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Oliver B. Smith to Miss Alvira Webb
Marriage license issued to the above parties this 16th day of June AD 1865 in the usual form.
[signed] Allen A. Mason, Co. Judge
To the County Court of November
This certifies that on the 18th day of June AD 1865 at the house of A. C. Barnes in said county according to law and by authority, I duly joined in marriage Mr. Oliver B. Smith and Miss R. E. Webb.
Given under my hand the 18th day of June AD 1865.
[signed] A. C. Barnes, minister, M.E.C. [Methodist Episcopal Church]S1
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Rachel found herself in somewhat desperate straits in St. Joeseph, Missouri, at the end of 1866:S2
- 26 November 1866 at St. Joseph, Missouri
- Dear Uncle
- You perhaps have received my letter ere this asking you and Uncle Oliver to go on my husbands bail. Uncle he seyes if you can not go on his bail to do something for me. I have had bad luck since I wrote to you. I have had ever cent of my money stole. it was in my trunk it was $150! I don't know what I am to do down here among strangers my husband in jail a childe to take care of and no money. Uncle you don't know how bad I hate to aske you for help but I don't know what else to do. if I had no childe to take care of I could get along but it is getting cuold weather and in a strange place and I think as Uncle Oliver had that money of Charlies he could help me some I dont ask you to give it to me but to lend it to me and I think that no one has any better right to that money than use [us] here. oh Uncle I hope to hear from you soon write and give me your advise what to do whether to come home or stay here. I ask your advise and I hope you will give it. good night
- R E Smith
NOTE: The "Uncle Oliver" she refers to is almost certainly Oliver P. Rowles, uncle of her husband, Oliver Smith (and possibly the one for whom he was named). "Charlie" is probably Charles M. Smith, her husband's brother, who had died in the War. No one in the family knows anything about this interlude -- but it should be remembered that Oliver Smith also had been in the pokey in Wapello County in the 1860 census, with his brother, Milford.
Oliver Smith and Rachel Webb Smith fall off the map at this point. Nothing has been found of their later lives, but Oliver apparently spent most of his life wandering through a number of western states and had at least two more wives. (He was unclear about the number himself.)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Monroe, Iowa, United States. Marriages
Bk 2, p. 142. - R. E. Smith letter (1866).
NOTE: IMAGES OF THE ORIGINAL LETTER APPEAR ON THE SOURCE PAGE.
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