Henrietta (or Etta), Grandma's maternal grandmother, had an interesting page. I found it interesting because, if I'm recalling correctly (please remember that I am about 14 or so years and I am now in my 50s), Etta's page consisted of her name, birth year, death place, and either first and last or just last names of each of her husbands. And to my astonishment for the era in which she lived, she had quite a few husbands. I recall the full name of James Morris, just the surname of Vannocker, the full names of James Pierce and Edward Marchael, a Perrin Dewey and the surname of Post.
My first thought when I saw Etta's page was "Oh boy, lot's of clues!". Little did I know that it would take years (and a lot of help from other researchers) to sort out the puzzle of Etta's marital history.
So, since I touched upon Etta's marriages a bit in the previous post, I will just write a bit on her children and their father and a bit of their background.
First, the marriage dates occur in the following order: James Morris (1886), Edwin Vannocker (1888), James B. Pierce (1892), Edward Marchael (1896), Perrin Dewey (1914), and John Post (1915).
Of course, I already wrote about Maggie and her father, James Morris. James being Etta's first husband.
There were no children in Etta's second marriage to Edwin Vannocker, but her third marriage to James B. Pierce produced a son.
Most of Etta's children were born through her fourth marriage to Edward Marchael. Eight children came from this marriage, but the youngest three died in infancy. Etta had no other children from her last two marriages to Perrin Dewey and John Post.
Etta's parents were Jesse James Cardwell Van Cleave and Sarah Ann Anderson. Jesse and Sarah had eight children. I do have a ninth child on my tree on Ancestry, but I cannot find any documents or facts for this child. I do not believe, at this time, that they had a ninth child, but I keep her on the tree in case something comes up.
Jesse was born in Indiana. Sarah was born in Kentucky. They married in 1859 in Iowa. This is also the State where all their children, with the exception of the two youngest ones, were born. The two youngest were born in Kansas. Both Jesse and Sarah came from large families. While Sarah's family goes back to Pennsylvania, Jesse's can be traced back to New York.
That's about all I'll say for the Van Cleaves and Andersons. For more in depth information, please see the writings of Allen Wenzel who has done extensive research into these family lines.
This is the only photo I have of any of Etta's husbands.
James B Pierce, father of Vernon.
The photo on the left is Jesse (second from the right) with a few of his children and grandchildren: Left to right is: Daughter Ann with her son Walter, Jesse's son, Jesse, Etta with her daughter, Maggie, sitting in front of her and to the left of JJVC, and Jesse's daughter, Mary May.
The photo on the right is that of Sarah Ann (Anderson) Van Cleave.
Etta most certainly did not have the best of luck in marriage.
From the Kansas Weekly Capitol and Farm Journal, December 7, 1893 -
Emproia, Kan November 29 - The divorce suit of Henrietta Pierce just filed With the clerk of the Lyon County district court reveals a rather interesting story of interuppted conjugal bliss. The plaintiff was formerly Henrietta Van Cleve. Her first husband was Edward Van Noucker (sic). On December 11, 1891, the Lyon County district court sentenced him to the Kansas penitentiary for burglary, and a few days later granted her a divorce. A short time afterward she married her present husband, James B. Pierce, who was in July of 1892 sentenced to the penitentiary of Minnesota for felony. She now seeks a legal separation from him.
