On the night of Monday, August 1, 1910, two bodies were found in a brownstone at 5604 Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh's tony East Liberty neighborhood. They were those of George M. Stuart, a 26 year old physician, and 29 year old "Mrs. Edna Wallace" the alias of Bertha Neuland a prostitute. It was apparent from the outset that Bertha had shot George Stuart, then herself. Both bodies were naked, in Stuart's bed, and the gun lay beside her hand.
Newspaper reports from around the country varied somewhat in facts , how old Bertha was, how debauched or innocent Dr Stuart was, and in how many lurid details they reported, how many were invented or embellished. Some say she pursued him, some say he was dissolute, some say he had promised to marry Bertha, some deny this. Most indicate Bertha got an anonymous letter telling of his impending marriage, and that she shot him only days later after first making out her will.
Excerpted from the August 3, 1910, the Baltimore Sun Wednesday
Dr. Stuart Was to Have Left Last Night to See His Bride-to-Be
Pittsburgh, Aug. 2 The body of Dr. George Murray Stuart, the East Liberty physician who was the victim of a woman's jealous rage when she learned of his impending marriage to a Virginia girl, was taken tonight to his parents' home, in White Post, Va., for burial.
In the bachelor apartment of Dr. Stuart the police found his wedding garments carefully packed. He was to leave for the home of his intended bride tonight. Dr. Stuart was a graduate of a medical college in Baltimore, Md., and was an intern at St. Francis Hospital during 1905-06. Later he was promoted to the position of resident physician, and occupied that place until last May, when he left with his uncle, Dr. E. C. Stuart. When the latter left Pittsburgh, young Dr. Stuart occupied his uncle's office in the old brownstone building at 5604 Pennsylvania avenue. The young doctor was doing well in his new location and happy over his approaching marriage. He said just a few days ago to several of his friends among the younger physicians, "I am doing finely, and I am glad, as it will make it nicer for my fiancee."
Identification of" the Wallace woman" was completed today when her body was viewed at the morgue by a brother-in-law. The woman's sister, who lives in Pittsburgh's North Side, has refused to allow the body to be brought to her house.
Bertha spoke to her attorney M.L. Thompson a few days ago, as she hinted vaguely at the murder and her own suicide.
"This is the way," she exclaimed, "the gay young men around with us, and when they find nice girls they like, they marry them and throw us aside. Oh, well, I suppose that is the way of the world." Although she was a young woman and did not seem ill, Mrs. Wallace was determined to have her will drawn up by the attorney. The principal part of the instrument was drawn up at the meeting Friday. In the will, Mrs. Wallace bequeathed to friends and relatives personal property. This consisted of the house at 122 Lambert Street, and some valuable jewels.
"And I want you to put in a provision there that my body be cremated when I die," continued Edna Wallace. "Perhaps I might not be buried in holy ground, but if I am in ashes it will be all right. I want you to see to it that my ashes are buried in some isolated spot, and you must promise never to tell my father or sisters where my remains are buried."
The Anonymous Letter
The woman known as Edna Wallace was Bertha Neuland, of the North Side. Her friends say Dr. Stuart had promised to marry her, and she already had begun preparations for the wedding next September.
An unsigned letter from Virginia is said to have acquainted her with the fact that Dr. Stuart was to be married to Miss Simpson in a few days. This knowledge, the police say, led her to kill Dr. Stuart and then take her own life. That the double crime was premeditated is practically proved by the fact that the Wallace woman had made her will and mailed it to her attorney, with a note saying that if she were not seen last night she would never be seen again.
Dr. Stuart was last seen alive about 9:20 o'clock on Sunday evening. He then was sitting on the steps in front of his office. A few minutes before that he had talked to Charles Seibert, a clerk in the drug store at the corner of Negley and Pennsylvania Avenues, making a purchase of some shaving soap and a toothbrush.
. George's fiancee Alice Pauline Simpson was the daughter of a Warren County, Virginia farmer. Cedarville, where she grew up, is on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, just outside of Front Royal. Alice and George had known each other from childhood, gotten formally engaged once he had established himself after medical college, and in the spring of 1910 had set their wedding date for August the 10th. After Stuart's murder, she went in to seclusion at the home of her elder sister, and the press was discreet enough to leave her alone.
