My Grandparents’ Story by Jane Hodges

 

Lulu Belle Cremer Griswold Palmer was a survivor. Her husband was murdered when she was just 38 yrs. old. He left her with four daughters, Helen 16, Hortense 14, Ruth 9 and Marion 7. Lulu was not able to get much insurance money due to the fact that the authorities decided he may have committed suicide or had simply walked away and assumed another identity.

George R. Griswold’s body was found in the river in Des Moines, Iowa in 1905. They said the body was so decomposed it was difficult to be sure it was George. His dentist testified that the teeth matched the chart he had in his office. That is another story told well by Nancy Bowers.

My Aunt Helen told me about riding downtown Des Moines in a horse and buggy and hearing the paper boys shouting “Read all about the Griswold murder case.” It was a very difficult time for the family.

Lulu collected $2,000 after his death, which would amount to about $47,000 today. She apparently lived on that money for a while but finally had to take in roomers. One man, Edwin Palmer, had come from Boston to paint one of the elegant houses on the street and he had a room at Lulu’s house. When my Mother was about 16 (and she was the youngest) Lulu married Mr. Palmer and they moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to live in Mr. Palmer’s house at 76 Fayerweather Street. I remember that address for some unknown reason and that was how it was spelled. Helen and Hortense were both married at that time. My mother, Marion, and Ruth went to high school in Cambridge. Some of the kids asked my mother about the Indians out west. She had never seen Indians in Des Moines and she found that pretty funny…that they would think there were Indians in Des Moines.

I think Lulu was about 47 when she married Mr. Palmer. I remember one time she and her husband took a ship through the Panama Canal from Boston to California. That must have been quite expensive. Mr. Palmer eventually passed away. In 1938 my mother went to Cambridge, sold most of grandmother’s things and brought her to Indianapolis where they were living. She lived with us off and on until she died at age 92. At the end of her life my mother was her full-time nurse and I will always think it hastened my mother’s death at age 67. It was extremely hard on her.

George grew up in Elyria, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. I looked up the census of 1880 and it lists his father E. Dwight Griswold, mother Avis Ruggles Griswold, and siblings, Luther 18, George 16, Harry 11, Roecion 7, Susie 5 and Rose Nickerson 20. I assume Rose was a servant girl. I only mention this because I think it was an affluent family. In 1882, Bob and his twin brother, Ron, were born, making seven children in the family. There is a Griswold Road in Elyria and I think that my great-grandparents had a farm on that road and probably that was why it was named Griswold Road.

Lulu’s school years were spent at the boarding school outside of Omaha called Brownell Hall. It is now in the city of Omaha and has kept the same name but is now a high school. She received a tome called Library of Poetry and Song, a huge book, for her deportment (I think that meant good behavior). She memorized an essay from the book called The Lost Boy. It was very long and she could recite it by heart. She sang solos in St. Barnabas Church in Omaha which is still there. She and George were married in that church. I have their marriage certificate. It shows George R. Griswold and Lulu B. Cremer were married on the 7th of September, 1887.

I remember Lu (as we called her) sitting in an arm chair reading stories to my son, David, when he was a toddler. She would have been about 80 at that time. She lived with us until she died on August 13, 1957.

All the years that Lulu lived with us she never mentioned the murder. I’m not sure my Mother knew about it. My two older aunts, Hortense and Helen, told me the story. I guess Lulu decided she would never talk about it again because the whole episode was so humiliating. It was later learned that he had a mistress only a half a mile from his home where he lived with Lulu and the four girls. I think she was a somewhat bitter woman. I never remember her as being very grandmotherly. I guess she had a lot to be bitter about. It is a sad story.

Jane Hodges
St. Louis, Mo.
March 1, 2016