protest against “the attitude taken” by the church in the First World War.
Marion was involved with a number of community and activist organizations. During the First World War, she helped support imprisoned conscientious objectors. When Alice Park gained permission to visit conscientious objectors imprisoned in Alcatraz, Marion went with her to visit Philip Grosser who was imprisoned there. In 1921, Marion served as Vice President of the Palo Alto Branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). She was also an Esperantist, advocating the use of the most famous of constructed languages.
Her son Henry, Jr., went on to have a successful career as a high-way engineer, and her daughter Barbara was a librarian before getting married. Her daughter Dorothy, however, was diagnosed with schizophrenia somewhere around 1924; her husband was unable to care for her, and Dorothy lived with with her parents for a short time before being institutionalized in 1926.
Marion’s husband Henry, Sr., took painting very seriously, studying under a number of California artists. In 1920-1921, he spent a year painting in Spain and Portugal, and Marion accompanied him, taking time to telegraph her greetings to the Third International Congress of Women when it met in Vienna in July, 1921. Marion also accompanied Henry when he went to Hawai’i in 1927-1928 to paint.
Henry died on September 30, 1930. Marion’s daughter Barbara died the next year, in 1931, soon after giving birth. In 1940, Marion was living alone in Palo Alto. Then in 1942, her daughter Dorothy, still living in the mental institution, died of cancer there.
In 1942, Marion attended the national convention of the Greenback Party in Indianapolis, Ind. The Greenback Party had been active in the nineteenth century, then faded away, and by 1942 was little more than a fringe political party that proposed to print more paper money to erase the national debt.
Marion died on January 10, 1960. Although she had cut formal ties to Unitarianism forty years earlier, her family asked Rev. Dan Lion, minister of the Palo Alto Unitarian Church, successor to the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto, to officiate at her memorial service on January 13, 1960.
Notes: 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 U.S. Census; N.Y. State Census, 1875; New York, New York City Marriages, 1829-1940; Helen Botsford Faucher, Botsford Genealogy, Botsford Family As-soc./Gateway Press, 1977; Alumni Directory, Stanford University, 1921; Memoir by Phillip Grosser, ed. Peter Brock, “These Strange Criminals”: An Anthology of Prison Memoirs by Conscientious Objectors from the Great War to the Cold War, University of Toronto Press, 2004, p. 164; “Report of the Third International Congress of Women, Vienna, July 10-17, 1921,” Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 1921, p. 23; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 5, 1930, p. 17; Barrett Watten (Marion’s great-grandson), “Archive 08: Message @ Destination,” blog post Oct. 25, 2020 barrettwatten.net/texts/ar chive-08-message-destination/2020/10/ accessed Oct. 5, 2021; “Henry Arnold Alderton, Jr.,” John William Leonard, Who’s Who in Engineering, 1922-1923, Brooklyn, N.Y.: John W. Leonard Corp., 1922; Indianapolis Times, Nov. 25, 1942, p. 3; “Palo Alto Unitarian Church: Records of Religious Ceremonies from Sept. 1, 1949.”
CALLEY, BARBARA ALDERTON — A librarian with a degree in German, she was born in New York on June 22, 1893. In 1909-1910, when a high school student, she was one of the “assistants” or teachers in the Sunday school of the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto. She joined the church as a member on December 25, 1909. She made regular financial contributions to the church through 1916, after which her account has the notation “subscription discontinued.” She was listed in the 1919 parish directory, and she appears on the 1926 “List of Resident Members.”
She received an A.B. in German from Stanford University in May, 1916. In 1920, she was living with her parents, and for the U.S. Census stated she was a self-employed photographer; however on a pass-port application that same year, she gave her occupation as stenographer.
She was secretary to the librarian of the Mechanics Institute Library in San Francisco. In 1923, she was working as a cataloguer at Stanford University; at this time, Helen Sutliff was the head of the catalog division, and Ruth Steinmetz was also working as a cataloger.
She married Ernest Reginald Perrier Calley, a native of England, on March 8, 1924; his first wife had died in 1918 after a year of marriage. In 1930 Barbara and Ernest were living in Carmel with a son, Douglas E. (b. Aug. 4, 1928), and Ernest was teaching in the public schools. Their daughter Marcia was born and died October 1, 1931, in San Jose; Barbara died the same day. By 1940, Douglas was living with Ernest in Carmel.
Notes: 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 U.S. Census; Helen Botsford Faucher, Botsford Genealogy, Botsford Family Assoc./Gateway Press, 1977; Alumni Directory, Stanford University, 1921, 1931; Annual Report of the President, Stanford University, 1923, p. 224; United States passport applications, Cert. no. 95000-95375 September 28-29, 1920 (NA-RA Series M1490, Roll 1370); Entry for Marcia Calley, Pedigree Re-source File, familysearch.org/ark:/ 61903/2:2:SYDL-9KW accessed Aug. 17 2019, file (2:2:2:MM78-RB3) submitted 14 May 2011.
KELLAR, DOROTHY MARION ALDERTON — A housewife who had to be institutionalized for mental illness, she was born in October 6, 1889, in New York, daughter of Henry A. Alderton and Marion Starr Alderton, the eldest of four children.
Dorothy joined the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto with her mother, Marion, on November 19, 1905, at age 16. She was a student at Stanford University from 1908-1912. On September 17, 1912, she married Herbert Anthony Kellar of Peoria, Illinois, at her parents’ Palo Alto home, with Rev. Clarence Reed of the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto officiating.
The couple moved to Wisconsin, and then to Chicago, where Herbert worked at the McCormick Agricultural Library. They had one son, James, who died c. 1922. Dorothy was diagnosed with “dementia praecox”—what would be called schizophrenia today — around 1924. Her condition evidently deteriorated over the next year or two, the such an extent that her husband was no longer able to live with her, so she went to live with her parents in 1926.
Although her mother had cut her ties to the Unitarian Church, after returning to Palo Alto Dorothy became a member of the Women’s Alliance of the Unitarian Church in May, 1926, and gave her address as her parents’ house at 915 Channing Ave. Her name also appears on the 1926 “List of Resident Members”; however, on the copy of the list that remains in the extant church records, hers is the only name that has a line drawn through it, probably because she was quickly institutionalized .
She was placed in a mental institution, to use the term then current, in 1926 or 1927. By 1930, Herbert was living with the woman he would eventually marry as his second wife. Herbert obtained a divorce in Reno, Nevada, on November 8, 1934, but he continued to correspond with Dorothy’s mother Marion up to 1942, the year Dorothy died of cancer.
Notes: 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 U.S. Census; Helen Botsford Faucher, Botsford Genealogy, Botsford Family Assoc./Gateway Press, 1977; Former students of the University of Texas, The Alcalde, vol. II, Dec., 1913, p. 203; Wisconsin Historical Society, “Herbert Kellar Papers, 1887-1955,” Archival Sources in Wisconsin: Descriptive Finding Aids, digicoll.library. wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;cc=wiarchives;q1=McCor mick;rgn=main;view=text;didno=uw-whs-mcc000ac, accessed Dec. 9, 2016.