Bertha Neuland was born March of 1880 in Frankfurt, Germany, she was the second-oldest surviving child of Melchoir Neuland, a stonemason from a small town in Hesse, and his wife Lucy Guenther. They had married in 1873. The family emigrated in 1884 and settled in Allegheny City, across the river from Pittsburgh. The first extant census record on which they appear is that for 1900, taken on June 10th . They were then renting on Spring Garden Avenue in the north end, just off Vinial Street. Melchoir and Lucy were in their early 50s, and had five children: Anna, the oldest, was 23 and worked in a box factory; Bertha, 20, worked as a "table roller", whatever that was; William, 13, ran errands; ( William , 1886- 1949 , is memorial 99981043, waiting for links to process) ·Edward, 11, and Mathilda, who would turn nine two weeks later, were listed as students. Some time between then and 1905, Bertha left home and began to call herself Edna Wallace. It is under that name that she appears in Pittsburgh directories from 1905 through 1910, at 122 Lambert Street. She owned that property; on a 1909 city map, the slot is assigned to "B. Neuland." Lambert was a short street that ran between Frankstown at its north end, and railroad tracks at its south. Beyond those rose the back of the busy East Liberty train station. It was a rowdy, working class enclave and several of its houses were well known to the police. Edna Wallace was arrested in her's in the fall of 1908 for selling liquor without a license, and she posted $500 bail with the flippant observation that although "the house has been [in operation] for 38 years," this was the first raid. She ought not have been surprised; the district attorney had declared a war on vice the previous fall, and the police were busy. She may have taken her pseudonym from a vaudevillian actress very popular at the time: petite, pretty, stylish Edna Wallace Hopper. When her real name came to light a day or two after the bodies had been discovered, several papers reported that it "rang a bell" with respectable citizens of the North End. "They recalled the pretty, popular girl" who had abruptly dropped out of sight "Certain members" of her family, the reports continued, had ascertained "the truth" and subsequently refused to have anything to do with her. Just who those family members were, or what "the truth" had been was left discreetly unsaid.
She appears on the 1910 census, taken that April,residing at 122 Lambert and under the name Edna Wallace. A month past her 30th birthday, she reported her age as 27, said she was married (and had been for seven years), and that she had borne no children. The space to designate occupation is blank. There were no other inhabitants of the house. She was truthful about one thing, at least: she gave Germany as her place of birth.
There was only a brief and hasty funeral service for Bertha. Some prayers were said at the funeral home and she was buried in an unmarked grave in the nondenominational Allegheny Cemetery. This is in marked contrast to the rest of her family who are in the Northside Catholic Cemetery. It was a sin to not be buried in a Catholic Cemetery. Perhaps she was refused because she was a suicide, or perhaps her family wanted to forget they ever knew her. Her oldest sister became a nun. At least some of the community had long believed that Bertha was married. If one wishes to use her 1910 census form as a clue, then 1903 would have been when Bertha "disappeared" from her parents' home and later -- whenever it was that she reappeared -- informed at least some of her family that she was married. In her will, drawn up in July, Bertha Neuland instructed that her house be sold and the money given to her mother Lucy. She left her jewelry to her sister Mathilda. Although she had added a codicil requesting cremation, it was unsigned at the time that she died and her wish was not granted. She was buried in Allegheny Cemetery on August 3, 1910, in section 17, lot A, plot 176. It is a single grave in what is in regarded some sense the Potters Field Section
George Stuart's body traveled home to Virginia by train the night of August 2nd, accompanied by his brother and a friend. He was buried in the family plot in Meade Memorial cemetery in White Post. He was buried wearing his wedding clothes. His fiancee Alice Pauline Simpson (1885-1975) was in a very bad way and I don't know if she ever recovered. Dr. Stuart's findagrave page is # 234436381
This is also so tremendously sad, especially for Georges fiance Alice and Bertha and George's parents.
