Tranchemontagne: Elisabeth Emma Guilbault
Elisabeth Emma Guilbault
The Working Woman
1883 – 1970
She divorced her first husband on October 18, 1907. Five days later, she married another man in Indiana.
Five days.
But before we judge Emma Gilbert for that desperate flight across state lines, we need to understand
what it meant to be a divorced woman with a three-year-old son in 1907. We need to understand
what she was running from—and what she was running toward.
Emma Gilbert, 1902. At nineteen, photographed in Chicago two years before her first marriage. The ribbon in her hair, the careful pose—a young woman on the threshold of adulthood.
The Voyageur's Daughter
Elisabeth Emma Guilbault was born on August 17, 1883, in Saint-André, Argenteuil County, Quebec—the same parish where her mother Marie Louise Souliere had been baptized nearly thirty years earlier. Her father, Evangeliste Guilbault, was listed in records as a voyageur, one of the legendary canoe paddlers who had opened the Canadian interior.
She would never know him. Evangeliste died in 1883, the same year Emma was born. Whether he died before or after her birth, we cannot say—the records are silent. What we know is that by the time Emma was three years old, her mother had made a decision that would reshape both their lives.
Date: August 17, 1883
Parish: Saint-André, Argenteuil, Quebec
Child: Elisabeth Emma Guilbault
Father: Evangeliste Guilbault, voyageur
Mother: Marie Louise Souliere
Godfather: Janvier Souliere (Emma's grandfather)
In February 1886, Marie Louise married Pierre Chrysologue Thebault in Chicago, a widower twenty-one years her senior. Emma, not yet three years old, was carried from Quebec to the booming industrial city on Lake Michigan. She would grow up American, speaking English, part of Chicago's French-Canadian immigrant community but increasingly distant from the Quebec her mother had known.
The Earliest Images
Remarkably, a series of tintypes survive from Emma's earliest years—precious metal images that capture her as an infant, a toddler, and a young child. These were likely made in Chicago in the late 1880s, as her mother and stepfather established their new life.
Emma as an infant, c. 1884. One of the earliest surviving images.
Emma as a toddler, c. 1885-1886. The bonnet and necklace suggest a formal portrait occasion.
The Working Girl
By 1900, Emma was seventeen years old and already working. The federal census that year found her at 396 W. 15th Street in Chicago's West Town neighborhood, living with her mother Louise, stepfather Peter Thebault, and several siblings and half-siblings. Her occupation: saleslady in dry goods.
This was not unusual for working-class daughters. But it established a pattern that would define Emma's life: she was a woman who worked. Through two marriages, through divorce, through the Great Depression, through raising a son alone—Emma Gilbert was always employed, always supporting herself.
Date: June 7, 1900
Location: West Town, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
Household: Peter Thebault (head), Louise (wife), Emma (stepdaughter)
Emma's Details: Age 16, single, saleslady in dry goods
Note: Listed as "Emma Gilbert" (using Anglicized form of Guilbault)
The name shift is notable: Guilbault had become "Gilbert." French-Canadian immigrants often Anglicized their names in America—easier to spell, easier to pronounce, easier to fit in. Emma would carry both names throughout her life, switching between them depending on context.
Emma at her First Communion, c. 1890s. The white dress and solemn expression mark this Catholic rite of passage.
Marriage and Motherhood
On January 31, 1904, Emma Gilbert married Thomas Henry Hamall in Chicago. She was twenty years old; he was twenty-three. Thomas was the son of Irish immigrants—Owen Hamall from County Monaghan and Kate Carroll from Chicago. He worked as a millwright, a skilled trade that promised steady employment.
Ten months later, on November 23, 1904, their son Thomas Eugene was born. The young family seemed established: a working husband, a baby, a future stretching before them.
Name: Thomas Eugene Hamall
Birth Date: November 23, 1904
Birth Place: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
Father: Thomas Hamall
Mother: Emma Gilbert
But something went wrong. By 1907—just three years after their wedding—the marriage was over.
