Until the discovery of Penicillin in the 1940's Syphilis was a major threat to public health, especially in mining and railroad towns
where prostitution did a brisk business, and generally went unchecked by doctors. Left untreated Syphilis caused serious and longterm health problems to the brain, heart, nervous system and joints. It also caused blindness and deafness in those infected,
including unborn children. Many a man and woman suffered the ultimate end-game of Syphilis... dementia, insanity, and finally,
death.
In July 1911 Myrtle and her family went to Phoenix, Arizona, where, on July 20 th, her father Robert was committed to the Territorial
Asylum for the Insane. Three months later on October 21st, 1911, Robert died. He was only 38 years old. Cause of death listed on his
death certificate was syphilis and gonorrhea. He lies in an unmarked grave at Greenwood Cemetery in Phoenix, AZ, Plot 14-5-2-10.
Myrtle was 7 years old, Kenneth was 5, Warren was 1, and little Robert, Jr. was only 5 months old.
We can only assume that Lillie returned to the Humboldt area with her children, now a widow at age 27 years of age with four
young children to raise. There is no record of how she supported herself and her family, but it is a good bet that she took up one of
the common occupations for women at that time, such as cooking for the miners and railroad workers, doing laundry, mending
clothes, housekeeping or renting out sleeping space in her home to a lodger. No matter what she ended up doing, she and her
children survived.
Arizona records show that on June 6 th, 1914, at Prescott, Arizona, mother Lillie married a man named Theodore Schutz, who was a
miner, as well as a farmer and livestock owner. Apparently the wedding happened just in time, as just 3 weeks later Mary, their first
child, was born on July 5th, 1914 at 4:20 pm, in their home located at 434 S. Cortez Street, Prescott, Arizona. Daughter Lillian Pearl
followed six years later when she was born at Humboldt Hospital, October 19 th, 1920, at 10:00 pm, and four years later, on August
7th, 1924, son Theodore Julian (later changed to Ted J.) was born at Humboldt Hospital. All three of these children had their eyes
treated at birth with silver nitrate in order to prevent infection and blindness in case of exposure to Syphilis or Gonorrhea.
Myrtle's step-father may not have been an easy man to live with, which could explain why she lived with her Davenport relatives in
Phoenix in 1920, and brothers Warren and Robert are enumerated in the 1920 Glendale, Arizona census in the household of their
father's sister and her husband, Ellie & Charles Stephen. Theodore seemed to be, at the very least, a man not to be trifled with. He
was involved in a lawsuit against Jack Broaded in 1918 regarding mining rights, according to a report in the Weekly Journal-Miner
(Prescott, Arizona), dated 16 January 1918. As reported in the Weekly Journal-Miner, dated 24 November 1920, Theodore is again in
court, along with his brother William, as defendants being sued by J.E. Swigert, who reports that the Schutz brothers broke his jaw
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