Bertha is my relative that I was never supposed to know about. But then the Internet was invented. And a brilliant, closer relative of hers found much of this . I don't know yet if that relative wants to be named
Note, She also had a brother, William , 1886- 1949 , memorial 99981043, waiting for links to process
Newspaper reports from around the country varied somewhat in facts , how old Bertha was, how debauched or innocent Dr Stuart was, and in how many lurid details they reported, how many were invented or embellished. Some say she pursued him, some say he was dissolute, some say he had promised to marry Bertha, some deny this. Most indicate Bertha got an anonymous letter telling of his impending marriage, and that she shot him only days later after first making out her will.
Excerpted from the August 3, 1910, the Baltimore Sun Wednesday
Dr. Stuart Was to Have Left Last Night to See His Bride-to-Be
Pittsburgh, Aug. 2 The body of Dr. George Murray Stuart, the East Liberty physician who was the victim of a woman's jealous rage when she learned of his impending marriage to a Virginia girl, was taken tonight to his parents' home, in White Post, Va., for burial.
In the bachelor apartment of Dr. Stuart the police found his wedding garments carefully packed. He was to leave for the home of his intended bride tonight. Dr. Stuart was a graduate of a medical college in Baltimore, Md., and was an intern at St. Francis Hospital during 1905-06. Later he was promoted to the position of resident physician, and occupied that place until last May, when he left with his uncle, Dr. E. C. Stuart. When the latter left Pittsburgh, young Dr. Stuart occupied his uncle's office in the old brownstone building at 5604 Pennsylvania avenue. The young doctor was doing well in his new location and happy over his approaching marriage. He said just a few days ago to several of his friends among the younger physicians, "I am doing finely, and I am glad, as it will make it nicer for my fiancee."
Identification of" the Wallace woman" was completed today when her body was viewed at the morgue by a brother-in-law. The woman's sister, who lives in Pittsburgh's North Side, has refused to allow the body to be brought to her house.
Bertha spoke to her attorney M.L. Thompson a few days ago, as she hinted vaguely at the murder and her own suicide.
"This is the way," she exclaimed, "the gay young men around with us, and when they find nice girls they like, they marry them and throw us aside. Oh, well, I suppose that is the way of the world." Although she was a young woman and did not seem ill, Mrs. Wallace was determined to have her will drawn up by the attorney. The principal part of the instrument was drawn up at the meeting Friday. In the will, Mrs. Wallace bequeathed to friends and relatives personal property. This consisted of the house at 122 Lambert Street, and some valuable jewels.
"And I want you to put in a provision there that my body be cremated when I die," continued Edna Wallace. "Perhaps I might not be buried in holy ground, but if I am in ashes it will be all right. I want you to see to it that my ashes are buried in some isolated spot, and you must promise never to tell my father or sisters where my remains are buried."
The Anonymous Letter
The woman known as Edna Wallace was Bertha Neuland, of the North Side. Her friends say Dr. Stuart had promised to marry her, and she already had begun preparations for the wedding next September.
An unsigned letter from Virginia is said to have acquainted her with the fact that Dr. Stuart was to be married to Miss Simpson in a few days. This knowledge, the police say, led her to kill Dr. Stuart and then take her own life. That the double crime was premeditated is practically proved by the fact that the Wallace woman had made her will and mailed it to her attorney, with a note saying that if she were not seen last night she would never be seen again.
Dr. Stuart was last seen alive about 9:20 o'clock on Sunday evening. He then was sitting on the steps in front of his office. A few minutes before that he had talked to Charles Seibert, a clerk in the drug store at the corner of Negley and Pennsylvania Avenues, making a purchase of some shaving soap and a toothbrush.
. George's fiancee Alice Pauline Simpson was the daughter of a Warren County, Virginia farmer. Cedarville, where she grew up, is on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, just outside of Front Royal. Alice and George had known each other from childhood, gotten formally engaged once he had established himself after medical college, and in the spring of 1910 had set their wedding date for August the 10th. After Stuart's murder, she went in to seclusion at the home of her elder sister, and the press was discreet enough to leave her alone.
