Thriller Thursday: Charles Buise Embezzles Stake Money and Flees

Shortly before the 1892 wrestling match between D. S. McLeod and Joe Acton, Charles Buise deposited $250 with the Chronicle to secure a bet on McLeod, $1000 against $1100. Washington Marion, a traveling salesman,  gave Charles Buise $500 to bet on McLeod, and Buise secured a bet of $600 for him.

San Francisco Chronicle, 22 January 1892 

Prior to the match, there was suspicion that the contest would not be a fair one. McLeod won the match.

 The Morning Call (San Francisco, CA), 11 March 1892

Charles Buise was the proprietor of the Hot Scotch saloon on Morton Street in San Francisco. After he collected his winnings, he did not give Washington Marion his share of the money.  He sold his saloon to his bartender, and headed to Portland, Oregon, where his wife was working as a song and dance performer. He was captured there several months later and was brought back to San Francisco. He was charged with embezzlement and placed in the San Francisco City Prison, but was released on $3000 bond.

The Morning Call (San Francisco, CA), 1 July 1892

After getting out on bail, Charles Buise left the United States and returned to his home country, Canada. He went to Victoria, British Columbia. The winning wrestler, McLeod, was also from British Columbia; he came from Nanaimo. I wonder if this was coincidental, or if there was some connection. Charles Buise had been born and baptized in Quebec City, and had lived in Montreal before he came to San Francisco (and had allegedly passed a counterfeit bill there in 1887). Although an attempt was made to capture him in British Columbia, he escaped and went to Montreal. When he found out that his wife was cheating on him with actor Waldo Whipple, he tracked them down in Butte, Montana, where he shot them and then shot himself.

San Francisco Chronicle, 27 January 1893

Although the above article states that Waldo Whipple also died, he actually survived his injuries. 

Charles Buise was probably related to Elizabeth Buise, who married my 3rd-great-grandfather John Bennet Winters. But since his mother Margaret McGillivray's death notice was transcribed in the Winters family Bible and she was not Elizabeth Buise's mother, I wonder if he is also related to me. I have many black sheep in my family. Considering all of Charles Buise's misdeeds, I figure he must be my cousin!

Thriller Thursday: Charles Buise Shoots His Wife and Her Lover, Then Commits Suicide

On 25 January 1893, Charles Buise (the son of Margaret McGillivray, the "mystery woman" in the Winters family Bible) was responsible for a triple shooting in Butte, Montana. When Charles was away on a visit to Montreal, Canada, his wife, an actress known as Lillie Hampton, had run off with another actor, Waldo Whipple. The two actors had traveled from Spokane, Washington to Butte, Montana, where they were performing at the Theater Comique. Charles Buise tracked them down and went to their residence on West Mercury Street. He shot his wife in the arm. He shot Waldo Whipple in the chest, and the bullets entered his right lung. He then put the gun in his mouth, pulled the trigger, and committed suicide.

The tragedy was reported in many newspapers throughout the United States, with varying degrees of accuracy. Some of the reporters believed that Charles Buise was a stranger to the couple, and that the actors were married to each other; one believed that Buise must have been crazy. Some newspapers reported that Waldo Whipple would live; others reported that he could not live, or that he had died. Whipple survived the shooting and continued to perform as an actor.

Charles Buise's death certificate reports that he died on 28 January 1983. However, many reports of the incident were published on 26-27 January 1893. Perhaps the certificate was filled out a few days later and the wrong date was written down.

Certificate of death, Chas Buise. 28 January 1893. State of Montana, Bureau of Vital Statistics. Available from Montana, County Births and Deaths, 1840-2004. FamilySearch.

Salt Lake Herald, 26 January 1893, page 1

San Francisco Chronicle, 26 January 1893, page 4

St. Paul Daily Globe, 26 January 1893, page 8

 Daily Plainsman (Huron, SD), 27 January 1893, page 2

Ohio Democrat, 4 February 1893, page 3

52 Ancestors: Week 12 "Same": Alpha Madeline Boe

At first I was not sure which relative I wanted to feature for 52 Ancestors Week 12, "Same." But then I read Schalene Dagutis Jennings' Week 12 post about her relative who wrote a book on one of her ancestors and his descendants. I have a relative who did the same thing: Alpha Madeline Boe, my maternal grandfather's first cousin.

