Aaron Smelser & Emma Elmore marriage license & land record

The Texas County, Missouri, marriage license below includes the following information:

• Aaron Smelser, of Hattie, Texas County, was over 21
• Emma Elmore of Clear Springs, Texas County, was under 18
• Jesse A. Elmore, her father, gave his written consent
• The license was issued on 3 Oct 1893 in Houston, Texas County, Missouri

The attached certificate states that W. O. [I think] Robertson, Minister of the Gospel, married the couple on 8 Oct 1893, at Hattie, Texas County, Missouri.

In 1897, Aaron obtained a homestead patent for 160 acres of land in Texas County.  The record is available at the Bureau of Land Management - General Land Office Records

Aaron in 1920 (and a note about our female ancestors)

As noted in the earlier post, Aaron Smelser was not listed with his family in the 1920 census.  However, I think I found him in the Missouri State Hospital #3 in Vernon County.  It is/was often referred to as the Insane Asylum, however, it also treated people with communicable diseases such as Tuberculosis.

Since Emma died of the flu, with TB as a contributing factor, I'd guess that Aaron might have also had TB.  But, I'm not going to pursue the reason he was at the State Hospital.

We'll get back to Aaron and his Smelser ancestors in a few days weeks. 

I plan to eventually discuss what I've found about our female ancestors, so I will get back to Emma Elizabeth Elmore later.

Aaron & Emma's children

As far as I know all of the Smelser children were all born in Missouri, probably in Texas County.

• Lula Mae (1894-1972)
• Jessie William (1897-1931)
• James Elmer (1899-1975) - spelled the surname as Smeltzer
• Stella Eva (1906-1991)
• Melissa Catherine (1909-1999)
• Clarence Nelson “Jerry” (1912-1967) - spelled the surname as Smelzer
• Etta Muriel (1915-1955)

Evidence in the census records:

1900 - Aaron, Emma and family were living in Pierce Township, Texas County, Missouri.

     HOWEVER - if you look at the enumeration page below, the children are wrong. I suggest the enumerator or transcriber, merged two families.  You can see by the dates, above, that Lula, Jessie, and Elmer should have been listed as Aaron & Emma's children, not Mary, John & Nora.    Also note Aaron's sister, Sarah.  She's not listed in his obituary.

Click on image to enlarge & then X out to return here.

1910 - Aaron, Emma, and (correctly named) children are listed:  Jesse W., Elmer J., Stella E., and "Malysa" C.  Lula was married to William Mahan a few weeks before the enumeration date.  The family was still living in Pierce Twp, Texas Co., MO.

1920 -The 1920 enumeration date was the 18th & 19th of January.  Emma Elmore Smelser died on 13 March that year.  When I first looked at the 1920 census, I was confused because I didn't find Emma nor Aaron.  Aaron wasn't at home (I'll address that in a later post), but YES, Emma was enumerated.  The info is just wrong, again.

 Click on image to enlarge & then X out to return here.

      If you look carefully at the entry for James E. Smelser, there's an Emma E.... and it looks like "daughter" has been written over something else.  And the F for Female looks like it was written over M.  And Clifford, who was born to Mary & James E. Smelser on 15 January is missing from this page.  I suggest... that the enumerator or transcriber replaced baby Clifford with his grandmother Emma E.  

    So, it looks like to me, James Elmer Smelser, wife Mary J., daughter Sultana ("Billie") and newborn Clifford were living next door to Emma Elizabeth Elmore Smelser.  Isn't that a creative way to spell "Smelser"?    Who was Sarah J.?  Perhaps it was Aaron's sister Sarah Catherine "Cassie" - she was married & had two kids.  But, perhaps Cassie came to help out.  Emma died two months later, so was probably ill at the time.

Small world

Little did I know that (in the mid 1980s) when I was at Grandma Elsie's and she yelled out the front door at a group of boys walking down the street telling them to stay out of her yard, she was probably yelling at my grandsons' father and uncles.  The Webers lived next door.  And it was Papa Joe W. who helped get Cecil out of the tub as Elsie called for the ambulance.  And, I think he also drove Grandma Elsie to Schoitz a few days before she died.  Small world.

