Old Newspapers

I accidently bought a subscription to GenealogyBank.com last week. A blogger I follow mentioned that she got a 1 month trial, so I clicked and signed up... not realizing that the trial was 10 bucks! My fault, I just whipped through the registration assuming it was free.

Had I known, I would have bookmarked to investigate later, when I could maybe justify the spending. But I'm really glad I didn't know! 15 minutes would have been worth more than 10 dollars to me! I love reading old newspapers. They reported everything from visitors and family picnics to legal problems and obituaries. Fultonhistory.com makes a lot of New York papers searchable and available for free.

Here's an interesting story I found about my 6th cousin, 6x removed, the grandson of my 3rd Great Grandfather, James Dickinson Bradley.

Ira D Bradley was about 20 years old when he came to Eaton County Michigan with his parents and siblings in about 1841. Five years later, he married Aseneth Jane Day (the daughter of Asa Day,) and they had 5 sons. His fourth son, Andrew Jackson Bradley, married Hattie Roscoe on March 16, 1880 at Walton, Eaton County, Michigan.

That's all I knew about Andrew, except that he died Oct. 24, 1898 in Battle Creek and was buried at Olivet Cemetery where his parents are buried. Andrew and Hattie never had children.

And then I found this:

HIS DIVORCED WIFE
Dying Battle Creek Man Left Her $1,000 to
"Increase Happiness"
BATTLE CREEK, Oct. 25 - A queer case of the affection of a man for a divorced wife was revealed here by the death of Andrew Bradley, aged 38, last night at the Nichols hospital. Bradley had been divorced and his wife had married another man. He had no children and lived at a boarding-house. He was taken sick there with typhoid fever and was conveyed by Battle Creek camp of Modern Woodmen to the hospital.
His policy in the Woodmen was made to his divorced wife. He said that he still loved her, and although the wife of another man he desired to increase her happiness and comfort by leaving her $1,000. This is the only case on record of the kind.

(Kalamazoo Gazette, Oct 26, 1898, p.1)

What a sad story. I know it's him because his death certificate says he divorced, and died of Typhoid Fever in Battle Creek on Oct 24, 1898.

I don't know when they divorced, but Hattie married Joel L Marble just 3 months before Andrew died.

By 1900, she was divorced again and living with her father, John Roscoe.

She married for a third time, later in 1900, to Henry M Baker and he died in 1902.


The "Modern Woodmen" was (and is) a fraternal organization that protected families following the death of a breadwinner.