Genealogy Story – Marrying your Sister-in-law

Becoming a widow/widower with children while relatively young then remarrying and having more children with the second spouse is not that unusual. It’s a little more unusual if the second spouse is also a widow/widower and has children from their first marriage as well. But what if the spouses of the first marriages were also siblings? This is the story of one such instance.

 

The Players

In 1900, William Fredrick Ladd was 20. He was working on the farm of the Nelson Webster family in Salem, New London County, CT. Nelson and his wife Belle are in their 40s and their two youngest children, Cynthia and Stanley, are still at home. The census record from 1900 is a snapshot of the situation.

[1900 census]

What the census record cannot show is that William has evidently fallen in love with his employer’s daughter, 15-year-old Cynthia. Two years later, in March 1902, when William is 22 and Cynthia is 17, they get married. They go on to have three children – Leslie (b. 1909), Nelson (b. 1913), and Bruce (b. 1914). In the 1910 census we can see the family, with only one child at the time, living in Danbury.

[1910 census]

Meanwhile, Cynthia’s brother Stanley also grows up. In 1912, when he is 24, he marries Cornelia May Howe who is 17 (a pretty typical marriage age for young women of the time). They go on to have four children – Isabelle May (b. 1912), Dorothy (b. 1914), Nelson (b. 1915), and Durwood (b. 1918).

 

Double Tragedy

In August 1919, at the relatively young age of 36, Cynthia passes away. William is then 41, but is now charged with having to raise his three children, ages 10, 6, and 5. The family are living in Groton, CT. Then just six months later in February 1920, Cynthia’s brother, Stanley also dies at the even younger age of 31. The 1910 census was taken in January that year, so we can see the family just the month before Stanley’s death with the four young children. They are living in Seymour, CT. Nellie is only 26.

[1920 census]

Although living in different parts of the state, the surviving spouses are connected to each other through their deceased spouses. They probably attended the funerals of the two Webster siblings and are both now not only grieving, but having to raise their respective families. Thus, they turn to each other and, after a respectable time of grieving, marry each other – despite the difference in their ages.

 

A Combined Family

Here in the 1930 census, we see the composite family – with a total of 9 of their eventual 10 children. Leslie (21), Nelson (16), and Bruce (15) are the offspring of Williams’s first marriage. Isabelle (17), Dorothy (15), Nelson (14), and Durwood (12) are the offspring of Nellie’s first marriage (as evidenced by the Webster surname). And Irene (7) and Gladys (4) are the children from the second marriages of William and Nellie.

[1930 Census]

In the 1940 census we see that the older children from both first marriages have married and moved out. Irene and Gladys have been joined by a younger brother, William Jr.

[1940 Census]

 William passed away in 1948. Nellie was in her early 50s and still had one child, William Jr, age 13 at home. She married once again, to Jacob Coney, who was nearly 20 years younger than she was. She died in 1961.

[1950 Census]

What Do I Call You?

The composite family leads to some interesting relationships. Let’s label the children in groups as follows:

·       Group A – Leslie, Nelson, and Bruce

·       Group B – Isabelle, Dorothy, Nelson, and Durwood [Webster]

·       Group C – Irene, Gladys, and William Jr.

Then we have the following relationships:

·       The parents, William and Nellie are both husband/wife as well as brother-in-law/sister-in-law

·       Group A are Williams’s children and Nellie’s step-children as well as Nellie’s nephews

·       Group B are William’s step-children as well as his nephews/nieces and Nellie’s children

·       Group C are William and Nellie’s children as well as their nephews/nieces

·       Groups A and B are step-siblings of each other as well as first cousins

·       Groups A and C are half-siblings of each other as well as first cousins

·       Groups B and C are half-siblings of each other as well as first cousins

Certainly, a very interesting household! But I suppose that William and Nellie just called everyone their child and the children just referred to each other as brother/sister.

Foot Surgery Chronology

As anyone who has read my blog knows, I’ve had an ongoing problem with my right foot for several years. The root cause has been an arthritic bone growth at the base of my right big toe. Because of this, I cannot straighten that toe out and the ball of my foot takes all the weight whenever I walk. This causes a large callus to build up and occasionally the callus gets so thick and hard that it breaks loose – giving me a hole in the bottom of my foot, right where I walk.

Compounding the problem is that a couple of times (three times in fact) when I’ve gotten it healed up, I’ve developed an infection under the healed skin and gotten sepsis. Sepsis is NOT fun, and it’s resulted in multiple days in the hospital each time.