Jessie William Smelser and Elsie Mae Brayton (or Mattingly)

As I mentioned previously - this post is for Jessie & Elsie's descendants. {NOTE:  His name was apparently spelled with an "i."}

Jessie William Smelser was born on 14 March 1897 in Texas County, Missouri, to Aaron William Smelser and Emma E. Elmore.

Elsie Mae Brayton was born on 28 July 1904, in Waterloo, Black Hawk County, Iowa, to Nelson Thomas Brayton and Ida May Whipkey. (Grandma showed me her birth certificate in the early 1970s when I asked about her parents.)

They were married on 1 March 1922, in Waterloo, Iowa.  The marriage record (no. 18559) identifies the couple as "Jess W. Smelser" and "Elsie Mattingly."  The consent for Elsie was given by Mr. & Mrs. Will Mattingly (more on them in a bit).  Jess was two weeks short of 25; his occupation was Fireman; it was his first marriage; he was born in (or near) Hattie, Texas County, Missouri; his father's name was Aaron Smelser and his mother's was Annie [sic] Elmore.*  It appears Jess & Elsie were married the same day as the marriage license was issued.

*   Jessie's mother was Emma Elmore, not Annie. [The clerk who filled out the form was hard of hearing or distracted.]

Elsie was 17; her full (legal) name was Elsie Mae Mattingly (more on that in a bit); it was her first marriage; she was born in Waterloo, Iowa; her parents were (listed as) William James Mattingly and Nellie Jane (maiden named) Whipkey.**

** Nellie was Elsie's mother's sister. I have not found the answer to Why, but Elsie and her brother Tom were apparently legally adopted by the Mattinglys when Elsie was about 14 and Tom about 8.  Their birth parents, Nelson Thomas Brayton and Ida May Whipkey, were both alive when Elsie & Jessie married, but they were living in Davenport.  (Several years ago I sent a letter to Judge Geer requesting that Elsie & Tom's adoption records be opened.  I explained that they were both long dead and so were Elsie's children.  Tom never married, and didn't have any (known) children.  But, the Judge replied that under Iowa Adoption laws, curiosity about family history wasn't a qualifying reason to open the files.  So... I have no idea why the adoption took place.  Maybe Elsie & Tom didn't want to leave friends in Waterloo when their dad got a job in the Quad Cities.  Nelson, a construction foreman, had had run-ins with laborers [bricks thrown at him] - so maybe he was going to a job where there could be unrest and they left the kids in Waterloo. We may never know.)

Jessie died in Waterloo, IA, about 7:30 p.m. on 5 June 1931, an hour after his father died.  There was a double funeral on 7 June 1931. I'll include the text of the obituary in a future post on Aaron Smelser.  According to his death record on file in Black Hawk Co., Jessie died from carcinoma of the descending colon.  He was 34 and left his wife and five young children:

• William Aaron (1923-1987)
• Clarence Nelson (1924-1951)
• Eugene Edgar (1925-1968)
• Melvin Leroy (1927-1994)
• Genevieve Mae (1930-1995)

I did not have any photos of Jessie, so Thank You to  cousins Rosemary Arrowsmith Williams and Jim Burr for sharing family photos they had.  NOTE:  click on images to enlarge, then X out the image (top right on the image page) to return here.

Below L. to R.:  Silas Whipkey (Elsie's uncle), Jess Smelser, Tom Brayton/Mattingly (Elsie's brother)

Below L. to R. Jess, Stella, Clarence

Below, Jess Smelser

I remember visiting the grave site with dad and seeing a marker stuck in the ground with a decal that read:  Fireman's Local 66, but it's no longer there.  (Waterloo Memorial Park Cemetery, near the Spanish American & WWI veteran's flag pole)

Jessie's draft registration.  (Click on image to enlarge, then X out to return here.)

