Alice Scelotte was born around 1870 in New England. According to a now lost marriage license, she married James Jacob van Hovenberg in New York City at Grace Episcopal Church in 1888. They had five children: James Jacob Jr., born ca. 1889, Emily Sevilla in July 1891, Alice Ethel August 30, 1892, Gertrude Grace in July 26, 1893, and Juliet sometime in 1896.
Her life was marked by tragedy and mystery. Her first born son died in infancy due to an inability to take milk. Family tradition maintains that she lost Juliet after falling downstairs with her. She in turn suffered severe spinal injuries in the accident - sometime in the late fall of 1896 - and was bedridden for the rest of her life. She finally succumbed on March 1, 1899. She is buried with James Jr. and Juliet at Laurel Grove Cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey.
[The pictures below present Alice at the time of her marriage, in her later years, and with the three girls, Gertrude, Alice, Emily, and their father in September, 1893.]
Because of these multiple tragedies information about Alice has been hard to obtain. After leaving New Jersey, James never spoke of his first wife again, except to erroneously inform his granddaughter that her name was Alice Nurse. Other data, such as that they met at a church social, that she was of French background (in this context, French Canadian), that she was of Italian background, that her family was dead, that she was from Vermont (as the papers reported) or New Hampshire (as the census recorded) all remain elusive. Her legacy was her daughters.
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