I've written before about how sensitive or taboo situations can make it difficult, or at least tricky, to dig into a family's history. It's common for families to have secrets or at least things they don't want to talk about. Adoptions can be touchy subjects, depending on the circumstances. Some of our cousins have had criminal adventures reported in newspapers. I've even found evidence of one cousin who was executed for murder.
Divorce is one of those events that can be painful for families to talk about. Sometimes they can be acrimonious, of course, but even when they are amicable, there can be a stigma associated with them. When I was a kid in the 1980s, I heard a great deal about how divorce was a new phenomenon that was undermining the very nature of the American family, but I have seen enough examples of divorce in early generations to know better. That stigma can make it difficult to get answers when it comes to matters of divorce.
My 2nd-great-grandfather, John Henry Callin (1840-1913) was a well-respected man in his community. He was a teacher, Union soldier, poet, and community leader. He was also a divorcee.
The first I learned of this was a document in his pension record in the National Archives. The form, dated 1 January 1898, asked for the pensioner (John) to answer several questions about his marital status. The fourth question was, "Were you previously married? If so, please state the name of your former wife and the date and place of her death or divorce." John's answer, apparently in his own handwriting - which I've become familiar with during the process of transcribing his battlefield poetry - was: "Lucy Patterson. Divorced 1873 at Bowling Green, O. No children by former marriage."
There are several records that document the marriage of John H. Callin to Lucy A Patterson in Wood County, Ohio, on 27 October 1865. This was just a few months after he mustered out of the service on 27 May 1865 in Louisville, Kentucky. Beyond that, however, we know little about her. It is possible, however, that John was acquainted with her family.
A biographical sketch of John was published in 1895 in the J.H. Beers "Commemorative Historical and Biographical Record of Wood County, Ohio" and also ran as his obituary in the local newspapers in 1913. Of his military service, this sketch said he "enlisted in the Twenty-First Battery of the Ohio Light Artillery, Capt. Patterson commanding..." which raises a question about whether there is a relationship between John's wife and his commanding officer. James W Patterson was 44 years of age when he enlisted on 1 Nov 1862 as a captain in the Ohio 21st Light Artillery Battery. This puts his birthdate around 1818. He took command of the unit on 13 Nov 1862 and mustered out on 9 Mar 1864. (U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865) However, there is no information about where Capt. Patterson was born, and a search for someone of that name and age turns up a number of possibilities outside Ohio in the 1860 and 1870 Census records.
As for Lucy's immediate family, there seems to be a case to be made that the Lucy A. Patterson who was married to John Callin from 1865 to 1873 might have been the daughter of Martin Patterson (1818-1891) and Abigail Osgood (1820-1908) of Plain Township, Wood County, Ohio. This Lucy Patterson would have been born on 27 Sep 1846 in Homer, Ohio, which would have made her 19 in 1865. Plain Township happens to be where John Callin registered for the draft in 1863, and according to his biographical sketch, his family had moved to Wood County in 1861.
There are other Lucy Pattersons in other parts of Ohio, but they were either too young, twenty years older than John, or married to someone else in 1865 (as near as I could tell). The only evidence that might raise questions about whether Martin and Abigail's daughter is the same Lucy Patterson who married John Callin is the 1870 Census, in which Lucy appears in her parents' home under her maiden name. That census doesn't record marriage status, so it doesn't say whether she is "single," "married," "divorced," or "widowed." Of course, I have seen other people who I knew were divorced who were recorded on the census as "widowed" or "single," so that wouldn't be definitive, anyway. It seems most likely that whatever issue brought John and Lucy to split up may have happened early on, and they might well have been living separately three years before their divorce became official.
If I have identified the correct Lucy Patterson in these records, then her family moved to Lenawee County, Michigan, and in 1879 she married the Rev. Llewellyn Vasco Nash. In 1885, they adopted a baby girl and named her Ethel. Rev. Nash moved his family from Michigan to La Crescent, Houston County, Minnesota (1900), Birmingham, Van Buren County, Iowa (1910), and Scotch Grove, Jones County, Iowa (1920); by 1925, they were back in Birmingham, Van Buren County, Iowa. Lucy died there on 5 Jul 1929 and was buried in Maple Hill Cemetery. We do not know what happened to Rev. Nash after that, though he was last seen in Birmingham in 1930 when he was 75 years old.
We can really only speculate about what happened to end Lucy and John's marriage. Many couples were married during and after the war, and certainly, not all of them would have been happy. John's wartime experience was brutal at times, and his poetry reflects the emotional toll it took on him. As the oldest boy of his family, I imagine that he felt pressure to establish himself and establish his family. It is possible to imagine that the young couple decided to marry before the war, and that he came back changed. It is possible that Lucy proved unable to have children, and that may have driven a wedge between them.
It's not my place to judge people from another century. I don't entirely know what happened, and even if I can prove what happened, I can't know why it happened. So, when I'm speculating, I try to make sure I'm only doing so in a way that might be useful. I can't think of any other stones that we might be able to turn that might give us more clues, so even though I think it would be interesting to find a connection between Capt. Patterson and Lucy Patterson, I'm satisfied that we know as much as we are likely to know about this particular story.
But it is interesting to know that even our most revered and most respectable ancestors can have things in their history that they may not have wanted to admit.