Bertha Neuland was born March of 1880 in Frankfurt, Germany, she was the second-oldest surviving child of Melchoir Neuland, a stonemason from a small town in Hesse, and his wife Lucy Guenther. They had married in 1873. The family emigrated in 1884 and settled in Allegheny City, across the river from Pittsburgh. The first extant census record on which they appear is that for 1900, taken on June 10th . They were then renting on Spring Garden Avenue in the north end, just off Vinial Street. Melchoir and Lucy were in their early 50s, and had five children: Anna, the oldest, was 23 and worked in a box factory; Bertha, 20, worked as a "table roller", whatever that was; William, 13, ran errands; ( William , 1886- 1949 , is memorial 99981043, waiting for links to process) ·Edward, 11, and Mathilda, who would turn nine two weeks later, were listed as students. Some time between then and 1905, Bertha left home and began to call herself Edna Wallace. It is under that name that she appears in Pittsburgh directories from 1905 through 1910, at 122 Lambert Street. She owned that property; on a 1909 city map, the slot is assigned to "B. Neuland." Lambert was a short street that ran between Frankstown at its north end, and railroad tracks at its south. Beyond those rose the back of the busy East Liberty train station. It was a rowdy, working class enclave and several of its houses were well known to the police. Edna Wallace was arrested in her's in the fall of 1908 for selling liquor without a license, and she posted $500 bail with the flippant observation that although "the house has been [in operation] for 38 years," this was the first raid. She ought not have been surprised; the district attorney had declared a war on vice the previous fall, and the police were busy. She may have taken her pseudonym from a vaudevillian actress very popular at the time: petite, pretty, stylish Edna Wallace Hopper. When her real name came to light a day or two after the bodies had been discovered, several papers reported that it "rang a bell" with respectable citizens of the North End. "They recalled the pretty, popular girl" who had abruptly dropped out of sight "Certain members" of her family, the reports continued, had ascertained "the truth" and subsequently refused to have anything to do with her. Just who those family members were, or what "the truth" had been was left discreetly unsaid.
She appears on the 1910 census, taken that April,residing at 122 Lambert and under the name Edna Wallace. A month past her 30th birthday, she reported her age as 27, said she was married (and had been for seven years), and that she had borne no children. The space to designate occupation is blank. There were no other inhabitants of the house. She was truthful about one thing, at least: she gave Germany as her place of birth.
There was only a brief and hasty funeral service for Bertha. Some prayers were said at the funeral home and she was buried in an unmarked grave in the nondenominational Allegheny Cemetery. This is in marked contrast to the rest of her family who are in the Northside Catholic Cemetery. It was a sin to not be buried in a Catholic Cemetery. Perhaps she was refused because she was a suicide, or perhaps her family wanted to forget they ever knew her. Her oldest sister became a nun. At least some of the community had long believed that Bertha was married. If one wishes to use her 1910 census form as a clue, then 1903 would have been when Bertha "disappeared" from her parents' home and later -- whenever it was that she reappeared -- informed at least some of her family that she was married. In her will, drawn up in July, Bertha Neuland instructed that her house be sold and the money given to her mother Lucy. She left her jewelry to her sister Mathilda. Although she had added a codicil requesting cremation, it was unsigned at the time that she died and her wish was not granted. She was buried in Allegheny Cemetery on August 3, 1910, in section 17, lot A, plot 176. It is a single grave in what is in regarded some sense the Potters Field Section
George Stuart's body traveled home to Virginia by train the night of August 2nd, accompanied by his brother and a friend. He was buried in the family plot in Meade Memorial cemetery in White Post. He was buried wearing his wedding clothes. His fiancee Alice Pauline Simpson (1885-1975) was in a very bad way and I don't know if she ever recovered. Dr. Stuart's findagrave page is # 234436381
This is also so tremendously sad, especially for Georges fiance Alice and Bertha and George's parents.