Five Days
October 18, 1907
Emma E. Hamall is granted a divorce from Thomas H. Hamall in Cook County, Illinois. The decree awards her custody of their son Thomas, age 3. Thomas Henry is ordered to pay four dollars weekly in child support—the equivalent of roughly $130 per week today.
October 23, 1907
Five days later, in Lake County, Indiana, Emma Gilbert marries Alvin Henry Hepp. The marriage license shows the ceremony was performed in Crown Point, Indiana—a town famous for its "quickie marriages" where couples could wed without waiting periods or residency requirements.
Why Indiana? Why five days? The records don't explain Emma's urgency, but the context suggests possibilities:
- Economic necessity: A divorced woman with a three-year-old in 1907 faced severe economic vulnerability. Thomas's $4 weekly child support, while substantial, might not arrive reliably.
- Social stigma: Divorced women were viewed with suspicion. Remarriage offered respectability.
- The Hepp option: Perhaps Alvin Hepp had been waiting—a relationship that predated the divorce, or a rapid courtship during the separation period.
- Escape: Perhaps Emma simply needed to be someone else's responsibility, to have a partner, to not face the world alone with a toddler.
We cannot know her heart. We can only see her actions: a woman who moved fast, who made decisions, who survived.
Marriage license for Alvin Hepp and Emma Gilbert, October 23, 1907, Lake County, Indiana. Filed five days after Emma's divorce from Thomas Henry Hamall.
The Hepp Years
Alvin Henry Hepp was born in 1879 in Indiana, making him the same age as Emma. He worked as an elevator guard—a respectable if modest occupation. A newspaper clipping from September 1909 mentions "Alvin Hepp and wife" visiting Munster, Indiana, suggesting the couple maintained ties to Alvin's hometown.
The 1910 census shows Emma living with Alvin in Chicago. But by 1914, the marriage had effectively ended. The city directory that year lists them at separate addresses:
Hepp Emma Mrs — 1836 S Spalding
Alvin Hepp, Elevator Guard — 3517 Reta Ave
Listed on the same directory page, but at different addresses. Living separately by 1914.
By the 1920 census, Emma is listed as "divorced," living with her mother Louise at 525 Belmont Avenue. She is 37 years old, working as a saleswoman in a drug store. Her son Thomas, now 15, is listed as an "errand boy."
The second marriage had lasted longer than the first—perhaps seven years before separation—but it too had failed. Emma was twice divorced, a working woman supporting herself and her teenage son.
Emma and Alvin Hepp, cropped from the larger Thebault family photograph, c. 1908. This is the only known photograph of Emma with her second husband.
The Property War
In 1924, Emma made a decision that would drag both her and Thomas Henry through the courts for four years. She filed a lawsuit claiming he owed her $2,500 in unpaid child support—the equivalent of roughly $45,000 today. She sought to seize his property, a small cottage in Riverside, Illinois, to satisfy the debt.
Thomas Henry fought back. He argued the cottage was his protected homestead under Illinois law, exempt from seizure. The case—Hamall v. Petru—wound through the circuit court, the appellate court, and finally to the Illinois Supreme Court.
On October 25, 1928, the Supreme Court ruled against Emma. The cottage was protected. Thomas Henry kept his home.
Case: Hamall v. Petru, 331 Ill. 465, 163 N.E. 314 (1928)
Decided: October 25, 1928
Ruling: Decree affirmed. Thomas Hamall's cottage protected as homestead.
Key Finding: Property valued under $1,000, qualifying for homestead exemption.
The lawsuit reveals the bitterness between Emma and Thomas Henry—a conflict that lasted two decades after their divorce. But it also reveals Emma's desperation. She was 41 years old in 1924, twice divorced, still working to support herself. The $2,500 she claimed would have been life-changing.
She lost. But she kept going.
