As I’ve mentioned before, I believe every family has at least one mystery in their family tree. One of mine happened 120 years ago this month.
Setting the Scene
In the late 1800s, beauty pageants weren’t as we know them today. Back then, “contestants” submitted their photographs to the magazine holding the contest, and the magazine chose a winner.
A Tennessee woman, Mai Belle Gregory, won two of these contests—one as a baby in the early 1870s, and the second as a young woman in the late 1880s. A local newspaper carried the story of her second win. They printed her photograph with the caption: “The Centennial Queen of Beauty—May [sic] Belle Gregory—winner of the New York Morning Journal’s Beauty Prize.”
Mai Belle was not only beautiful but educated and taught school for several years. She married a man some fourteen years her senior before 1900 and birthed a daughter soon after that.
The Fire
In 1903, Mai Belle and her husband were building their dream home. While the house was under construction, the couple and their daughter lived in a small cabin nearby. One November night, while her husband was away on business and her daughter spent the night with Mai Belle’s great uncle, the cabin caught fire and Mai Belle supposedly burned to death.
Workers reported seeing her the evening of the fire wearing her diamond necklace as she carried kerosene from the unfinished big house to her small home. The next day, when the fire had burned out, local family members and friends, including two of my grandmother’s brothers, searched the charred wreckage.
The Theories
As you can imagine, Mai Belle’s family believed she was murdered for her diamonds, and the fire was set to hide the crime. Since her jewelry wasn’t found—at least no one admitted to finding it—and diamonds don’t burn, the necklace wasn’t in the house when it burned.
Human remains—bones and teeth—were also conspicuously absent. No house fire, especially back then, would have burned hot enough to destroy all signs of her. (Even in today’s crematoriums, some bones and teeth survive.) Still, obituaries stated Mai Belle died in the fire, and the family buried “her” in the local cemetery.
Another theory soon surfaced. This one claimed that Mai Belle ran off with a lover closer to her own age. The family hated this story. To her dying day, Grandmother never believed it. She claimed Mai Belle was a good mother and wouldn’t have left her daughter.
Conclusion?
The absence of both diamonds and human remains in the debris proves that neither Mai Belle nor her diamonds were in the house when it burned.
If a thief had killed Mai Belle while stealing the diamonds—whether by accident or design—why not leave her body to burn with the house? Why go to the trouble of moving and hiding it elsewhere? No, it’s more likely, Mai Belle left and took the diamonds with her, using them to finance her “new” life.
As to Grandmother’s assertion that Mai Belle wouldn’t leave her daughter, I believe if she really loved her, she would. She was leaving the girl with relatives who would love and care for her, rather than dragging her away to an uncertain—and possibly scandal-ridden—future, had her secret been revealed. And there was always that chance, especially with a child in tow. After all, a three- or four-year-old isn’t the best at keeping secrets.
In the end, I believe Mai Belle probably did leave with a lover. If she didn’t have the backbone to ask for a divorce, rare as it was at that time, I don’t see her leaving her family and all she was familiar with to set off on her own.
My Regret
I wish I’d asked Grandmother more about Mai Belle. She wouldn’t have had first-hand knowledge of her distant cousin’s possible lover, being almost twenty years younger and away at college at the time, but she could have answered other questions. Like, did Mai Belle…
…have a yen (and the talent) to be an actress or a singer?
…have an adventurous spirit, wanting to travel to Texas or out West?
…usually let her three-year-old daughter spend the night away from home?
…normally wear her diamonds on more than just special occasions?
…do her own chores, like carrying kerosene to the cabin?
It’s unlikely we’ll ever know the truth of what happened, though answers to these questions might have painted a clearer picture. Still, as a writer, I can’t help but wonder, “What if…”
Bonus
Did You Know…
- A typical house fire can reach temps up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, but the hottest part will be the ceiling while the floor stays significantly cooler.
- Cremating a body isn’t easy. According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the optimum temperature range is 1,400-1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The “ashes” returned after a cremation are actually the deceased’s bones and teeth, ground-up into a fine dust that resembles ashes.
- The rumor that people’s ashes have been scattered at Disneyland is not just an urban legend. In 2018, the Wall Street Journal confirmed the stories. (The most popular spot for scattering a loved one’s ashes remains “The Haunted Mansion” ride.)
- Keeping ashes in jewelry and/or artwork are two ways of discreetly keeping a loved one’s remains close.
- There are companies that make diamonds out of a loved one’s ashes or hair. Only half a cup of material is needed. The process takes an average of 10-15 months, depending on the diamond’s requested size and color. Like each human is unique, so, too, is the diamond they become. (Mom and Dad, I’ve always thought of you as diamonds. Turns out you can now literally become one!)