More on the Spreckels Family

Claus Spreckels always maintained that the Nevada divorce obtained by Tom Watson was illegal and that, as a result,  he and Emma were not legally married. I think he may have had good reason. I also wonder if Tom's first wife, Catherine, back in England even knew that she had been divorced!
When Thomas Watson died in 1904 there were two grants of probate: the first to Catherine Watson, widow, (£50), later revoked and another to Emma Claudine Watson, widow (£4,185). All very odd.
In 1937 Nancie knew that her new employer Jean Harris was  very wealthy but I'm not sure if she knew what the source of the wealth had been. She never mentioned sugar to us as children! It is possible that she didn't know the complete story of the Spreckels Family.

Emma Spreckels actually had four brothers. ( I think I forgot to mention Rudolph previously.) He became President of The First National Bank and played a major role in the corruption case against Eugene Schmitz, the Mayor of San Francisco and Abraham Ruef. He and his wife Eleanor, nee Joliffe had four children.

Claus Augustus (Claus Junior) married Susan Oroville Dore, one of a family of young ladies famed for their beauty and who all married into money, having come from quite a modest background. Claus Jun and Oroville had a house in Avenue Foch, in Paris and a villa in Monte Carlo. Every year she would visit her Mother, Mrs Dore, back in California. The other Dore sisters were: Lavinia, who married Bernhard Hoffacker, Lillie Martin who married Philip Wooster and Ruby, who married a Mr Bond. A younger brother seems to have died as a boy and three more children died young.
 Oroville and Claus had a daughter Lurline Elizabeth Spreckels, born in 1886. She married firstly, in Berlin, Spencer Fayette Eddy, a US Senator who served in St Petersburg, Berlin, Argentina and The Balkans. He died in 1900 and she later married Joseph Kuznik.

Adolph Bernard Spreckels, another of Emma's brothers, shot the the local newspaper publisher but luckily did not kill him. The San Francisco Chronicle had published an article suggesting the Spreckels' Sugar Company had defrauded its shareholders. Adolph pleaded temporary  insanity and was acquitted! He married Alma Emma be Bretteville who was of Danish origin. They had three children: Alma Emma, Adolph Bernard and Dorothy C.