Application for the gravestone above

A few other interesting bits regarding Jess Smelser:

From the Waterloo Evening Courier and Reporter, 3 Dec 1923

 

From the Waterloo Evening Courier and Reporter, 19 Jan 1924

In an article reporting on a fire at Waterloo Auto & Supply Company in which over 40 autos were damaged

  From the Waterloo Evening Courier,4 Aug 1925

 From the Waterloo Evening Courier, 16 May 1928

 From the Waterloo Evening Courier, 6 April 1929 

From the Waterloo Evening Courier, 23 April 1929

 From the Waterloo Evening Courier, 13 May 1929

Elsie died in Waterloo, IA, on 10 June 1987.  According to the death certificate cause of death was: cardiac dysrhythmia and acute renal failure.

Her obituary from the Waterloo Courier (I don't have the date, but between 10 Jun & 16 Jun 1987):
"ELSIE MAE DURNIN - Services for Elsie Mae Smelser Durnin, 82, of 2235 Temple Ave., will be 10 a.m. Tuesday at Parrott and Wood Funeral Home with burial in Garden of Memories.  She died of natural causes Wednesday (June 10) at Covenant Medical Center at Kimball.   She was born July 28, 1904, in Waterloo, daughter of Nelson and Ida M. Brayton.  She married Jessie Nelson* [sic] Smelser in Waterloo.  He died in 1931.  She married Cecil B. Durnin Sept. 10, 1951 in Council Bluffs.  He died in 1977. She retired from Hinson Manufacturing in 1948.  Survivors include a son, Mel Smelser of Santee, Calif.; a daughter, Genevieve Fairbanks of Glenview, IL; 12 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; a stepson, Bud Durnin; and a stepdaughter, Joann Jensen.  She was preceded in death by three sons, William, Clarence and Eugene Smelser, a brother and two sisters.**  Friends may call 4 to 7 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. until service time Tuesday at the funeral home."

*   Jessie William not Jessie Nelson
** I think she had one sister (Vi) and two brothers, Jesse Brayton (1900-1901), and Silas Thomas (1910-1976.)  And it doesn't mention her half siblings:  Ralph Brayton (1886-1965), Stephen Brayton (1888-1960), and Ruth (1894-1975.)

She was buried in Garden of Memories, Garden of the Resurrection, Waterloo.  Nearby family members include Cecil, Gennie, Arnie, & Michael Fairbanks; Gene & Beverly Smelser, and Bev's parents, Wilbert & Garnet Landau.

So far I've found only a few photos of Elsie:

 I have no idea when this was taken, but I assume she was in her teens.

 The next two look like they were taken the same day.  I'd guess sometime between 1946 and 1949.

L to R - Elsie, Beverly Landau, Gennie Smelser

 Elsie married Cecil Durnin in Council Bluffs, IA, on 10 Sep 1951

Not sure if this is a wedding photo - looks like it. Elsie & Cecil are in the middle.  Don't know who the people on the far left & right are.  Perhaps Elsie's sister Vi?  And her husband, Fred?

So far, I've found only a few mentions of Grandma Elsie in the papers:

From the Waterloo Daily Courier, 11 July 1940

 From the Waterloo Daily Courier, 6 Oct 1944

DOCUMENTS (Have or seen):

• Black Hawk County, Iowa.  Marriage record for license No. 18559, issued 1 March 1922
• 1920 Federal census for Davenport Township #1, Scott County, IA; Nelson & Ida Brayton were living on Jersey Ridge Road. He was a cement contractor
• 5 October 1922 -  Nelson T. Brayton death certificate from Scott County, I.
• Jessie's WWI draft registration card (gave residence as Hattie, MO; parents as Aron [sic] & Emma Smelser; birth date 14 Mar 1897; and signed as Jessie William Smelser
• 1925 Iowa State, Waterloo census for Jess W. Elsie M., Wm. A., and Clarence N. Smelser
• 1930 Federal census, East Waterloo Township (on Whittier St.) for Jess W. Smelser and family
• Jessie Smelser death certificate, Black Hawk Co., IA
• Elsie Brayton Smelser Durnin death certificate, Black Hawk Co., IA
• Articles from Waterloo, IA, newspapers as noted above

DOCUMENTS NEEDED, QUESTIONS UNANSWERED:

• Are the parental consents for Jessie & Elsie's marriage application available?
• Was Jessie at Mississippi A&M College as a student, or did SATC refer to Army recruits there for training only?