I enjoy looking up people and doing quickie genealogies. So I am getting back to that starting with Thomas A. Cover. Why him? He shows up in Truxton Circle in the census at least 3 times.
Born in 1905, he first appeared in the 1910 census. He was a five year old White male living at 1502 North Capitol Street NW. At that time he was living with his widowed father Charles Cover, a sister and two brothers, along with his aunt and uncle.
I should note he also shows up in Front Royal, VA in the 1910 census. It isn’t too unusual for people show up twice in different places. In Front Royal he was staying with his maternal grandparents, John and Mary Baublitz, on their farm.
He was born in Washington, DC to Charles Cover and Anna Iola Baublitz in June 27, 1904. His mother died in 1908 leaving his father to care for four minor children, two under the age of 6. Which might explain why Thomas A.’s maternal aunt and uncle, Minerva S. and Thomas A Baublitz lived with the family. His father worked as a clerk for the post office, and the uncle worked for a grocery store.
Thomas’ father married Aunt Minerva. It doesn’t seem she was really married to the other Thomas, as the record of a previous marriage is hard to find. In the 1920 census, Charles is married to Minerva and working as an accountant. Thomas is 15 years old and living at 1502 N. Capitol St. NW with adult sister, Cotta, and his two brothers Robert and Frank. He and older brother Robert worked as messengers for the Interior Department. The family had two roomers under their roof.
1930, the family is still at 1502 North Capitol. Charles was still the head with Minerva at his side. Thomas was 25 years old and worked as a clerk for the federal government. His younger brother, Frank, also worked for the federal government as a machinist. Frank was married to an Anna, and they had an infant son, Richard.
By 1940, Thomas had left Truxton Circle but still remained in Washington, DC. He was married and living at 2715 Cortland Pl NW in Woodley Park. He and his wife, Harriett, were both clerks for the Treasury Department, he an examining clerk and she a review clerk. They had an infant son and a White live in servant who was from the same state as Harriett.
They were still on Cortland Place in the 1950 census. By then Harriett had given up her government career for housewifery and they had a daughter. Thomas was an accountant working for the Reclamation Bureau.
Sticky Marriage Situation
Thomas was married twice and his first marriage wound up in the paper, but not in the wedding announcement section. In 1932, Thomas married Georgia V. Foster Mattingly, a woman who was previously married and two years his senior. Georgia’s marriage to Louis R. Mattingly was dissolved with a Mexican divorce, with their separation in 1932.
Apparently, Mexican divorces were not considered valid by the District Supreme court. A judge annulled the Mattingly and Cover marriage in 1934 and the matter made the newspapers. According to the reporting, Cover had paid for the divorce between Georgia and Louis in December 1932, and married her that same month. Exactly a year later, Thomas requested an annulment claiming the marriage invalid. The Evening Star, December 6, 1934 referred to it as a mail order divorce. The problem seemed to have been that no one had actually went to Mexico for the divorce.
The incident did not scare him away from marriage as he married Harriett Cecelia Mary Esse in 1936.
Thomas Austin Cover’s life ended in a Montgomery County driveway in 1957. He died of a heart attack in his car in his driveway at 4527 Rosedale Avenue, Bethesda, MD in the morning. He had nearly 40 years with the federal government. His first job, according to the Evening Star, was a messenger for Bureau of Mines.