Alpha Madeline Boe was born on 12 November 1901 in Swift County, Minnesota. She was the daughter of Hans Adolph Boe (the brother of my great-grandfather John Boe) and Unni (or Eunice) Severina Saterlie. In 1905, she and her family lived on the Saterlie farm in Milan, Chippewa County, Minnesota. The family then moved to Williston, Williams County, North Dakota. In 1915, the family moved to Arnegard, McKenzie County, North Dakota. Alpha attended high school in Williston; she graduated from Williston High School in 1919. Alpha was enumerated twice in the 1920 United States census: once with her parents and siblings in St. Louis, Missouri, and once in Arnegard, as a boarder in the home of Walter and Josephine Robb. In both censuses, she was listed as a school teacher. She and her father were both listed in the 1920 Little Rock, Arkansas city directory as well. She taught intermediate grades for three years in Arnegard. She also taught in Montana.

She married Melvin Brodshaug in Arnegard on 27 December 1927. In 1928, the couple moved to New York City, where Melvin studied at Columbia University and received his Ph.D. Alpha worked at B. Altman and Co. and taught at Altman Continuation School. She and Melvin had two daughters.

Melvin worked for Erpi Classroom Films, which became Encyclopedia Britannica Films. Erpi moved from New York to Wilmette, Illinois in 1945. Alpha was on the Board of Deaconesses of the Congregational Church in Wilmette.

The family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1954, when Melvin became the Dean of the School of Public Relations, Boston University. Alpha was on the Council of the Old South Church. She did volunteer work at Boston City Hospital as a member of the Rotary Anns. She was a member of the Boston University Women's Council. She was a board member of the Boston University Women's Guild.

The Brodshaugs moved to Virginia for five years in the mid-1960s, after Melvin retired and became a communications consultant for Norfolk State College. They then moved back to Massachusetts and lived in Harwich Port, Barnstable County, on Cape Cod. Alpha and Melvin went into the production of educational sound filmstrips. Alpha belonged to the Pilgrim Service League of the Congregational Church in Harwich Port.

In 1973, Alpha and Melvin traveled to Bø, Telemark, Norway, where her (and my grandfather's) paternal grandparents had been born. They met with the local genealogist, Johannes Saga. They traveled to Bø again in 1976, along with one of their daughters and three of their grandchildren. They visited the house where her (and my grandfather's) grandfather and his ancestors had been born. They also visited the Otterholt house, where her (and my grandfather's) grandmother had lived.

Alpha and Melvin compiled the book Boe (Bø) and Halvorson-Otterholt; Shared Roots in Telemark, which was published in 1984. The book contained information about the ancestral families of her (and my grandfather's) paternal grandparents, Jorgen Boe and Aaste Halvorsdatter Otterholt, and also covered their descendants. Alpha and Melvin contacted family members and requested information. I remember providing information about myself for the book. I was in high school at the time. Although I did not start researching my family history until later, when my family received our copy of the book, I read it and was fascinated.

Alpha and Melvin compiled another book on her mother's side of the family: Saterlie – Fedje: Common Roots in Sogn. It was published in 1986. Melvin also published additional works on his family.

Alpha died on 4 December 1997. Her husband Melvin had died nine years earlier, on 18 May 1988.

In the acknowledgements at the beginning of Boe (Bø) and Halvorson-Otterholt; Shared Roots in Telemark, Melvin and Alpha wrote "Hopefully, some one will pick up the challenge and extend this genealogy both in breadth and depth." I think they would be pleased that I have continued to research the family.

 

Keiter Directory Co.'s Williston City and Williams County, North Dakota Directory, 1918-1919. Norfolk, Nebraska: Keiter Directory Co. Available from Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Alpha was living apart from the rest of her family while she attended high school.

References
Boe (Bø) and Halvorson-Otterholt; Shared Roots in Telemark. Compiled by Melvin and Alpha M. (Boe) Brodshaug, 1984. Published by Arlene (Boe) Christensen and Marjorie (Boe) Bergee. Printed by Anundsen Publishing Co., Decorah, Iowa. 
Rural Cass County: The Land and People. West Fargo, ND: Cass County Historical Society, 1976.