Here’s a bit of that chronology:

·       May 2017 - First bout of sepsis

·       December 2017 – Getting weekly skin grafts

·       January 2018 – Second bout of sepsis

·       April 2018 – Wound healed (at least for a while)

·       May 2021 – Callus broke off again! New podiatrist, new shoes, slow healing!

Last year, my podiatrist decided to take a new approach – of removing one of the two sesamoid bones which are under that toe. I wrote at the time about things leading up to that surgery (see here with lots of pictures).

The picture right after my surgery is not pretty. Although the sesamoid bone is not very large, the surgery requires about a 2-1/2” opening which is then stitched together.

[Foot 5/2022]

As before, the healing process, while fairly quick at the beginning, reach a certain point and then came to a halt. Here’s what it looked like in September and again in early December.

[Foot 9/2022]

[Foot 12/12/2022]

It was frustrating. I was wearing special shoes. I spent nearly all day ensconced in my recliner. I often used a cane when walking. It seemed that nothing was working! Finally seemed to have everything healed up around mid-December.

Then, on Christmas Day, everything “went south” (again)! I developed an infection under the latest graft, developed two large blood blisters next to the graft, and ended up with my third bout of sepsis. Back to the hospital again! Following my release, I met with the podiatrist and he just cut off all the skin in the area, including the graft and the skin over the two drained blisters. It’s not pretty!

[Foot 12/29/2022]

So, what to do next. Three changes this time. First, use placental material for the graft instead of the artificial skin. Second, wrap my foot in a “football” – called that because your foot ends up being about the size and shape of a football (the office joke when wrapping it is “laces up”.) Here’s a description, and here’s a picture.

[Football wrap]

This also meant that I had to wear a special surgical shoe as the football does not fit in a regular shoe. But the third change was also key. After doing some research at the insistence of my wife, I added some protein drink to my diet. This was supposed to speed the healing process – and it did!

As a result, instead of taking seven months to heal in 2022, it only took three weeks of grafts and a month of healing. The podiatrist kept me in the football for one more week, and now I’ve moved to an extra layer of pad (with a hole so that the pressure is around the wound but not on it).

So, here’s what things look like today.

[Foot 2/2023]

After a month+ of having to take sponge baths to avoid getting my dressing wet, I got to take a real shower again. And when the shower was over I didn’t have to worry about leaving a trail of blood on the floor (all the water in the shower would soften up the wound scab before).

I’m still taking it easy – sitting in my recliner most of the time, keeping the pressure off my foot, taking my protein drinks, etc. But I think that this time we may finally have taken care of the problem.

To God be the glory!

Down by the Pond

 

The below was posted on Facebook, but I am copying it here so that it will be preserved longer than the fleeting posts in FB. The introduction was written by my sister, Beth, and the poem by my brother, Chuck. Both are so well written that I will simply let them speak for themselves.

-        - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I recently came across this poem written by my brother, which he read so beautifully and emotionally at my Mom's funeral service.

As background, for those of you who did not know me then, my parents owned several acres in Wolcott, Connecticut. Adjacent to our house was a hill that the whole neighborhood used for sliding in the winter - sleds, and even cardboard boxes when it was icy. There was a Y in the hill - one way led directly through the woods to the ice covered pond. The other was a longer trail that ended at a dam. You chose whichever you wanted, depending on the conditions or the bravery you had that day.

 

All the kids in our area skated on the pond (called "Russell's Pond") during the winter months. Or build fires around the pond to keep warm. In the summer, they traipsed into the woods to pick blueberries, and to find the elusive Lady Slipper flowers.

 

My parents shared their property with everyone. My mom was everyone's mother. Need a bandaid? Use the bathroom? Build an igloo in the front yard? She was just ... there.

When they bought this house, this home, this property, they said they wanted to live there forever, to raise their children there, to die there. And they did just that, both of them dying in this home of ours.

 

When my Dad died in 2006, we scattered his ashes into the pond. We did the same with my Mom's ashes when she died in 2012. It is what they would have wanted - to remain a part of "Sylvernook", which they called their home when they purchased it just prior to their marriage in 1946. "Syl" was for Mom's name, Sylvia. "Ver" was for my Dad's name, Vernon.

So here is Chuck's poem, which brought back SO many memories for me - not just the home and the property, but so much more.

