While still in Concord, Erie, Pennsylvania, Lydia married William C Stuck (05 Aug 1855). The young couple lived in Albion in Dane County, Wisconsin. In 1860, their only child, Llewellyn Jermiah Stuck was born. He would live in Floyd County, Iowa for a time as an adult, but eventually he and his wife Mary Campbell would live in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. They had many children.
William Stuck fought with the Wisconsin 5th Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He began his service in late May of 1861 and lasted until the Second Battle of Rappahannock Station in Virginia which began 07 Nov 1863. He was injured in battle and died in a Washington DC hospital.
"Pressured by Washington to make another attack on General Robert E. Lee’s army in northern Virginia, and perhaps enjoying the success of his partial victory over Lee at Bristoe Station three weeks earlier, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade ordered an assault against Lee’s infantry along the Rappahannock River on November 7th, 1863. A single pontoon bridge at Rappahannock Station was the only connection between Lee's army and the northern bank of the river. The bridge was protected by a bridgehead on the north bank consisting of redoubts and trenches. Confederate batteries posted on hills south of the river gave additional strength to the position. As Lee anticipated, Meade divided his forces, ordering Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick to the bridgehead and positioning Maj. Gen. William H. French five miles downstream to engage a Confederate line near Kelly’s Ford. To counter this move, Lee shifted a force under Maj. Gen. Robert Rodes to Kelly’s Ford, where they were overwhelmed by French. At Rappahannock Station, Sedgwick’s men skirmished with Maj. Gen. Jubal Early’s Confederates before launching a brutal nighttime bayonet attack. The Federals overran Early’s bridgehead taking more than 1,600 prisoners. Defeated, Lee retreated into Orange County south of the Rapidan River while the Army of the Potomac occupied the vicinity of Brandy Station and Culpeper County. Later in November, before the winter weather ended military campaign season, Meade would attempt one more offensive against Lee at Mine Run." Battlefields.org
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| Second Battle of Rappahannock Station (click on image to increase size) |
In 1866, she married George Harshman in Jasper County, Iowa. George was a widower with two young sons. The marriage didn't last though. George moved on to Nebraska and died in Scottsbluff in 1898.
The next chapter in Lydia's life was her marriage to widower Francis "Frank" Doole. Doole had a long marriage with Martha Shaw, but she died in 1879. They had five children. Lydia married him the following year in 1880 in Floyd County. Frank, by all accounts was cantankerous and difficult. Some of his shenanigans included plowing up the tombstone the children had placed for their mother and being arrested for running a "Blind Pig. What's a blind pig? In the Midwest, Blind Pigs started in the 1880s and were quite a problem, according to the anti-alcohol crowd. It got its name because some wily proprietor would sell tickets to a back room to see a "blind pig," and the ticket price included a drink."
The last time Lydia is seen in records is in the 1885 Iowa State Census, when she lived with Frank and his son William. Then, she disappears. Dead? Did she divorce him and move to Wisconsin to be with her son? We don't know. Doole married my great-great aunt Sarah Smith, a lifelong spinster in 1887. She divorced Doole before their deaths.
Hoping to find someone in the Doole or Stuck families who might have the answer.
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