A while ago, I was trying to figure out the family of my Grandfather Gentry’s first cousin, Charles V. Gentry (1870 Oh. – 1931 WV). He appeared to have only one daughter, Lindsay Kelly Gentry (b. 1904), but the daughter’s relationships puzzled me. She appeared to have two step-sons, pompously named Carl Anton Philip von Saltza and John Warren Hardenbergh von Saltza but despite the uncommon names, I had trouble confirming who, exactly, was their birth mother as well as the name of their father who later married Lindsay Gentry. Also, why did the father have custody of the children? Did the mother pass away? Everything about this family confused me. I could not find enough clues that made sense to me. Of course, I was then reminded of Melanie’s frequent admonition “None so blind as those that will not see”.
As I often do, I kept my notes but moved on to other parts of the family to find cousins who were easier to figure out. Yesterday I returned to dear Lindsay to try again. Sometime in the past few weeks, I became enlighted. Looking at the clues again, a little more closely, it hit me. Lindsay Kelly Gentry was male, not female. Who knew?
Now that I could work quickly, I was led to discover part of the story of a woman who seemed to be near as many interesting stories as Forrest Gump. Katherine Warren Hardenbergh was Lindsay’s first wife but that was not the beginning of her life’s journey.
Katherine was born on 17 October 1887 to John Warren Hardenbergh and Lilliam Williams Wilson. The Hardenberghs were an old New York / New Jersey family that was started in America when Jan van Hardenbergh emigrated from Holland before 1644 to a young Dutch colony called New Amsterdam (you may know it by the Lenape tribe’s name for the island, i.e., Manhattan). Fortunately, Jan started buying land as soon as he arrived and his descendants are still spending the fortune. To further bolster the family’s standing, John Warren Hardenbergh’s father served in the US House of Representatives. His great-grandfather was the founder and first President of Rutgers University. His great-great-grandfather was a field officer who served with distinction under George Washington (unfortunately, he was also the owner of Sojourner Truth, the slave who later escaped and became a famous abolitionist). His great-great-great-grandfather bought 2 million acres of land in the Catskill Mountains in 1709.
In the first decade of the 20th century, old Dutch money met and fell in love with old Swedish money. In 1910, Katherine married Count Philip Wencelaus von Saltza in New York City. Philip had been born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1885 and immigrated to America with his parents and sister when he was only six years old. His father was a professor at Columbia University where Philip would later study and star on the football team. The von Saltza family were titled aristocracy in Sweden and Katherine was now a Countess. Besides being a count, Philip’s father was also well-known artist, painting portraits and murals.
Katherine gave birth to Philip’s two oldest sons as noted above, Carl in 1911 and John in 1912. At first Philip worked as a mine engineer but war got in the way of life. During 1915 to mid-1916, Philip was involved in protecting American interests during the Mexican Revolution. During the latter part of that period, he was actively fighting the infamous revolutionary, Pancho Villa. Soon after the Mexican Punitive Campaign, Philip was off to Europe to fight in the Great War. He was captured by German forces in the Battle of Argonne Forest in September 1918. Fortunately, this was the last major battle of the war and he was only a prisoner of war for a short period. He fared much better than the 26,000 Americans who died during this 47 day battle.
After Philip’s return to America in April 1919, he was re-united with Katherine and his children. All was not well though and in 1922, the couple divorced. War can change you.
Katherine appears to have taken the boys westward and on 6 August 1927, she married 23 year-old Charles James Griggs in Washington state. Now, I can imagine the problems that could potentially arise when a young man marries a 40 year-old woman bringing in tow her two teenagers but I have no facts of what things were like in the house. I do know that they soon moved to the San Francisco area and Charles found part-time work in a bank.
You can now use your own imagination to figure out what happened next because sometime in late 1932, Katherine and Charles divorced. Charles quickly married Charlotte A. Dobson and she gave birth to a son, Peter James Griggs on 28 July 1933. Within the next week or so, this family’s fortunes turned greatly. Charles was rewarded with a full-time position and promotion at the bank. Unfortunately, it was during the Great Depression and the new position came with no additional salary. Also, Charles was informed by the doctors that Peter had a medical condition that was going to be expensive to rectify. Charles must have worried greatly over this during the next few days because on 4 August 1933, he walked into the bank’s vault, grabbed the revolver in there that was supposed to be used to deter robberies and he shot himself through his temple. He left a note explaining to his wife that she should now use the $20,000 from his life insurance to pay doctors to save his son. Wow.
Meanwhile, Katherine wasted little time of her own. She finally decided it was time to join the Gentry family. She married Lindsay Kelly Gentry at the Bishop’s home in Point Loma, California on 21 October 1933. The Gentry’s made their home in Monterey, California and included 22 year-old Carl until he was married in 1937 as well as John, until his July 1934 marriage to Betty Joyce and again after his divorce shortly thereafter. John married again in July 1941 to Margaret Kathryn Test to prove two things. First, he liked getting married in July and, second, he was a good judge of athletic genes. These two produced a star swimmer, but that will come a little later.
This is where the story becomes muddy. In 1944, Lindsay and Katherine were still listed together in the San Jose phone directory. The next thing I see is Lindsay’s April 1948 death notice, mentioning his wife’s name as Eleanor. Later, I see in phone directory the additional clue that her name is actually “Eleanor H.” Thanks. I have no clue when Lindsay and Katherine divorced or if Katherine died. I have no idea when Lindsay and Eleanor married or what happened to her after Lindsay’s death. I know that an auction company sold off the furniture and artwork of Katherine’s impressive estate in 1960 but that’s all I know about each of them.
There is more to the story though, through Katherine’s son, John Warren Hardenbergh von Saltza. As noted, he married Margaret Kathryn Test in July 1941. This couple had two daughters, the first being Karen Lindsay von Saltza who was born 26 August 1942. Her middle name hints that Lindsay Gentry was still a strong positive influence on his step-son. The second daughter, Susan Christina “Chris” von Saltza, was born on 3 January 1944 and she turned out to be a champion.
By 21 July 1958, Chris was such a star swimmer that she became the youngest person ever to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. In the 1960 Olympic trials, she set the first of her world records in the 400m freestyle. In the Rome Olympic games, at 16 years-old, she won the gold medal in that event and a silver in the 100m freestyle (second only to the great Dawn Fraser) as well as golds and world records in two relay events. She is a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Chris’ older sister, Karen, tempted fate by announcing her engagement to James C. Small at Chris’ 19th birthday party. Stealing someone else’s limelight is never a good thing and that was proven true again. A little over a month after Karen and James were married, James, also a competitive swimmer, was practicing with his senior team in the open waters of San Francisco Bay near Alcatraz. Sadly, a boat ran over him and the propeller severed his leg. Doctors were unable to save him because of the massive loss of blood.
That’s a sad ending to my story but the good news is that Karen re-married, both sisters have large families and are still alive to enjoy them. Also, I am still looking to find out what happened to my good friend Katherine. To be continued…
Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh
Sojourner Truth
Augustus Albert Hardenbergh
Philip von Saltza
Chris von Saltza
Pancho Villa Expedition
Meuse-Argonne Offensive
New Amsterdam
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