 

 

"Down By The Pond" - by Chuck Russell

Down by the pond I threw a stone

It skipped, and skipped, and skipped, and skipped

Made ripples that spread, and spread, and spread

How many drops of water touched another, then another, then another, then another

And down the brook and on, and on, and on, and on

Go softly, go softly, go softly into the night.

A spring or two or more filled the pond,

Wet the dirt and fallen leaves, and made it right

to grow march grass and lily pads

Where turtles and frogs and toads and snakes

Could live and eat and grow and thrive

For generations

And children, generation by generation, by generation, by generation

Could catch the turtles and frogs and toads and snakes

Or they could dig or run or skate or hide

Or in the winter take a slide

From the house at the top of the hill.

On summer nights the peepers and frogs

Would sing a chorus so loud, so loud

And lull to sleep, and lull to sleep, and lull to sleep, and lull to sleep

Go softly, go softly, go softly into the night.

In that house at the top of the hill

A quiet woman lived

And loved the generations of children

Who would come and share

Their lives, their joys, their excitement, and their bounty from the pond

And she knew their names each one, each one

Each child, each sibling, each life, each home

And loved them as her own children and their friends

And the generations of Girl Scouts, women's club members, exchange students, ESL students and more

Norway, Barbados, Spain, China, and the list goes on and on

She was the volunteer who was there

Not to make a splash

But to make a difference

A life touching lives, touching lives, touching lives

Go softly, go softly, go softly into the night.

That legacy of touching lives

Would pass onto her children and their children

From the west coast to the east coast

From Africa to Asia

A lesson that it's lives, not things, that count

It's memories and a life that's lived

That makes a difference, that makes a difference, that makes a difference, that makes a difference

And whether in body or in spirit

We return back to that pond

And stand along the shore, sharing memories and tears

Of a woman who shared

Not just a pond, but a life

Not just a life, but love

And when we spread her ashes

From ashes to ashes

From dust to dust

From life, to life, to life, to life

And on and on and on and on

Go softly, go softly, go softly into the night.

 

Fifth Grade Writing Assignment

One of the interesting aspects of coordinating the schooling for our grandsons is helping them work through new projects. For Isaiah and Caleb, in their literacy class they are studying various genres of writing. Their major assignment this week was “Assignment: Write a Mystery”. Here are the instructions that they were given (in addition to the typical instructions of using proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation, etc.):

You are going to create a short mystery in your journal!

Directions:

1) Make sure your story has a beginning, middle, and end. 

2) Your story must have at least three paragraphs.

3) Write about the following: 

Pretend you just found a backpack by your front door. There are five items in it.

4) Answer the following questions in your writing:

- What are the items in the bag?

- When did the bag get left by your door?

- Who left it there?

- Why did it get left for you?

- Where are you going to take it or what are you going to do with its contents?

- How will you solve this mystery?

 

I thought that this was an interesting assignment. Since I typically review their assignments earlier in the week, I thought I’d write an example of what they should be doing. So I decided to write my own response to this assignment – written from the perspective of one of them. I did this while one of them was sitting next to me working on another subject – and when I showed it to him he was astounded that I had only taken 15 minutes to write it. My biggest challenge was not having to write at least three paragraphs (of at least five sentences each – which is a requirement for all their writing this year). Rather, it was keeping it in alignment with all the other requirements and making sure that all the questions in (4) above were answered.

So, here is my submission to this fifth-grade writing assignment.

-­-­---------------------------­

 

The Backpack Mystery

Our dog, Mocha, is usually pretty quiet. But whenever he hears someone in the front yard he jumps up on the sofa to look out and then he barks. I was not surprised when he barked this morning while I was in the kitchen eating my breakfast. We often get deliveries from Amazon and while most leave things by the garage door, some put the packages by the front door. I wondered what we were getting delivered today, but I stayed to finish my breakfast before my cereal got soggy.

After breakfast I went and opened the front door. I was expecting to see a brown box from Amazon. So I was surprised to see instead a bright blue backpack. I looked around, but whomever had left it there was long gone. It was starting to rain, so I picked it up and brought it inside. Then I got surprised again – there was a tag tied onto the support straps and written on the tag was my name! What was going on? I already had a backpack – it was old and worn and this wasn’t it.