Bertha is my relative that I was never supposed to know about. But then the Internet was invented. And a brilliant, closer relative of hers found much of this . I don't know yet if that relative wants to be named
Note, She also had a brother, William , 1886- 1949 , memorial 99981043, waiting for links to process
On the night of Monday, August 1, 1910, two bodies were found in a brownstone at 5604 Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh's tony East Liberty neighborhood. They were those of George M. Stuart, a 26 year old physician, and 29 year old "Mrs. Edna Wallace" the alias of Bertha Neuland a prostitute. It was apparent from the outset that Bertha had shot George Stuart, then herself. Both bodies were naked, in Stuart's bed, and the gun lay beside her hand.
Newspaper reports from around the country varied somewhat in facts , how old Bertha was, how debauched or innocent Dr Stuart was, and in how many lurid details they reported, how many were invented or embellished. Some say she pursued him, some say he was dissolute, some say he had promised to marry Bertha, some deny this. Most indicate Bertha got an anonymous letter telling of his impending marriage, and that she shot him only days later after first making out her will.
Excerpted from the August 3, 1910, the Baltimore Sun Wednesday
Dr. Stuart Was to Have Left Last Night to See His Bride-to-Be
Pittsburgh, Aug. 2 The body of Dr. George Murray Stuart, the East Liberty physician who was the victim of a woman's jealous rage when she learned of his impending marriage to a Virginia girl, was taken tonight to his parents' home, in White Post, Va., for burial.
In the bachelor apartment of Dr. Stuart the police found his wedding garments carefully packed. He was to leave for the home of his intended bride tonight. Dr. Stuart was a graduate of a medical college in Baltimore, Md., and was an intern at St. Francis Hospital during 1905-06. Later he was promoted to the position of resident physician, and occupied that place until last May, when he left with his uncle, Dr. E. C. Stuart. When the latter left Pittsburgh, young Dr. Stuart occupied his uncle's office in the old brownstone building at 5604 Pennsylvania avenue. The young doctor was doing well in his new location and happy over his approaching marriage. He said just a few days ago to several of his friends among the younger physicians, "I am doing finely, and I am glad, as it will make it nicer for my fiancee."
Identification of" the Wallace woman" was completed today when her body was viewed at the morgue by a brother-in-law. The woman's sister, who lives in Pittsburgh's North Side, has refused to allow the body to be brought to her house.
Bertha spoke to her attorney M.L. Thompson a few days ago, as she hinted vaguely at the murder and her own suicide.
"This is the way," she exclaimed, "the gay young men around with us, and when they find nice girls they like, they marry them and throw us aside. Oh, well, I suppose that is the way of the world." Although she was a young woman and did not seem ill, Mrs. Wallace was determined to have her will drawn up by the attorney. The principal part of the instrument was drawn up at the meeting Friday. In the will, Mrs. Wallace bequeathed to friends and relatives personal property. This consisted of the house at 122 Lambert Street, and some valuable jewels.
"And I want you to put in a provision there that my body be cremated when I die," continued Edna Wallace. "Perhaps I might not be buried in holy ground, but if I am in ashes it will be all right. I want you to see to it that my ashes are buried in some isolated spot, and you must promise never to tell my father or sisters where my remains are buried."
The Anonymous Letter
The woman known as Edna Wallace was Bertha Neuland, of the North Side. Her friends say Dr. Stuart had promised to marry her, and she already had begun preparations for the wedding next September.
An unsigned letter from Virginia is said to have acquainted her with the fact that Dr. Stuart was to be married to Miss Simpson in a few days. This knowledge, the police say, led her to kill Dr. Stuart and then take her own life. That the double crime was premeditated is practically proved by the fact that the Wallace woman had made her will and mailed it to her attorney, with a note saying that if she were not seen last night she would never be seen again.
Dr. Stuart was last seen alive about 9:20 o'clock on Sunday evening. He then was sitting on the steps in front of his office. A few minutes before that he had talked to Charles Seibert, a clerk in the drug store at the corner of Negley and Pennsylvania Avenues, making a purchase of some shaving soap and a toothbrush.
. George's fiancee Alice Pauline Simpson was the daughter of a Warren County, Virginia farmer. Cedarville, where she grew up, is on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, just outside of Front Royal. Alice and George had known each other from childhood, gotten formally engaged once he had established himself after medical college, and in the spring of 1910 had set their wedding date for August the 10th. After Stuart's murder, she went in to seclusion at the home of her elder sister, and the press was discreet enough to leave her alone.
