Fired a few shots to let his neighbours know that he had a gun

By 1937 Theodore Wilhelm Vetter had been in and out of gaol a number of times, and this was having an effect on his marriage.

The electoral rolls for that year show that his wife, Mary May, was living in Wright Street, North Croydon, and that their eldest daughter, Mary Louise, was also on the electoral rolls as living there.  We can assume that their youngest daughter, Joan Margaret was also living there.

However there was no sign of Theodore on the electoral rolls, and in fact during his last time in prison Mary did not visit him, whereas previously she had always made the trip to Yatala Prison to do so.

This may well do with the fact that Mary was now suffering from myxedema, a disease resulting from under activity of the thyroid gland, and was most likely unable to make the trip. In fact Mary was to die from the disease on June 30th of this year.

In late January of 1937 Theodore was again arrested, and once more was in Hindmarsh Court explaining his way, or at least trying to explain, out of another fine or prison sentence.

Constable Shannon had arrested Theodore under the Firearms Registration Act.  He had been called to Wright Street, North Croydon, after there had been a compliant about bullets being fired through a glasshouse.  The glasshouse being next door to where Mary and her daughters lived.

On arresting Theodore the Constable had asked him if the gun was registered, and Theodore honestly answered that it was not.  Constable immediately confiscated the gun.

Constable Shannon then asked Theodore why he fired the gun at the neighbour’s glasshouse.  Theodore replied that he had just bought the weapon and had fired a few shots to let his neighbours know that he had a gun.

Once in front of magistrates Evans and Cooley at the Hindmarsh Court house, Theodore had little chance of getting his gun back, and was dually charged and fined £2, and £1 costs.

I can imagine Theodore’s annoyance at this, especially having only just purchased the gun.  But what does not make sense to me is the fact that it looks like Theodore was not living there.  So why was he firing a gun at the neighbours glasshouse.  Knowing that Theodore had a temper, I am inclined to make the assumption that he had called round to visit his wife and family, and that, perhaps, they had denied him entry.  So he decided that the only way to gain entry was to fire a gun!

Divorce

In December 1913, a Mrs. Vetter of Brown Street, Norwood, in Adelaide, advertised in the local papers for a “Domesticated Companion”.  Mrs. Vetter was the 1^st wife of Theodore Wilhelm Vetter.  They had moved to Adelaide around 1906 from Fremantle in Western Australia.  Theodore by now was running a Contracting business, and had a name for himself in the local building industry as well as the local German community.  He had been President of the South Australian Allegemeiner Deutscher Verein from 1909 to 1912, covering the 25^th anniversary of the Club in 1911, when he entertained the Governor of South Australian at the celebrations.

Sometime during 1914 Mary May Brice was employed by the Vetter household.  Mary had been born in Port Adelaide in 1887, and spent time working as a domestic servant in Melbourne in her very early 20s, but now was back in Adelaide looking for work.

Now lets skip forward to 1919 and the Adelaide Advertiser for the 5^th of September reports the details of a divorce proceeding that was being heard in the Civil Court in Adelaide.

Albertina Vetter was petitioning for the dissolution of her marriage with Theodore Wilhelm Vetter on the grounds of adultery.  Her council was stating that Theodore had committed adultery with Mary Brice at Greenock between February and March of that year.

Mrs. Vetter stated she had three children by Theodore and they had been married in Fremantle before coming to South Australia.  She was represented by the noted South Australian lawyer Mr. Paris Nesbit.

Mr. Nesbit had hired a private detective – a Mr. Hurtle Levison Gray, who had journeyed up to Greenock, north of Adelaide.  Theodore was now the Licensee of the Greenock Arms Hotel.  On Mr. Gray’s first visit to Greenock he had not been able to see or find Theodore, but he did find Mary Brice at the hotel.  He returned again where both Theodore and Mary greeted him, and Theodore made the disclosure that he was the father to a child born to Mary.

In July of 1919, Mr. Gray returned to Greenock, taking with him Thomas Crowley (safety in numbers!!), where he intended on serving Theodore with citation papers.  It was now that Theodore provided a bit more information for Mr. Gray to take back to Mr. Nesbit.

Not only was Theodore father to one child, but two, by Mary.  Theodore was quick to the point on how this had all come about, stating that his wife, Albertina, was very difficult to live with, and that he had so much trouble with servants while living with her, that the only way he could retain them was to commit adultery with them.

Mr. Justice Buchannan dually listened to the evidence provided by Mr. Nesbit.   In fact Theodore’s council, Mr. G.H. Degenhardt, said very little, his client having said enough already.

His Honor found the charges of adultery proved, and granted Albertina her divorce, but she would have to go to the Full Court to get a decree nisi.

