Biographical Sketch of
MARY JANE (WHITACRE) HODGE
Daughter of
Sydnor and Julia Ann (Winland) Whitacre
by R.E. Harrington
Sydnor Whitacre
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The
Sydnor Whitacre family was a relatively new family to Ohio. Sydnor had come to Monroe County from the
area of Gore, Virginia only 10 years earlier and married Julia Ann Winland on
July 9, 1856. James, their first of 12
children, was born on March 18, 1857.
Mary Jane Whitacre, the fifth child and second oldest daughter of Sydnor
and Julia Ann Winland Whitacre, was born on September 15, 1865. Mary Jane Whitacre may have been named after
her mother=s great aunt, Mary Jane Baker, daughter of her famous
great, great grandfather, Captain John Baker
We
know little about the childhood of Mary Jane Whitacre. Except for the loss of an infant sibling in
1877, Mary Jane=s early years do not appear to have suffered any
traumatic events. Her large family of
10 living siblings appear to have all been well and healthy throughout their
childhood.
Mary Jane Whitacre probably knew all the children in
the Hodge family while she was growing up. The Whitacre and Hodge families
lived less than 2 miles apart on Pleasant Ridge. The adults of the families are
known to have been acquainted. And,
beginning about the time that Mary Jane started to school, or possibly earlier
if the two families went to the same church, the children of the families would
have been acquainted. Mary Jane
Whitacre was 6 months younger than Sam Hodge, Jr. who was the nearest to her
age. She was a year and half older than
the youngest Hodge child, Sarah. Mary
E. Hodge was over one year older than Mary Jane Whitacre and Mary Hodge=s brother, George Washington Hodge, was two years and
two months older than Mary Jane. The two oldest Hodge boys were 4 and 6 years
older than Mary Jane.
Mary Jane Whitacre would have been 9 years old and in
the 3rd grade when diphtheria struck the Hodge family killing 3 of their 6
children. Quite possibly, concern about
an epidemic of diphtheria forced the closing of the school for a while. Mary Jane may well have interacted with the
surviving Hodge children on nearly a daily basis for perhaps 8 years until she
was 15 or 16 years old. We do not know
how far Mary Jane progressed in school but in those days it was common for
children, particularly girls, to drop out of school after about the 8th
grade.
In
1878 Mary Jane=s second oldest brother, George, was the first from
the Sydnor and Julia Ann Whitacre family to marry. Her oldest brother James was second, marrying in 1882. Mary Jane and her sister Louisa were the
third and fourth. They married within a
month apart with Louisa taking the lead on September 4, 1883.
On
Oct 6, 1883, less than a month following her 18th birthday, Mary
Jane Whitacre married her 20 year old neighbor and schoolmate, George
Washington Hodge, who lived up the Pleasant Ridge road. The present day
Pleasant Ridge Church was not yet built although there may have been a
predecessor church on the site.. The
application for their marriage license was made by Joseph Gardner. By then, George had grown to become a tall
handsome man with features that attested to his 25% American Indian heritage.
Within
92 months following their wedding, George and Mary Jane
began their family with the birth of Samuel Sidnor Hodge on July 27, 1884. Shortly after came Forrest Henry Hodge on
Dec. 5, 1886, then Julia Viola Hodge on December 7, 1888 and Addie Mabel
Catharine Hodge on March 24, 1890.
Finally, following a pause of over 3 years, possibly due in part to
George=s illness, the last daughter, Carrie Nevada Hodge was
born on October 20, 1893.
Mary
Jane Whitacre Hodge=s friend and by then sister-in-law, Mary E. Hodge, was
also dating and although she was not married, gave birth to a baby girl, Bessie
C.M. Hodge on March 10, 1884, four months before Mary Jane Hodge=s first child was born. Bessie=s father was a McVey but her parents never
married. Bessie lived with her mother
and was a close neighbor and companion to Mary Jane and George Hodge=s children. In
the years to come, Bessie would participate in her cousin, Julia Viola Hodge=s wedding.
Wedding Picture of George
& Mary Jane Whitacre Hodge
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Unlike
her early childhood, the decade of the 1880s was extremely eventful for Mary
Jane. In addition to getting married
and having five children, we can imagine that the mental problems of her
husband, George, must have become known to her. It is unlikely that his illness would have first occurred in the
early 1890s without some symptoms surfacing earlier. For a young mother with babies, this must have been a frightening
discovery. She probably received
support from her in-laws who lived near by, but as events would later prove,
even her in-laws could not protect her from the possible results of George=s illness. As
the decade drew to a close, Mary Jane=s
parent=s family began to suffer losses. Mary Jane=s
father, Sydnor Whitacre, died of consumption on January 2, 1877 following a
construction accident that had disabled him for several months. This loss was followed a year and half later
by the death of her oldest brother, James Whitacre, on June 3, 1888. Mary Jane was 3 months pregnant with her
oldest daughter, Julia Viola (Ola) Hodge, at the funeral of her brother,
James. She was 7 months pregnant with
the same child when her oldest sister, Louisa A. Whitacre, died on October 5,
1888. Both siblings had been victims of
tuberculosis or consumption as it was then called.
