Married at Age Fifteen by Her Minister Father: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Joined Together”

Mary Alma’s Teen Marriage: No Elopement Required

Mary Alma Smith: 1886-1969

 

Usually parents object when their young teenage daughters are being romanced by older, adult men, but apparently Rev. Willis Smith saw things differently. Not only did he grant permission for his fifteen-year-old daughter Mary Alma to marry a twenty-four-year-old man, but he actually performed the wedding ceremony!

After spending the majority of his life in Kentucky just miles from Paradise where he was born, Rev. Willis Smith decided, at age 47, to become a missionary minister in the Oklahoma Territory. He had recently lost his first wife due to illness, and married Cora Leachman a year later in late spring 1899. By 1900, he had moved his wife and minor children to El Reno, Oklahoma, just west of what is now Oklahoma City, and planned to move sixty miles further west to Arapaho, OK. However, they moved southwest to Washita County instead.

Mary Alma was Willis’ seventh child, and was only fourteen when they arrived in Oklahoma. Two of her older sisters, Nancy and Maude, had already married back in Kentucky, and her three oldest brothers were already out of the house with families or in college, so Mary Alma and her sister Stella, age 17, were the oldest of the Smith children in Oklahoma. It must have been a difficult time for the Smith children, having in the space of one short year lost their mother, gained a stepmother, and moved away from everyone and every place they had ever known. Perhaps that explains why Mary Alma and Stella were searching for love at such a young age.

Rev. Willis Smith's four daughters--two of them are Mary Alma and Stella, but not sure which two

Mary Alma and Stella met a pair of young men, first cousins named Frank Lesley Cox and Roy Stuart Cox. Both were born in Illinois, and had farmed with their fathers. Frank’s family moved to Elk, Oklahoma by the time of the 1900 census. Roy, his father and brother were living in Oregon in 1900, but Roy seems to have relocated to Oklahoma by 1902, as he was one of the witnesses at his cousin Frank’s wedding.

Frank applied for a marriage license to wed Mary Alma on February 21, 1902. The certificate states that Frank is age 24, and that Mary Alma “is of the age of 15 years and that the permission of brides parents, which is in writing and filed in this court, is true and germane.” The court seems to have taken underage marriage seriously, wanting to ensure that the young woman had the support of her family.

The wedding occurred at the Smith home the same day the license was issued. Willis recorded on the marriage certificate that the witnesses included “Messrs J Cox, Roy Cox, and Earnest Smith.” J Cox was Frank’s brother Joel, and Earnest Smith was Mary Alma’s older brother who was visiting from Kentucky. 

A quick marriage of an underage girl usually involves an unplanned pregnancy. However, I cannot confirm that Mary Alma and Frank had a “shotgun” marriage. I have been unable to find a birth record for their oldest daughter, Nelle. On various census forms and records, the inferred birthdates vary between 1902 and 1904. The Family Search family tree shows her birth date as December 1, 1902, but there is no proof of that date. A December birth date would indicate Mary Alma got pregnant immediately after the marriage, not before. So perhaps there was another reason for the hasty, youthful marriage.

Frank and Mary Alma moved frequently during the early years of their marriage. Their two eldest daughters Nelle and Maude were born in Oklahoma in 1902 and 1904, and their eldest son Joel was born in Union, New Mexico in 1906, and their daughter Birdie was born in October 1908 in Texas.

By the time of the 1910 census, the family had moved northwest to Washington. Frank was working in Prescott, a town in Walla Walla County, as a well-digger. Their fifth and final child, Eva Blanche Cox, was born June 27, 1912 in Oregon. Mary Alma was only twenty-five, but was the mother of five children.

By the time of the 1920 census, the family had relocated to the town of Pomeroy in Garfield County, Washington, and Frank was working as a farm laborer. The 1930 census found them in Menlo, Washington, where Frank had found work as a laborer in a lumber camp. Living with them was four-year-old Vernon Morgus, the son of their daughter Birdie and her ex-husband Vern Morgus, already divorced after just a few years of marriage.

By the 1940 census, Frank is working as a power line “bucker” for the WPA—hard work for a 63 year old man. Mary Alma and Frank are living in Cowlitz, Washington, still raising Birdie’s son who is now 14 years old, while Birdie has moved to California and is working as a waitress. In addition, Mary Alma and Frank have taken in Mary Alma’s brother Charlie Smith and his ten-year-old son David. Charlie states he is farming.

Frank died in 1950, and Mary Alma died August 5, 1969. She was 83. While Mary Alma was a teen bride, she remained married to Frank her entire life, and they left five children and several grandchildren. Family was obviously important to them, as they took on the job of raising their grandson, and helping other family members. I hope the marriage was as happy as it was long.

Interesting Discoveries from Basic Documents: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Document”

Census Forms and Military Draft Forms Hold Fascinating Hints About Life in Twentieth Century Kentucky

Edward Elias Sears: 1881-1943

Annie Pearl O’Neal: 1882-1968

Daisy Lee Sears: 1906-1969

 

At first glance, the life of Edward Elias Sears, my husband’s first cousin twice removed, offered no surprises. He was born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, like many of the Smith ancestors. His mother was a Smith: Sarah Frances was Willis Smith’s older sister. Other than a stint in World War I as a Sergeant in an Army Medical Company, he lived in Kentucky all his life. Most of the other trees he appears in on Ancestry show that he married one wife, Corda Miller, and had two sons, Richard and Ray.