Sitting on the couch, I unzipped the backpack to see what was in it and pulled out the contents one-by-one. It was a strange collection – a brand-new notebook of drawing paper, a set of colored pencils, a page of address labels – each one with a name and age on it, a large pre-stamped mailing envelope which was addressed to the local children’s hospital, and a smaller envelope with my name on it. I checked all the side pockets, but they were empty. Then I looked closely at the address labels – noting that while I did not know any of the individuals named, all the ages were between 5 and 9. It was only then that I thought about looking in the smaller envelope.

There was a single sheet of paper in the envelope. The words on the page suddenly made it clear what was going on. They said, “You are a very skilled artist. I’ve seen some of your work. There are many children who are confined to their bed in the local hospital who would love to have one of your drawings. Please share your talents with them. The backpack will be yours to keep.” It was signed, “A. J.”.

I was pretty sure that the “A. J.” stood for “Auntie Joy”. This was her way of keeping me busy – by sharing my drawings with children who would really appreciate them. I had a long weekend ahead of me as 25 drawings don’t just happen overnight. Actually, 26 drawings – because I would do one more as a thank you to “A. J.”.  But the next week there would be a lot of happy faces in the children’s hospital. And my drawings would be helping those children to smile – perhaps for the first time in several days! Thanks, Auntie Joy for giving me a new way to bless others!

-­-­---------------------------­

 

What do you think? Do I get an “A” for my fifth-grade writing assignment?

Babysitting

 

Yesterday I received the latest issue of Reader’s Digest. At the end of one article on “Your True Stories” was a request for readers to send in their true stories on babysitting. I’ve never submitted anything to this magazine, but immediately a story on that subject came to mind.

My source of extra spending money was bagging charcoal for Mr. Seery at the end of Barclare Lane (see here), followed by working for my uncle on a state forest fire crew. My sister, on the other hand, was very responsible and made some of her spending money doing baby sitting for families in the neighborhood.

A new family had recently moved into the neighborhood. They had two boys. Their legal names were Aloysius and Cornelius, but their nicknames were John and Casey (not sure how those nicknames were chosen). Being several years younger, I knew who they were, but didn’t interact with them – and I had never met their parents either. Here is the story as I sent it in to rd.com:

“I was in my mid-teens and a tall, gangly boy in high school. I had done a few times of babysitting, but my sister who was a year younger was one of the chief babysitters in our neighborhood. One weekend she had two babysitting opportunities the same evening. She asked if I could take one of them for her and I agreed. It was a new family who had recently moved into the area. I knew the two boys in the family as I had seen them running around the neighborhood, but had never been in their house or met their parents. She called them and they were amenable to having me do the babysitting for that evening. At the appropriate time, I walked down the street to their house and knocked on the door. When the dad opened the door, I was surprised to see that both he and his wife were considerably shorter than I was - perhaps just a few inches over 5' compared to my 6'2". Thus, I was looking down at them as I walked into the entryway and reached out to shake their hands. I suddenly clunked my head on the light fixture that was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the entryway and set it swinging wildly. Alas, it appeared that they had furnished the house to meet their diminished statures - so the bottom of that light was only 6' off the ground. I was apparently the first person visiting them who was tall enough to make them realize that they had hung it too low. Turning my attention away from the couple, I grabbed the light and stopped the oscillations before apologizing to them. It was not the greatest way to make a first impression. However, the rest of the evening went as planned, and they even invited me to babysit again a few weeks later. I noted that by then they had shortened the chain on the entryway light!”

It's always interesting to me the facts and impressions that one remembers from years ago (in this case about six decades ago). I have no idea if the magazine will accept my entry. But perhaps the readers of my blog, while fewer in number, will appreciate it anyway.

My Pierpont Family Line

I’ve written a number of blogs over the years about some of my Pierpont ancestors. But I’ve never actually written down the family line showing all the relationships and some of the “less famous” of my ancestors. So, it’s time to rectify that.

The De Pierrepont / Pierrepont / Pierpont family name goes back over 1000 years to Normandy, France, then to England during the Norman invasion, then to America during the Great Migration. That’s 30+ generations and far too much to try and replicate here. Rather, I’m just going to look at the last 10 generations ending with myself.

 

Great*7 Grandfather – Rev. James Pierpont (1659-1714)

I’ve written a lot about the Rev. James over the years, so I won’t replicate that here. He was born in Roxbury, MA, and studied at Harvard (then a school for ministers). In 1684, he was asked to become the pastor of the First Congregational Church in New Haven, CT, where he served for the next 30 years. He married three times, his first two wives passing away at a young age. His third wife, Mary Hooker, was the granddaughter of Thomas Hooker, one of the founders of Hartford, CT.