Mother and Son
Through all the marriages, divorces, and legal battles, one relationship remained constant: Emma and her son Thomas Eugene. They lived together for most of her adult life—a bond that lasted 63 years, from his birth in 1904 until his death in 1967.
The 1929 studio portrait shows them together: Emma at 46, elegant and composed; Thomas Eugene at 25, a young man in his prime. They are dressed for the photograph, mother and son presenting themselves to the camera as a unit.
Emma Guilbault Hamall with her son Thomas Eugene, 1929. A studio portrait from their time living together in Chicago.
By 1930, they were living at 4506 N. McVickers Avenue in Chicago. Emma is listed as head of household—divorced, 47 years old, working as a "saleslady for ladies' dresses." Thomas Eugene, 25, is living with her.
Living with Thomas Eugene was economically sensible for both: shared rent and utilities, Emma could continue working while maintaining a home, Thomas Eugene had household management while working. But it was more than economics. It was companionship. It was family. It was the one relationship that never failed her.
Some family accounts suggest Emma may have worked for Helena Rubenstein, the legendary cosmetics company, during the 1930s. Whether this is documented fact or family legend, it fits the pattern: Emma as saleswoman, Emma as working woman, Emma as survivor.
Four Generations
In 1932, a remarkable photograph was taken: Emma's mother Marie Louise, then nearly 80 years old, seated. In the background is her great-grandson—Emma's grandson Thomas Kenny Hamall born that same year. Four generations of women and the men they raised, captured in a single image.
Emma stands in the photograph as the bridge—the generation that connects the Quebec-born Marie Louise to the American-born Thomas Kenny. She is the hinge of the family, the one who carried the Souliere line from French Canada into the American Midwest.
Four Generations, 1932: Marie Louise Souliere seated, her daughter Emma, grandson Thomas Eugene holding her great-grandson infant Thomas Kenny Hamall.
The Miami Years
By 1950, Emma and Thomas Eugene had left Chicago for Miami, Florida. Thomas Eugene's ex-wife Margaret and their son Thomas Kenny had moved there first; Thomas Eugene followed, and Emma came with him.
The 1950 census and 1953 Miami city directory confirm they were living together at various addresses in Miami and nearby areas. Emma was now in her late sixties, still following her son, still maintaining the household they had shared for decades.
The directory lists Emma as "wid Thos"—widow of Thomas—even though she had divorced Thomas Henry decades earlier and he had remarried. Perhaps it was simpler to claim widowhood than to explain a complicated marital history. Perhaps she wanted to honor the name her son carried. Perhaps, after all those years, the marriage to Thomas Henry was the one that mattered most.
Emma in her later years, Miami. White hair, glasses, elegant jewelry—the saleswoman who became a grandmother.
The Final Years
Thomas Eugene Hamall died in 1967. He was 63 years old. Emma, now 84, had lost the one constant in her life—the son she had raised alone, the companion who had lived with her for six decades.
After Thomas Eugene's death, his son Thomas Kenny—Emma's grandson—arranged for Emma to move to the Villa Maria Home for the Aged in North Plainfield, New Jersey, near where he lived. She spent her final years there, far from Chicago where she had grown up, far from Miami where she had grown old.
Emma E. Hamall died on July 14, 1970, at the age of 87. Her obituary in the Plainfield newspaper listed her as "wife of the late Thomas Hamall, formerly of Miami, Fla." She was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hanover, New Jersey.
Name: Emma E. Hamall
Death Date: July 14, 1970
Location: Villa Maria, North Plainfield, New Jersey
Formerly of: Miami, Florida
Grandmother of: Thomas K. Hamall, 918 Madison Ave., Plainfield
Great-grandchildren: Five
Burial: Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hanover, New Jersey
The Working Woman
Born to a voyageur she never knew. Carried to Chicago as a toddler. Working by seventeen. Married at twenty. Divorced at twenty-four. Remarried five days later. Divorced again. Sued her first husband in the Illinois Supreme Court. Lost.
