MysteryMuddle: The Many Marriages of Marie/Mary Adaline Smith

William Custer SMITH > Edwin SMITH > Marie/Mary Adaline Smith
Johnathan SMULL > Kate SMULL > Marie/Mary Adaline Smith

This was a lesson I needed to learn. Even though a story all fits together with available records, there may be way more to the story. There are lots of sources to cull from. And those side sources can hold the key to the mystery.

Marie Adaline Smith, who went by Mary much of her life, was the first born of Edwin Smith and Kate Smull, born 04 Oct 1890 in Plainfield, Bremer County, Iowa. According to the records I could find two years ago when I first started this endeavor, her first marriage didn't occur until some time before 1939 to a Greek gent. And, her obituary clearly stated she was married to a "D. L. Elbert" at the time of her death This was a typo.

After putting all the records together, I interviewed my 89 year old uncle who has a pretty amazing memory. At the time I interviewed him, he referred to "D. L. Albert" as "someone Mary knew from when she was younger."

Recently, I had started going through all the Nashua Reporter newspaper gossip columns for Plainfield that included both "Smull" and "Smith" entries when I ran across a couple of important items that reopened the book on the mysterious Mary:

Mary Hoard of Rolfe, is here to visit her parents, Mr & Mrs Edwin Smith over the holidays.
Nashua Reporter December 22, 1910

Hoard? Where did that come from? Eventually, I was able to track down a marriage record from 04 Feb 1908 in Bremer County. Her groom was Edwin Church HOARD of Rolfe, Iowa. And, then a news item:

E C Hoard, of Rolfe, Iowa, and Miss Mary Smith of this place, were married on Tuesday of last week. They left immediately for Rolfe. Miss Smith has been our central girl in the telephone office for the past year and her many young friends will miss her.
Nashua Reporter February 13, 1908  

While living in Pocohontas County, they divorced - some time between 1915-1923. I found another news item that gave me a clue to where she went next:

Mrs Mary Alberts who has been here visiting her mother, Mrs Edwin Smith, went to Nashua Saturday to spend a few days with her sisters, Mrs Andy Beckage and Mrs Glenn Scoles.
Nashua Reporter April 12, 1923, pg 2

What? She didn't marry D. L. Albert until after the next husband I knew about. But, other news items

indicated that maybe I needed to rethink. I found a 1930 census with D. L. Albert and wife Mary living in Pocohontas County. That was them.

They apparently also got divorced and some time before 1939, Mary married Peter Burgos. Peter. Burgos was born in Foruna, Greece, and was co-owner of the Metropole cafe in Isabella County, Michigan. I still haven't figured out how they managed to meet, but marry they did and live in Michigan, they did. Peter died in 1943 at the age of 48.

Mrs Peter Burgos of Mt Pleasant, MI, is spending a few days with her mother, Mrs Kate Smith. Mrs Burgos was called here because of the death of her father, Edwin Smith.
Nashua Reporter January 18, 1939

So, what caused her to end up with Donald Lee Albert again?  Did they marry or did they just live together? I once again called my uncle and asked him to listen to my theory and confirm it. He did. And they did marry again legally, though I could not locate the record. 

Mary and "Lee" lived in Yreka, California when Mary got cancer. She had a full-time nurse who accompanied the body by train when Mary died on 19 Apr 1949. Lee wasn't well enough to make the trip. My uncle was one of her pallbearers. Lee died 09 Nov 1949 and was buried in Yreka.

Married four times, she had no children. She was married before my grandmother, her sister, was even born. I've never seen her photo and don't know that anyone has one. My dad and uncles would have been very young when she died and didn't know her either. She is the only of my grandmother's 10 brothers and sisters who survived infancy I don't at least have some recollection of. The last of her siblings died well before my children were even born. I felt like even though we'll never know her whole story, at least in this way, we can remember something of her where she would have been lost to history.

Dead men tell no tales - nor, apparently, do dead women, but the Nashua Reporter gossip column lives on to help tell the story of each of its residents. And thankfully, so does my uncle.