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.