Mary Bandy married Isaac Sturgeon/Sturgell on 27 June 1844 in Lawrence County, Ohio. I have only told part of her story. Here is a bit more about my husband’s 2x great grandmother.

Mary was born about 1828 in Symmes Township, Lawrence County, Ohio. Her age varies a bit in census records and there is no record of her birth. She was definitely quite young when she married and probably about sixteen years old. I do wonder if she was as young as fourteen because the first known child of Isaac and Mary was a daughter enumerated as M.J. in the 1850 census of Barry Couny, MIssouri. M.J. was two years old so born about 1847 or 1848. It is also possible that Mary lost a first, unknown child, who would have been born about 1845 or 1846.

Mary’s parents, like many others in the family tree, were a bit of a mystery. The Bandys were from Botetourt County, Virginia and there were quite a few of them. Candidates for Mary’s father were Andrew Bandy, who lived in Lawrence County, Ohio or his brother, George Bandy, who lived nearby in 1830 and in Gallia County, Ohio in 1840. Both Andrew and George had two females under five years of age in their 1830 households. I tended to believe that Andrew was her father because Isaac’s and Mary’s first son was Andrew Jackson Sturgell.

After I discovered that Mary didn’t die between 1860 and 1867, when Isaac married Susannah Douthit Alberty, I found proof of Mary’s parentage.

Mary’s life after she married Isaac was apparently not an easy life. He is my husband’s black sheep and was likely at best a difficult man. Isaac was somewhat of a rolling stone; Mary and children moved with him. From Lawrence County, Ohio in 1844, they moved to Barry County, Missouri. From there they migrated to somewhere in Texas where son Andrew Jackson was born. By 1855, they were back in Barry County. Their next three children were born in Arkansas where they were enumerated in 1860 in Benton County. Later records placed Isaac in Van Buren, Pope, Carroll and Boone Counties, Arkansas. Isaac was always on the move. (He eventually ended up back in Barry County, Missouri, where he died on 26 February 1909.)

I didn’t initially know about their youngest daughter, Mary, as she was born after the 1860 census and in the time period when I believed her mother, Mary, had died.

No divorce record has been found for Isaac and Mary, but it appears that Mary had had enough of Isaac after about 20 years. Travel was dangerous during the Civil War and, based on Isaac’s other marriages, he didn’t seem to like to be without a wife. For these reasons, I think Mary likely left Isaac and headed for Illinois at the close of the war, about 1865 or 1866. Isaac married Susannah Alberty in 1867.

Why did she go to Illinois? Because some of her siblings had removed from Ohio to the area around Peoria. Apparently, Isaac and Mary had worked out that she would take the girls, but the boys would remain with him. Isaac probably never knew what happened to his daughters as his obituary says his children were all dead. That wasn’t true – he outlived his sons, but at least two of his daughters – Margaret and Mary – survived him.

My “Aha!” moment for Mary came when I found this deed in the Barry County Courthouse:

Quitclaim Deed, Peoria, IL

Mary hadn’t died between 1860 and 1867! Isaac knew that Mary had gone to her family in Illinois as Mrs. Mary Sturgell also known as Mrs. Mary Cookman quit claimed her rights to a piece of Isaac’s property on 7 June 1883. I don’t think he was very happy about having to pay her $25.00, even though he made a hefty profit, but I have other questions about this transaction.

I found two deeds in Isaac’s name for this property. Isaac Sturgell purchased the land from Jacob and Elizabeth Hurley on 11 Nov 1868, but was not recorded until 12 March 1883 in Carroll County, Arkansas. He paid $250.00 and was identified as a resident of Barry County. On 12 March 1883, Isaac sold the land to Calvin Prentice of Carroll County, Arkansas for $1000. Both Mary and Isaac signed their deeds with an “X.”

Here are my questions: 1. Isaac married Susannah Douthit Alberty on 30 September 1867 in Newton County, Missouri. He first bought this land on 11 November 1868. (Susannah accused Isaac of squandering the legacy she inherited from her late husband, John Alberty, and I suspect that the $250 used to purchase this land was part of that legacy.)

Susannah divorced Isaac in 1874. Why wasn’t she the one who filed the quit claim deed? That leads me to the supposition that, along with all his other less than desirable traits, perhaps Isaac was also a bigamist. Maybe Mary just left and they never divorced. How did these people in Arkansas know that Mary even existed if he was already married to Susannah when he bought the land? Perhaps he and Mary lived in Carroll County and these people were acquaintances. Even so, if he had divorced Mary and was legally married to Susannah, why didn’t he say that Susannah was his wife at the time of purchase and have her sign the quit claim deed? Of course, if Isaac and Mary never legally divorced, then Mary was also a bigamist, as we shall see.

Come back tomorrow for the rest of the story!