 

Great*6 Grandfather – Joseph Pierpont (1704-1738)

Despite his father having founded Yale University (then called the Collegiate School of Connecticut), Joseph was the only one of his sons who did not attend that school. Rather, he became a farmer – the first of a long line of Pierpont men who worked in the agricultural field. He did, however, provide for the Yale education of his son, Joseph, Jr.

Joseph married Hannah Russell, the youngest daughter of Rev. Noadiah Russell from Middletown. They settled in North Haven where they had a total of 11 children.

 

Great*5 Grandfather – Joseph Pierpont, jr. (1730-1824)

Joseph had a long life, living until age 94. While he went to Yale, he did not become a minister, instead using his services in the CT militia (where he was a captain), then in the CT General Assembly (where he served several terms), then as a town clerk and justice of the peace.

Like his father, he lived in North Haven. He married Lydia Bassett and they had 6 children. When she passed away in her late 40’s, he married the widow Annis [Warner[ [Curtis] [Blakeslee] in 1791. There’s an interesting family relationship here as Annis’ second husband, Noah Blakeslee, was a cousin, once removed, of Joseph’s daughter-in-law, Mary Blakeslee (see below).

 

Great*4 Grandfather – Ezra Pierpont (1757-1842)

Ezra was born in North Haven as the oldest son of Joseph, jr, and Lydia. He served in the Revolutionary War. After the war, in 1783, he married Mary Blakeslee.

Mary was the daughter of Isaac Blakeslee and Lydia [Alcox/Alcott]. Lydia had been born in North Haven, but her parents had moved when she was just a year old to Farmingbury (later Wolcott) as the first settlers of that town (my hometown). There being few other families in Farmingbury, Lydia had returned to North Haven to stay with relatives when she was in her late teens and had met Isaac there.

It may have been the influence of Mary and her grandparents and aunts and uncles living in Farmingbury that convinced Ezra to move to the East Farms section of Waterbury after his marriage to Mary – just a few miles south of the rest of the Alcox/Alcott family. But it’s also possible that Mary being four months pregnant with their first child that caused the hasty exit from the North Haven scene.

Ezra and his descendants bought up large sections of land in the East Farms section over the coming years – using some for eventually a dairy farm as well as growing other crops. They became some of the largest landowners of that part of the city. A history of Waterbury notes that the Pierpont family owned several hundred acres.

Ezra and Mary had seven children together. They and most of their children are buried in the East Farms Cemetery. The land was eventually divided among their five sons.

 

Great*3 Grandfather – Austin Pierpont (1791-1848)

Austin was the fourth child of Ezra and Mary. Like his father and grandfather, he served in the military, in his case the War of 1812. He had married Sally Beecher right before the war began. They had ten children. When Sally died (at the age of 52), he married Emily Sperry. A year later he was killed by lightning. Like his father, Austin was a farmer.

 

Great-great-grandfather – Charles Joseph Pierpont (1825-1844)

Charles was the sixth child of Austin and Sally. Continuing in the farming-related businesses, he was a butcher. He married Mary Ann Warner. He and Mary Ann had six children, most of whom also continued in farming-related businesses. I detailed one of their children in a prior posting.

 

Great-grandfather – Wilson Levinus Pierpont (1855-1921)

Wilson was fourth child of Charles and Mary Ann. He married Annie Merrill and they had eight children together. Annie died as a result of childbirth complications when my grandfather was born and later Wilson married Anna [Root] [Hall]. He and his brother Elmer had a wholesale business – first as milk brokers, then adding groceries to the items they handled.

 

Grandfather – Harold Granger Pierpont (1898-1969)

I’ve written fairly extensively about my grandfather before. He married Sara Blackman and they had five children together. He died prematurely at age 71 when a ladder he was using to clean the gutters of his house slipped out from under him.

Although he worked in a plumbing store in his later years, he was initially a milk man – delivering milk from the Pierpont-owned Maple Hill Dairy which was owned and operated by a couple of his cousins. Although he grew up in Prospect, like most of his Pierpont ancestors beginning with Ezra, he lived in the East Farms area of Waterbury.

 

Mother – Sylvia Louise [Pierpont] Russell (1924-2012)

My mother was the third (and middle) child. She married my father, Vernon Harold Russell, right after he returned from his service in WWII. I’ve written about that here.