Bertha Neuland was born March of 1880 in Frankfurt, Germany, she was the second-oldest surviving child of Melchoir Neuland, a stonemason from a small town in Hesse, and his wife Lucy Guenther. They had married in 1873. The family emigrated in 1884 and settled in Allegheny City, across the river from Pittsburgh. The first extant census record on which they appear is that for 1900, taken on June 10th . They were then renting on Spring Garden Avenue in the north end, just off Vinial Street. Melchoir and Lucy were in their early 50s, and had five children: Anna, the oldest, was 23 and worked in a box factory; Bertha, 20, worked as a "table roller", whatever that was; William, 13, ran errands; ( William , 1886- 1949 , is memorial 99981043, waiting for links to process) ·Edward, 11, and Mathilda, who would turn nine two weeks later, were listed as students. Some time between then and 1905, Bertha left home and began to call herself Edna Wallace. It is under that name that she appears in Pittsburgh directories from 1905 through 1910, at 122 Lambert Street. She owned that property; on a 1909 city map, the slot is assigned to "B. Neuland." Lambert was a short street that ran between Frankstown at its north end, and railroad tracks at its south. Beyond those rose the back of the busy East Liberty train station. It was a rowdy, working class enclave and several of its houses were well known to the police. Edna Wallace was arrested in her's in the fall of 1908 for selling liquor without a license, and she posted $500 bail with the flippant observation that although "the house has been [in operation] for 38 years," this was the first raid. She ought not have been surprised; the district attorney had declared a war on vice the previous fall, and the police were busy. She may have taken her pseudonym from a vaudevillian actress very popular at the time: petite, pretty, stylish Edna Wallace Hopper. When her real name came to light a day or two after the bodies had been discovered, several papers reported that it "rang a bell" with respectable citizens of the North End. "They recalled the pretty, popular girl" who had abruptly dropped out of sight "Certain members" of her family, the reports continued, had ascertained "the truth" and subsequently refused to have anything to do with her. Just who those family members were, or what "the truth" had been was left discreetly unsaid.
She appears on the 1910 census, taken that April,residing at 122 Lambert and under the name Edna Wallace. A month past her 30th birthday, she reported her age as 27, said she was married (and had been for seven years), and that she had borne no children. The space to designate occupation is blank. There were no other inhabitants of the house. She was truthful about one thing, at least: she gave Germany as her place of birth.
There was only a brief and hasty funeral service for Bertha. Some prayers were said at the funeral home and she was buried in an unmarked grave in the nondenominational Allegheny Cemetery. This is in marked contrast to the rest of her family who are in the Northside Catholic Cemetery. It was a sin to not be buried in a Catholic Cemetery. Perhaps she was refused because she was a suicide, or perhaps her family wanted to forget they ever knew her. Her oldest sister became a nun. At least some of the community had long believed that Bertha was married. If one wishes to use her 1910 census form as a clue, then 1903 would have been when Bertha "disappeared" from her parents' home and later -- whenever it was that she reappeared -- informed at least some of her family that she was married. In her will, drawn up in July, Bertha Neuland instructed that her house be sold and the money given to her mother Lucy. She left her jewelry to her sister Mathilda. Although she had added a codicil requesting cremation, it was unsigned at the time that she died and her wish was not granted. She was buried in Allegheny Cemetery on August 3, 1910, in section 17, lot A, plot 176. It is a single grave in what is in regarded some sense the Potters Field Section
George Stuart's body traveled home to Virginia by train the night of August 2nd, accompanied by his brother and a friend. He was buried in the family plot in Meade Memorial cemetery in White Post. He was buried wearing his wedding clothes. His fiancee Alice Pauline Simpson (1885-1975) was in a very bad way and I don't know if she ever recovered. Dr. Stuart's findagrave page is # 234436381
This is also so tremendously sad, especially for Georges fiance Alice and Bertha and George's parents.
