Sunday, March 18, 2012

Marriage of Isaac Duncan and Susan (Reese) Hodges

© Kathy Duncan, 2012

When I received Susan P. (Reese) Hodges Duncan's remarried widow's pension papers, I was hoping to discover a record of her marriage to Isaac Duncan. The papers did document that she married Isaac Duncan, but neither the date nor the place of marriage was included. That was my last hope for discovering specifics about their marriage. The Greenwood District Courthouse in Sebastian County burned, and no bible for Isaac Duncan has turned up yet.



Photograph: Isaac and Susan P. (Reese) Hodges Duncan

Yesterday I was browsing through Fold3 and discovered a handful of documents that I did not receive when I ordered Susan Duncan's remarried widow's papers. At the bottom of one paper was a section called "Important Dates." Underneath was the following information about Susan's first husband, Anson Hodges, and her second husband, Isaac Duncan:

Enlisted: November 4, 1862
Died: January 10, 1863
Declaration: April 27, 1911
Former marriage of soldier: None
Former marriage of claimant: None
Claimant's marriage to soldier: February 7, 1861
Claimant remarried: February 14, 1866, to Isaac Duncan who died June 19, 1910
Claimant does not write

To put Isaac and Susan's marriage into to context, one must consider that in September of 1865 Susan was living in Dallas County, Missouri, where she filed a claim as Anson Hodge's widow. Less than a month later, on October 5, 1865, Isaac's wife Martha (Sales) Duncan died, leaving him with several small children. Four months later Isaac and Susan married. Theirs was more than likely a union of practicality rather than a whirlwind romance, making their February 14th wedding date more ironic than romantic. Still, they lived out the rest of their lives together and had a house full of children.

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