 

Myself – Alan Harold Russell (1948-)

I’m the oldest of five children. I was born in St. Mary’s hospital in Waterbury as there are no hospitals in Wolcott. I grew up there and still have fond memories as well as I continue to be friends on social media with many of my high school classmates. Although I’ve lived in PA for nearly 50 years, I am the co-historian of the New England Pierpont Family Association.

The Multiple Marriages of Elmer Pierpont

I was blessed growing up to know not only all my grandparents, but many of their siblings (my great-uncles and great-aunts) as well. My mother did not have that pleasure. Her father was the youngest of eight children and when his mother passed away due to complications of his birth, his father gave him to a childless couple in the next town to raise. By the time he married and moved back to the same area of Waterbury where he had been born and began having a family of his own, most of the prior generation had passed away. So my mother never knew them and as a result she did not have any family stories to pass along to me or my siblings.

Recently, I was given a list of all the members of the Pierpont family who owned automobiles in Waterbury in the period from 1910 to 1920. My grandfather was among them since he married in March of 1919. And I recognized many of the other names in that list and was able to find them in the Pierpont genealogy records. But one name, Margaret G Pierpont, was not readily apparent. A search for her among the records was what led me to Elmer Pierpont and his rather unique story.

 

Background

My great-great-grandparents, Charles Joseph Pierpont (1825-1884) and his wife Mary Ann [Warner] Pierpont (1828-1911), had six children as follows:

·       Charles Jared Joseph Pierpont (1847-1920), married Juliette Maria Bolster (1840-1912)

·       Austin Beecher Pierpont (1849-1919), married Lucy Adaline Welton (1841-1919)

·       Ellen Caroline Pierpont (1853-1902), married George Wilbur Conner (1851-1924)

·       Wilson Levinus Pierpont (1855-1921), married Annie Merrill (1858-1898) [my great-grandparents]

·       Elmer Merritt Pierpont (1857-1917) – the subject of this research

·       Mary Ann Pierpont (1860-1938), married Charles Somers Miller (1858-1943)

As you can see, by the time my mother was born in 1924, all her Pierpont ancestors had passed away with the exception of her great-aunt Mary Ann and great-uncle Charles.

In the late 1800s, Austin and his descendants had started their dairy farm, Maple Hill Dairy, in Waterbury. Wilson and Elmer were the distributors of the resultant milk. Here is their ad in the local city directory from 1878.

[Milk Ad]

 

First Wife

It was about this time that Elmer married for the first time. This marriage was to Alice Louise Patten (1855-1893). She had been born in Pennsylvania, but her mother was from Waterbury (her mother’s maiden name was Frost after whom Frost Rd is named) and the family had moved back to Waterbury where Alice was only a few years old. Over the next few years Elmer and Alice had four children together:

·       Walter Merritt Pierpont (1879-1931), never married

·       Edward W. Pierpont (1882-?) [not listed in Pierpont genealogies]

·       Lena May Pierpont (1886-1968), married Ferris R. Turkington (1882-1956)

·       Frederick Elmer Pierpont (1889-1931), married May R. Tyrrell (1890-?)

Then, sadly, on 28 Oct 1893, Alice died at the age of only 38. Elmer was left with four children ranging in age from 14 down to only 4.

 

Second Wife

I believe the second marriage of Elmer was not too long after Alice died, but I’ve not been able to confirm the date nor much information about his second wife. Her name was Elizabeth or Eliza Lockwood, but she went by the nickname of Lizzie. While Lizzie would have been busy taking care of Elmer’s four children from his first marriage, the Pierpont genealogies record that Elmer and Lizzie had one child together, but she died young.

·       Ethel Francis Pierpont (1897-1897)

Tragically, Lizzie also died young. In his journals, Elmer’s brother-in-law, Charles Somers Miller recorded the death of Lizzie on April 22, 1899. Like Elmer’s first wife, Alice, she was only 38 years old.

 

Third Wife

Again, Elmer did wait long to fill the hole in his life caused by the early death of a wife. While he was by now in his late 40’s, he needed someone to care for his younger children. By then, Elmer’s oldest son, Walter, was 20 years old and he had moved out on his own. But his youngest, Frederick was only 10 and the youngest children still needed a mother. Six months after the death of his second wife, on 17 Oct 1899, Elmer married Cynthia Anna [Chipman] Birdsall (1857-1908).