A lot had happened between when Albertina put the request in the newspaper in for a companion in 1913 to the divorce being granted in 1919.

Theodore’s contracting business mysteriously caught fire in January 1915, and there were rumours that he had asked a former employee to set fire to the premises.  He then place advertisements in the papers saying that he was selling everything and going farming.

By April 1915 Theodore was no longer living at the family home, and Albertina had taken him to court to get maintenance of £1 per week.  But by early November Albertina had Theodore back in court, as he had not paid any maintenance for over ten weeks.  The judge ordered the outstanding amount to be paid within one week or Theodore would be imprisoned for 1 month.

However on the 27^th of November, Mary gave birth to a baby daughter at a local Nursing Home in Kent Town.  There was no father listed. The informant on the birth certificate was T.W. Vetter of 8 Brown Street, Norwood, listing himself as her Employer.  8 Brown Street was the home Theodore had shared with Albertina, and she was still listed as living there on the local electoral rolls, but not Theodore.

Theodore’s business adventures seem to be going in a downward trend, and his name was appearing many times in the local court reports, being sued by various business men in the Building Industry.

On October 22, 1916, Mary gave birth to a baby boy, again at the Nursing Home in Kent Town, and again no father listed on the certificate.  This time the informant was the matron of the Nursing Home.

By 1917 Theodore was living in at the Greenock Arms Hotel.

So the adultery by Theodore and Mary covered a much longer time than the February to March of 1919 as stated in the court proceedings, and despite Theodore’s very off the hand comment about how he “kept servants” exactly 3 months to the day after his decree nisi in March 1920 he   married Mary May Brice at the Registrar General’s Office in Flinders Street, Adelaide.

The scandal of divorce was extreme in these times, and in fact the Vetter divorce even made the papers in Perth, in Western Australia, where a local society reporter wrote the following piece.

IF HE DIDN’T[i]

In the divorce case Albertina Vetters v. Theodore Vetters and Mary Brice respondent admitted living with Mary, who was his servant, but said the only way to keep a servant nowadays was to commit adultery with her. A good servant couldn't' be kept without doing so.  

Oh, madam, suspicious and stern,

Oh, worrying, wowserish wife, See what a lesson you'll learn

From this chapter of everyday life,

For Years you've been blaming the man;

No plea or excuses you'd hear; so we ask you, in justice, to scan

Home-truths that hereunder appear. The lawsuit of Vetter and Brice

In highly religious South Oss

Just proves how a man pays the price When the fairy who feeds him is boss.

The case of poor Theodore V.

Might be any man's any old day, And proves, after all, 'tisn't he

That always leads women astray. Mr. V. was as pure as the snows

That fall from Antarctical skies Till womankind wafted him woes

By picking him out as a prize.

And the simplest amongst us can see - Here comes the riddle and rub! - Unless he had mashed Mary B.

He was sure not to get any grub:

Don't imagine, though he may be caught

Linking Mary Ann's lips to his own, That he ever gives Mary a thought

When at night he and you are alone. Good servants are scarce, that he knows,

And servant girls like to be loved,

And want, by their blokes and their beaux.

To be costumed and coiffured and gloved.

If you don't show the girl what she's worth

She'll learn it wherever she'll roam, And as things often happen in Perth

They may as well happen at home.

Oh, women who shadow the spouse

Who won't go to pictures and plays, Don't think it's a belle in a blouse

That's changing his wandering ways.

Though he shuns the Palladium or

Grand, Majestic, the Royal and Pav.,

Though his stay-homes you can't understand

You would, if you harbored some sav. While you laugh' at the quaint Charlie C.,

Or at Olga Petrova you sob,

He's got to nurse Kate on his knee

To keep her from jibbing her job!

It doesn't quite follow, dear ma'am,

Though you catch the old man kissing Kate,

That a writ for divorce you must slam  

And your soul from his soul separate.

There are always two sides to a scene,

And though you're a wife wide awake,

The cause of the kiss might have been

To reward her for cooking a cake. And if he proposes to hie

To Mandurah, down on the coast, it's a compliment p'r'aps to her pie,

Or her excellent tea or her toast. So, madam, if can you catch.

Your hubby at Armadale green;

Don't try your supplanter to scratch

Or make a sensational scene.

Though she's there as his wife and wears

A week-endy sort of a ring,

He's saving you cooking-range cares

By having this sort of a fling.

If she didn't get outings like this

With hubby to see she went straight There's no knowing who she might

kiss  

In a 10 p.m. park tete-tete.

And when East by the Transline you

run.

And you leave him behind all along, It's nice to know he is with one,

Who'll treat him as one of her own!

DRYBLOWER

---

[i] Sunday Times (Perth) September 7, 1919