Following a tip from a genealogy query, I’ve discovered additional records of the Woods County, Eller family in OK. I’d like to say these clear up confusion over Nick F. Eller’s two wives, Mary, but they do not. In the interest of completion, I’ll present what I’ve discovered and make some logical guesses about how these records fit in with previous information.
First, the burial places of Nick F. Eller and a few family members are found to be in the Alva City Cemetery. The locations within the cemetery and the dates of death are
recorded online. Numbers preceding the names are the section, lot and space within the cemetery.
06-046-06, Eller, Charley, Jan 20, 1915
06-046-01, Eller, infant
06-046-3N, Eller, infant, May 13, 1911
06-046-3S, Eller, infant
09-025-08, Eller, Mary Warwick, Mar 28, 1931
06-047-06, Eller, Mattie A., Jan 2, 1968
06-046-08, Eller, Nick F., Jan 15, 1932
06-047-05, Eller, Ray R., Aug 13, 1947
According to census records, Mattie A. was Ray R. Eller’s wife, and they are buried side-by-side. Charley Eller was Nick’s son, born in 1902, so we see that he died young at around age 13. Assuming that Mary Warwick Eller is Nick’s wife, it’s a good guess that Warwick was her maiden name. Accordingly, I searched the records and discovered Catherine Warwick, buried at 09-025-06, Dec. 25, 1900. Mary and Catherine are, therefore, separated by one burial space in the cemetery, and it looks as though Catherine is a good candidate for Mary’s mother.
Following up on this lead, I searched the Alva, Woods, OK census records for families named Warwick and discovered two
Warrick households.
1900 Alva, Woods, OK, District 213
Warrick, Isaac, head, b. Aug 1828, NC, Father/Mother born NC
Warrick, Catherine, wife, b. Sep 1835, IL, Father born NC, Mother born IL
This couple was married in 1855. Catherine was the mother of 13 children, four of them living.
The second household contained a younger family with children:
1900 Alva, Woods, OK, District 213
Warrick, James A., head, carpenter, b. Dec. 1866, IL, Father born PA, Mother born IL
Warrick, Rhoda J., wife, b. Sep 1866, IL
Warrick, Ida E., dau, b. Sep 1890, KS
Warrick, Rose E., dau, b. May 1892, KS
While I assumed that Catherine Warrick of the first record was that same one buried in the Alva City Cemetery of that same year, I could not be sure that James A. Warrick was related. However, I now had the name Isaac Warwick with which I could search the records. Subsequently, I found two records which appear to identify Isaac Warwick and his family.
1880, Cache, Johnson, Illinois
L.(I?) W. Worick, age 55, b. NC F/NC, M/NC
Catherine Worick, age 48, b. IL F/NC, M/IL
Marggret Worick, age 21, b. IL
James A. Worick, age 14, b. IL
Mary Ettie Worick, age 8, b. IL
Forence Ida Worick, age 2, b. IL
This first record is revealing in that it links both a James A. and a Mary E. with Catherine Worick and her husband, Isaac. That same family appears in a second record, but they have moved from IL (as the census states).
1895 Kansas census collection, Kiowa, Wellsford
L.(I?) W. Warrick, age 65, b. NC, farmer, moved from IL
C.W. Warrick, age 61, b. IL
Mary Monroe, age 22, b. IL
Ida Warrick, age 16, IL
This second record doesn’t list the family relationships, but Mary and Ida are most likely the two daughters, although it appears that in the intervening years, Mary married and then returned to her father’s household. If this is, indeed, Nick F. Eller’s future wife, that information is consistent with the 1910 census record which states that Mary E.L.’s marriage to Nick is her second. A note about Kiowa, KS; it’s located adjacent to Woods Co, OK, just north of the state line.
Incidentally, another record can be found for James A. Warrick, in which he has moved his family to Lindsay, Tulare, CA by 1910. In that record, he lists his father’s birthplace as Virginia, although he had claimed it as PA in 1900. In my research, I have found that this business of a parent’s birthplace is a notoriously unreliable piece of census information. When it fits, it’s satisfying, but it’s just as often incorrect.
One more important record requires mention, that is, the
Mar 1 1895 Kansas state census for Pratt, Springvale:
N.F. Eller, age 34
M.J., age 35
C.V., age 8
Willy, age 5
Harrison, age 3
Jasper, age 2
M.J. in this record, then, is Nick F.’s first wife, Mary, although the 1900 census indicates she should be only 22 in 1895. This is not the only possible error on this record. Nevertheless, it appears to be the correct family.
Conclusion:
I’m fairly certain that I’ve identified the parents of Nick F. Eller’s wife, Mary, at least his second wife, Mary E.L. I believe she was Mary Ettie Warwick, daughter of Isaac and Catherine Warwick, that they moved from IL, Mary’s birthplace, to KS, and then south to Alva, OK. If there were two Marys, and evidence (jumbled as it is) suggests there were, then the first Mary was the mother of Capetola Viola, William Lazreth, Harrison and Jasper Joseph, Nick’s older children, and that is the lineage in which I am most interested. Therefore, I am left still searching for the maiden name of Mary, Nick’s first wife.
