Person:Martha Tackaberry (1)

Notes for MARTHA TACKABERRY: Martha, a handsome and much admired young woman (according to the biographer of James Hume), married John Hume at the age of 17. By age 28, she was a widow with two young sons. She remarried William H. Ayers, a pharmacist, and was living with him in 1870 in the town of Watsonville, CA. This marriage may have been a disaster. Someone later took acid to a marriage record in the family bible -- I think it was to obliterate this marriage. I never heard of Mr. Ayers until I found him in the census. Martha's son, Wilson, listed her name in the family record of her death as "Martha Hume."

In the 1870 census, Martha was listed as owning $1,000 in real estate. Her sons Wilson, 10, and Robert A., 7, were living with her and Mr. Ayers. Also with them were Martha's siblings, Nannie E. Tackaberry, 25, a teacher, and George E. Tackaberry, 21, apprentice to a printer. A young woman named Mary Bell, 18, teacher, also lived in the household, as did Elijah S. Ayers, probably William's father.

1. ↑ Based on being 17 when she married John Hume, as per the narrative.