Bertha is my relative that I was never supposed to know about. But then the Internet was invented. And a brilliant, closer relative of hers found much of this . I don't know yet if that relative wants to be named
Note, She also had a brother, William , 1886- 1949 , memorial 99981043, waiting for links to process
Newspaper reports from around the country varied somewhat in facts , how old Bertha was, how debauched or innocent Dr Stuart was, and in how many lurid details they reported, how many were invented or embellished. Some say she pursued him, some say he was dissolute, some say he had promised to marry Bertha, some deny this. Most indicate Bertha got an anonymous letter telling of his impending marriage, and that she shot him only days later after first making out her will.
Excerpted from the August 3, 1910, the Baltimore Sun Wednesday
Dr. Stuart Was to Have Left Last Night to See His Bride-to-Be
Pittsburgh, Aug. 2 The body of Dr. George Murray Stuart, the East Liberty physician who was the victim of a woman's jealous rage when she learned of his impending marriage to a Virginia girl, was taken tonight to his parents' home, in White Post, Va., for burial.
In the bachelor apartment of Dr. Stuart the police found his wedding garments carefully packed. He was to leave for the home of his intended bride tonight. Dr. Stuart was a graduate of a medical college in Baltimore, Md., and was an intern at St. Francis Hospital during 1905-06. Later he was promoted to the position of resident physician, and occupied that place until last May, when he left with his uncle, Dr. E. C. Stuart. When the latter left Pittsburgh, young Dr. Stuart occupied his uncle's office in the old brownstone building at 5604 Pennsylvania avenue. The young doctor was doing well in his new location and happy over his approaching marriage. He said just a few days ago to several of his friends among the younger physicians, "I am doing finely, and I am glad, as it will make it nicer for my fiancee."
Identification of" the Wallace woman" was completed today when her body was viewed at the morgue by a brother-in-law. The woman's sister, who lives in Pittsburgh's North Side, has refused to allow the body to be brought to her house.
Bertha spoke to her attorney M.L. Thompson a few days ago, as she hinted vaguely at the murder and her own suicide.
"This is the way," she exclaimed, "the gay young men around with us, and when they find nice girls they like, they marry them and throw us aside. Oh, well, I suppose that is the way of the world." Although she was a young woman and did not seem ill, Mrs. Wallace was determined to have her will drawn up by the attorney. The principal part of the instrument was drawn up at the meeting Friday. In the will, Mrs. Wallace bequeathed to friends and relatives personal property. This consisted of the house at 122 Lambert Street, and some valuable jewels.
"And I want you to put in a provision there that my body be cremated when I die," continued Edna Wallace. "Perhaps I might not be buried in holy ground, but if I am in ashes it will be all right. I want you to see to it that my ashes are buried in some isolated spot, and you must promise never to tell my father or sisters where my remains are buried."
The Anonymous Letter
The woman known as Edna Wallace was Bertha Neuland, of the North Side. Her friends say Dr. Stuart had promised to marry her, and she already had begun preparations for the wedding next September.
An unsigned letter from Virginia is said to have acquainted her with the fact that Dr. Stuart was to be married to Miss Simpson in a few days. This knowledge, the police say, led her to kill Dr. Stuart and then take her own life. That the double crime was premeditated is practically proved by the fact that the Wallace woman had made her will and mailed it to her attorney, with a note saying that if she were not seen last night she would never be seen again.
Dr. Stuart was last seen alive about 9:20 o'clock on Sunday evening. He then was sitting on the steps in front of his office. A few minutes before that he had talked to Charles Seibert, a clerk in the drug store at the corner of Negley and Pennsylvania Avenues, making a purchase of some shaving soap and a toothbrush.
. George's fiancee Alice Pauline Simpson was the daughter of a Warren County, Virginia farmer. Cedarville, where she grew up, is on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, just outside of Front Royal. Alice and George had known each other from childhood, gotten formally engaged once he had established himself after medical college, and in the spring of 1910 had set their wedding date for August the 10th. After Stuart's murder, she went in to seclusion at the home of her elder sister, and the press was discreet enough to leave her alone.