But a few other trees showed something surprising and made reference to the census of 1910. Apparently Edward had a wife before he married Corda, before he served in the military. And this marriage ended quickly after the birth of a daughter and seemed to have provoked shame on the part of both Edward and his first wife, Annie Pearl.

It was time to take a second look at the 1910 census. Were these other trees to be trusted? Were there documents to back up their assertion that Edward had a failed first marriage?

I tried to find records of this supposed marriage between Edward and Annie Pearl O’Neal. I assumed it took place in Kentucky in 1905 as their daughter was born in February 1906. Annie was born in Paradise, Kentucky, located in Muhlenberg County where Edward had grown up. Her parents, Tobias and Mary Jane O’Neal, were farming, just as Edward and his father were. The families appear only four pages apart on the 1900 census. Edward was 19 in 1900, and Annie was 17. They probably attended the same small high school and would have known one another.

However, I couldn’t find a marriage certificate or record for them on Ancestry. A few trees listed a date late in February 1906 as the date of the marriage, but this seemed unlikely as it was after the date their daughter Daisy Lee Sears, was born on February 15, 1906. I could find no birth certificate to confirm Daisy’s birth date, but that date appears on her Social Security and death records, so I believe it is correct. I found no Ancestry records for Edward, Annie Pearl or Daisy between the 1900 census and the 1910 census.

Still, the specificity of the date the other trees provided for the marriage puzzled me. I turned to Family Search, and while I struck out searching under Edward’s name, I found the marriage record under Annie Pearle O’Neal. Edward gave his name on the marriage license as “E. E. Sears” which explains why I’d failed to find it. The certificate shows they were married at the home of Annie’s father on February 24, 1906, nine days after Daisy’s birth.

Obviously there is a story there, the details of which can only be imagined. I would guess that either Annie or Edward had resisted marriage when they discovered Annie was pregnant, but once the baby had arrived, the reluctant party gave in. Was this a true shotgun marriage? Did Annie’s dad demand that Edward “do the right thing”, even if it was nine days too late to make Daisy legitimate?

The other striking thing about the marriage record is Edward’s occupation: instead of “farm laborer” like he lists on the 1900 and 1910 census, he states he is a “book agent”. Since I don’t believe he was brokering book deals for local authors, I suspect he was what we now call a "bookie", and was operating at the edge of illegality. Perhaps he was a local bad boy who had ducked out on his responsibilities to Annie just as he ducked out respectable employment. This is all speculation, of course. I have no evidence other than a couple of words on a document.

By the time the 1910 census was conducted, the marriage had already failed and the young couple was living apart. I immediately noted what the other genealogists had remarked upon: Edward is living with his parents and helping his father with the farm. He lists his marital state as “widowed”.

Yet just down the road and only three pages away on the Muhlenberg County census, Annie Pearl and daughter Daisy, now four years old, are living with Annie’s brother James Elbert, and their sister and mother. Annie also lists her marital state as “widowed”.

So what happened on this census form? Obviously, no one had died. Both families lived very close to one another, and were perfectly aware this supposed widower had a wife and child just down the road, close enough that Edward could easily pop over for a visit with little Daisy. Was this just the work of an oddly prudish census worker, who didn’t want to list people as divorced? Or is this a sign of shame on the part of the two families, who were unwilling to tell a stranger the ugly truth about a broken marriage? We may never know.

The 1920 census shows Annie Pearl, now listed as “Perly Sears” still living with her brother and mother, and still claiming to be a widow. Daisy is now 13.

Edward, now home from the war, has relocated to Paducah, Kentucky and has remarried. I can find no marriage record for him and his second wife, Cora or Corda Miller, on either Ancestry or Family Search, so I don’t know whether he was truthful about his previous marriage on his new marriage license or not.

Not until the 1930 census, does Annie Pearl, still living with brother James Elbert, correctly list her marital status as “divorced”. Was the change due to a more liberal attitude toward divorce in 1930? Or was it just a more accurate and knowledgeable census taker?

So what happened after the divorce drama? Daisy grew up and married a man named Herman Wood in Tennessee, and they ended up living in Indianapolis where Herman worked in the steel mills. The couple met in Daisy’s hometown of Paradise, Kentucky—Herman Wood was born there. Daisy and Herman had five children.

Annie Pearl and her brother James Elbert

Annie Pearl never remarried, continuing to live with her brother and visiting Daisy and her grandchildren until her death in 1968 at age 85. Daisy died a year later in April of 1969 (although several trees and her Findagrave entry incorrectly list the death date as April 1968—more unreliable info corrected through close examination of documents, including her death certificate and a newspaper death notice!)

As for Daisy’s father Edward Sears, he had one more fascinating document that needs mention: his World War II draft card. I did a double-take when I read the entry under “Employer’s name and address”. It reads: “Retired: totally disabled by government.”

Disabled by the government? At first I assumed he had possibly been injured in World War I—you could sort of blame that on the government. But then I realized what the entry really meant: he had been approved by the government for disability payments under Social Security. He didn’t mean the government was the cause of his disability. I had to laugh. Further proof that close reading of documents can provide humor as well as important information!

Sources:

"Kentucky Marriages, 1785-1979", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4QR-J3Z : 22 July 2021), Annie Pearle Oneal in entry for E.e. Sears, 1906.

https://img.newspapers.com/img/thumbnail/106331769/400/400/2289_4555_543_180/ Death notice for Daisy Sears Wood Apr 1969