Several years ago, I wrote about my dismay at discovering that one of my mother’s aunts, Madeline “Madge” Yonge, lived in Honolulu for decades until her death in 1974, much of that time residing in the territorial and later the state hospital for the mentally ill. I never knew anything about this while growing up, although Meda and I were married and were taking graduate classes at the University of Hawaii during the last five years of her life. Madge’s name and presence in Hawaii were things my mother never mentioned. It was while tinkering with genealogical records (Ancestry.com, etc) that I stumbled onto this closely-held family secret.

Then I learned that Madeline’s younger sister, Eleanor “Ellen” Yonge, also led a tragic, and much shorter life, dying when she was just 19. This photo of the sisters reveals nothing of their suffering. Madeline was the older sister, born in California in 1876. And Ellen, their younger sister, was born in 1889 while her family was living in Tombstone, Arizona, where her father owned and operated a pharmacy.

Although Ellen’s relationship with Officer Davey was widely publicized at the time, it was another tale that was never repeated within our family.

Those who have been following my posts excerpted from the memoirs of Eleanor Howard (Thomas) Brittain Knowlton will appreciate that Ellen was Eleanor Knowlton’s granddaughter and had been named for her.

Ellen had been caught up in a very public scandal when she was just 17 or 18. She had entered into a relationship with a police officer on the beat that included her family home, and it all blew up into a public scandal when she attempted suicide by drinking poison while riding on a public bus near the Harbor Police Station where the officer, Edward T. Davey, worked.

Ellen survived. Her father filed charges against Davey and Ellen had to appear at the San Francisco “Lunacy Commission” hearing in August 1908 before she was called to testify against Davey. Superior Court Judge Carroll Cook presided over the hearing, with commissioners Dr. Theodore Rethers and Dr. Charles D. McGettigan, according to newspaper reports of the hearing.

It’s a convoluted tale. Perhaps the easiest way to decribe events is to start at the end with a newspaper story about Ellen’s death that appeared in newspapers as far away as Tula and Wichita.

ELLEN C. YONGE,
DAVEY’S VICTIM,
DIES IN NORTH
Stormy Life of Trusting Girl,
Who Later Wedded Be-
trayer, Is Closed

Pretty Young Artist and Musi-
cian Who Knew Only Sor-
row Is at Peace

The San Francisco Call, March 19 (1909)

Tragedy has crowned the storm tossed
career of Ellen C. Yonge. The life
of the San Francisco artist and musi-
cian, who knew only sorrow, has end-
ed. Her spirit crushed, her heart
broken, she passed away at St. Jo-
seph’s hospital in Victoria, B. C. Her
attempt at suicide, the subsequent ar-
rest of Policeman Edward T, Davey,
her marriage to the patrolman, and
their domestic differences in Honolulu
are fresh in the public mind. Now
death has come before her twentieth!
year.

Girl attempted suicide

It was in July of last year that Miss
Yonge attracted public attention by
endeavoring to end her life while ria-
ing on a Folsom street car. She swal-
lowed poison, and by a strange stroke
of fate, Davey was on the same car.
He hurried her to the harbor hospital
and her life was saved. Then the se-
cret of her soul was bared. She was
a talented artist and musician, a grad-
uate of the girls’ high school, and
highly strung. She had met Davey,
loved him ardently, and with the faith
of woman she trusted him.

To the last she retained confidence
in her betrayer. She was shown that
other girls had suffered a similar fate
at his hands. Still she refused to
prosecute him. Added to her own
trouble was her grief over the loss of
her mother, who had killed herself a
few months before.

Betrayer loses star

It was not until J. F. Yonge, the
girl’s father, took action that Davey
was called into court. Then an ef-
fort was made to have the girl de-
clared insane, but this proved unsuc-
cessful. Davey was tried by the po-
lice commissioners and found guilty
and was dismissed from the force.
When she finally perceived that
Davey did not intend to wed her, Miss
Yonge exhibited a diary in proof of
her statements and told the story of
her misplaced trust. Criminal prose-
cution was about to be begun when
Davey offered to make the girl his
wife and a cheerless ceremony was
performed.

There followed a trip to Honolulu
and in anger Davey had his wife ar-
rested, alleging that she had been in
the company of another man. The
charge was shown to be baseless and
she was released. Davey and his wife
recently went to Victoria to begin life
anew, but the sorrow weighed heavily
on the young girl’s soul and she died
of a broken heart. She had just pass-
ed her nineteenth year.

I’ve sent an inquiry to the court’s public records archive in San Francisco to determine whether any records of testimony presented at the August 1908 hearing exist.