Bertha Neuland was born March of 1880 in Frankfurt, Germany, she was the second-oldest surviving child of Melchoir Neuland, a stonemason from a small town in Hesse, and his wife Lucy Guenther. They had married in 1873. The family emigrated in 1884 and settled in Allegheny City, across the river from Pittsburgh. The first extant census record on which they appear is that for 1900, taken on June 10th . They were then renting on Spring Garden Avenue in the north end, just off Vinial Street. Melchoir and Lucy were in their early 50s, and had five children: Anna, the oldest, was 23 and worked in a box factory; Bertha, 20, worked as a "table roller", whatever that was; William, 13, ran errands; ( William , 1886- 1949 , is memorial 99981043, waiting for links to process) ·Edward, 11, and Mathilda, who would turn nine two weeks later, were listed as students. Some time between then and 1905, Bertha left home and began to call herself Edna Wallace. It is under that name that she appears in Pittsburgh directories from 1905 through 1910, at 122 Lambert Street. She owned that property; on a 1909 city map, the slot is assigned to "B. Neuland." Lambert was a short street that ran between Frankstown at its north end, and railroad tracks at its south. Beyond those rose the back of the busy East Liberty train station. It was a rowdy, working class enclave and several of its houses were well known to the police. Edna Wallace was arrested in her's in the fall of 1908 for selling liquor without a license, and she posted $500 bail with the flippant observation that although "the house has been [in operation] for 38 years," this was the first raid. She ought not have been surprised; the district attorney had declared a war on vice the previous fall, and the police were busy. She may have taken her pseudonym from a vaudevillian actress very popular at the time: petite, pretty, stylish Edna Wallace Hopper. When her real name came to light a day or two after the bodies had been discovered, several papers reported that it "rang a bell" with respectable citizens of the North End. "They recalled the pretty, popular girl" who had abruptly dropped out of sight "Certain members" of her family, the reports continued, had ascertained "the truth" and subsequently refused to have anything to do with her. Just who those family members were, or what "the truth" had been was left discreetly unsaid.
She appears on the 1910 census, taken that April,residing at 122 Lambert and under the name Edna Wallace. A month past her 30th birthday, she reported her age as 27, said she was married (and had been for seven years), and that she had borne no children. The space to designate occupation is blank. There were no other inhabitants of the house. She was truthful about one thing, at least: she gave Germany as her place of birth.
There was only a brief and hasty funeral service for Bertha. Some prayers were said at the funeral home and she was buried in an unmarked grave in the nondenominational Allegheny Cemetery. This is in marked contrast to the rest of her family who are in the Northside Catholic Cemetery. It was a sin to not be buried in a Catholic Cemetery. Perhaps she was refused because she was a suicide, or perhaps her family wanted to forget they ever knew her. Her oldest sister became a nun. At least some of the community had long believed that Bertha was married. If one wishes to use her 1910 census form as a clue, then 1903 would have been when Bertha "disappeared" from her parents' home and later -- whenever it was that she reappeared -- informed at least some of her family that she was married. In her will, drawn up in July, Bertha Neuland instructed that her house be sold and the money given to her mother Lucy. She left her jewelry to her sister Mathilda. Although she had added a codicil requesting cremation, it was unsigned at the time that she died and her wish was not granted. She was buried in Allegheny Cemetery on August 3, 1910, in section 17, lot A, plot 176. It is a single grave in what is in regarded some sense the Potters Field Section
George Stuart's body traveled home to Virginia by train the night of August 2nd, accompanied by his brother and a friend. He was buried in the family plot in Meade Memorial cemetery in White Post. He was buried wearing his wedding clothes. His fiancee Alice Pauline Simpson (1885-1975) was in a very bad way and I don't know if she ever recovered. Dr. Stuart's findagrave page is # 234436381
This is also so tremendously sad, especially for Georges fiance Alice and Bertha and George's parents.
Bertha is my relative that I was never supposed to know about. But then the Internet was invented. And a brilliant, closer relative of hers found much of this . I don't know yet if that relative wants to be named
Note, She also had a brother, William , 1886- 1949 , memorial 99981043, waiting for links to process
Inscription
(unmarked grave)