Anna had been born in Cornwall, CT, but they were married in Springfield, MA. The marriage record there dutifully records that this is Elmer’s third marriage and Anna’s second marriage. The record also notes that she was divorced. This is a little confusing as the Springfield city directory from the prior year (1898) lists her as being the widow of George Birdsall. Whichever is true, she was free to marry Elmer.

[Marriage record]

 

The following year, the 1900 federal census records the state of affairs in Elmer’s life.

[1900 Census]

 

There are a few mistakes by the census taker, but let’s see if we can make sense of what he has written. Elmer is listed as having been married for 22 years. That’s correct as he was first married in 1878 to Alice as noted above. But the census taker also attributes that same 22 years to Anna, which is likely not correct. Anna is shown as having had 3 children, all of whom are still living. That is correct, but they are not necessarily living here with Elmer and Anna.

The last three children listed, Edward, Lena, and Fred, are Elmer’s children from his first marriage. The first one listed has been given the name Birdsall, but she is one of the children of Anna and her first husband, George Birdsall, so Birdsall is actually the daughter’s last name, not her first name, and we don’t know what her first name actually is. The fact that this daughter is recorded first when she is younger than the second child, Edward, is also attributable to her being a product of Anna’s first marriage while the latter is from Elmer’s first marriage.

Anna successfully raises all four children listed here. She and Elmer also have two more children together in the next few years:

·       Mildred Anna Pierpont (1901-1972), married Arthur Bird

·       Merritt Elmer Pierpont (1904-1986), never married

Then on 16 Nov 1908, Charles Miller records that “Elmer’s third wife” has passed the preceding weekend. At least she was older than the 38 of his first two wives as she is 51.

The older children, both from Elmer’s first marriage and Anna’s first marriage, are now old enough to strike off on their own. But the two they had together need someone to watch over them – and someone other than Elmer who is now in his early 50s.

 

Fourth Wife

This time, Elmer did not immediately remarry. Rather, he found someone to be a live-in housekeeper who as part of her duties could care for his two youngest children. For this role he found Margaret Grace Miller who was an immigrant from Germany. In the 1910 census we see Elmer with his two children and his housekeeper – here called Grace, her middle name. She is married and has three living children, but they are staying with her husband.

[1910 census]

 

In looking at the 1900 census for Margaret, I found that she was married to Herman Miller and that her three children were Elsie, Hattie, and Herman (ages 8, 5, and 1 respectively). Herman and Margaret were both born in Germany and came to the US as young children. [I have not been able to determine Margaret’s maiden name.] Confusingly, there is another Herman Miller living in Waterbury at the same time. His wife is Katherine and they also have three children named Elsie, Hattie, and Herman although they are a year or two younger than their same-named counterparts.

It is not until four years later, on 8 Jun 1914, that Elmer marries for the fourth time to Margaret [Miller]. I have not been able to determine if she divorced her first husband, Herman, or if he passed away in the meantime.

Only three years after that, Elmer himself finally dies. His fourth wife, Margaret, remains in the family home. The city directory for the following year lists “Pierpont, Margaret G wid Elmer M”. A few years later, the 1920 census shows Margaret as a widow, living at 70 Bunker Hill Rd, with her daughter Hattie. Hattie is listed with the last name of Pierpont, but I am not certain if Elmer ever officially adopted her or this is a presumption on the part of the census taker. It appears that Margaret is supporting herself by having taken in three borders.

[1920 Census]

 

Margaret did not choose to remain a widow. In 1925 she married for a third time to Henry B Curtis and he moved into her home on Bunker Hill Rd. She was then 56 years old. They continued living in that home until her death in 1947 at the age of 78 – more than the ages of Elmer’s first two wives combined.

 

Conclusion

This has been a confusing story to research. Certainly the Pierpont Genealogy records have been a good source of information. But they are not necessarily complete, for example showing Elmer’s fourth wife as simply “m4 ?? Grace Miller wd”, i.e., without a date of marriage, names of children from her first marriage, her third marriage after the death of Elmer, etc.

Elmer was not a bigamist as the title of this blog might imply. Rather he was simply a victim of having his first three wives die while still having young children in the home – thus being a serial marrier. A complicated story, and a sad one.

Thanks to Howard Pierpont for passing along the list of automobile owners in Waterbury from the 1910s. Finding that Margaret Pierpont owned a new 1914 Ford back in 1915 (right after her marriage to Elmer) was what got me started on this bit of research.