And through it all, she kept working. She raised her son. She followed him to Miami. She lived to see five great-grandchildren.
Emma Gilbert was a survivor.
The Tranchemontagne Connection
Emma Gilbert Hamall represents the seventh generation of the Tranchemontagne line—the first to be born to American soil (or nearly so; she was baptized in Quebec but raised in Chicago from age three). Through her mother Marie Louise Souliere, she carried the blood of the French-Canadian pioneers who had settled the Ottawa River valley.
But Emma also bridges to another family story. By marrying Thomas Henry Hamall, she connected the Souliere line to the Hamall line—Irish immigrants from County Monaghan who had their own dramatic history of loss, resilience, and legal battles.
Document Gallery
The primary sources that trace Emma's life—from her 1883 baptism in Quebec to her 1970 obituary in New Jersey. Click any image to view full size.
Baptism of Elisabeth Emma Guilbault
Parents: Evangeliste Guilbault (voyageur) and Louise Souliere. Godfather: Janvier Souliere (grandfather).
1900 Census - Thebault Household
Emma Gilbert, age 16, single, saleslady in dry goods. Living with mother Louise and stepfather Peter Thebault.
Birth of Thomas Eugene Hamall
Emma's only child. Father: Thomas Hamall. Mother: Emma Gilbert. The son she would live with for 63 years.
Marriage to Alvin Hepp
Five days after her divorce from Thomas Henry. Indiana's "quickie marriage" laws allowed immediate remarriage.
Alvin Hepp and Wife Visit
Brief mention of the couple visiting Munster. Evidence of their marriage during the Hepp years.
1920 Census - With Mother Louise
Emma Hepp, divorced, age 37, saleswoman drug store. Son Thomas (as "Hepp") age 15, errand boy. Living with mother Louise.
Hamall v. Petru - Supreme Court
Emma sued Thomas Henry for $2,500 back child support. Court ruled against her; his homestead was protected.
1930 Census - Head of Household
Emma Hamall, divorced, age 47, saleslady ladies' dresses. Listed as head of household with son Thomas Eugene.
1950 Census - Miami
Emma and Thomas Eugene in Miami. They followed his ex-wife and son to Florida.
Obituary - Emma E. Hamall
Died at Villa Maria Home for the Aged. "Wife of the late Thomas Hamall, formerly of Miami." Grandmother of Thomas K. Hamall.
Emma Gilbert, 1902
Studio portrait at age 19, two years before her first marriage. Ribbon in hair, white blouse with high collar.
Emma as Infant - Tintype
One of the earliest surviving images of Emma, likely taken shortly after her arrival in Chicago.
Emma - First Communion
Catholic rite of passage. White dress, solemn expression, the immigrant church sustaining identity.
Emma with Thomas Eugene, 1929
Mother and son, ages 46 and 25. The partnership that defined both their lives.
Four Generations - 1932
Marie Louise, Emma, Thomas Eugene, and infant Thomas Kenny. Emma as the bridge between generations.
Professional Portrait - Later Years
White hair, glasses, floral jewelry. The working woman in her final years.
Primary Sources
- Baptism Record (1883): Saint-André Parish, Argenteuil, Quebec. Elisabeth Emma Guilbault.
- Census Records: U.S. Federal Census 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1950.
- Birth Record (1904): Cook County, Illinois. Thomas Eugene Hamall.
- Marriage Record (1907): Lake County, Indiana. Alvin Hepp and Emma Gilbert.
- Court Record (1928): Hamall v. Petru, 331 Ill. 465, Illinois Supreme Court.
- City Directories: Chicago 1914; Miami 1953.
- Obituary (1970): Plainfield, New Jersey newspaper.
- Family Photographs: Collection of Mary Hamall Morales.
Storyline Genealogy
From Research to Story
Emma had a daughter whose story remains unsolved. Read the photo analysis mystery: The Girl Who Vanished: Frances Hamel
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