Mary
Jane=s most severe tragedy in her own family was still
ahead, however. George Washington Hodge
had been one of the three survivors of 6 children who had been born to his
parents, Samuel and Catherine Hodge. In
the fall of 1874, this strapping family of 6 healthy children had been suddenly
decimated when diphtheria claimed 3 children in a 10 day period between October
5 and October 15, 1874. One of the
items of family lore, the kind that seems to survive but no one remembers its
origin for sure, is that George in his youth had suffered a very high fever
which may have accounted for his illness later in his life. This could have been diphtheria from which
he had recovered, or, the lore may have no basis. Whatever the case, George apparently suffered from Epileptic
seizures which became extreme in his early 30s.
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Date of Commitment Trial
Visit Discharged
31 January 1894
April 1894
August 1894
21 September 1895
Epileptic
14 February 1896 Sent
to Infirmary
9 June 1896
15 June 1896
Sent to Gallipolis
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Horrific
events have a way of living through family lore for many generations. Such an event relates to George=s mental condition that led to his commitments. According to the record, George apparently
had two major episodes of epileptic illness that required his commitment. The first occurred early in 1894 when his
youngest daughter, Carrie, was only 3 months old. In April of that year he was apparently released for a trial
visit and was later discharged in August 1894.
The records show the following commitments for George W. Hodge:
Then,
about a year later in the autumn of 1895, the story goes, George told Mary Jane
one evening, ADon=t worry,
tomorrow we will be in heaven with God!@ That night, George set fire to their house
burning it to the ground. According to
the version of the story that I heard, there was snow on the ground and as the
house burned, George is reported to have been barefoot walking around the house
balancing himself the pale (picket) fence that surrounded it. We do not know where the house was that
George burned. No further details of that saga survived, but it apparently was
this action that triggered George=s
final commitment. It is reported that
Mary Jane and her children lived with neighbors and relatives for a while
following the loss of their house.
According
to the commitment record, George was taken into custody on September 21, 1895
and diagnosed to be epileptic. It
appears that he was probably held in custody somewhere for nearly a year before
being sent to the Gallipolis Epileptic Hospital in Gallipolis, Ohio on June 15,
1896. To make matters worse, George=s father, Samuel Hodge died that winter on February
11, 1896. George was subsequently moved to the Ohio State Hospital in Athens
where he remained for another 8 years.
George died on March 22, 1908.
The cause of death was listed as epilepsy.
By
the spring of 1896, Mary Jane Whitacre Hodge had been made guardian of her
husband, George Washington Hodge. As
previously noted, George=s father, Samuel Hodge had died in mid-February
1896. One of her first official acts as
guardian was to administer the inheritance of her father-in-law=s estate for her family. The following is a partial copy of the court record regarding
this action. (It is of interest to note
that the division of Samuel Hodge=s
property appears to have been between his three children, John W. Hodge, Mary
E. Hodge and George Washington Hodge.
The wife of Samuel Hodge, Catherine, was still living and would have
been about 68 years old at the time of her husband=s death. She
lived another 9 years, dying on January 10, 1905 at the age of 77 years, 6
months and 24 days. Yet, surprisingly, she was not mentioned in the estate
settlement. I have speculated that this
could have been due to her being half American Indian and the laws of the day
may have been biased against the Indian.)
The
following is the major portion of the text of the Guardian's deed: Mary J Hodge, Guard to J. W. Hodge for
George=s share of inheritance of his father=s estate:
Know
all men of these presents that whereas on the 31st day of March 1896, Mary J
Hodge was dully appointed as guardian of G. W. Hodge, an insane person, by the
Probate Court of Monroe County, Ohio and afterwards, to wit: on the 3rd day of
April 1896, said guardian filed her certain petition and then and thereby
commenced an action in the Probate Court of Monroe County, Ohio against ‑
Mary J. Hodge, G. W. Hodge her ward et al and numbered on the docket of said
court as case No. ‑‑ praying among other things, for and order of
sale of certain real estate therein mentioned and hereinafter described and
whereas, such proceedings were had in said action, that on the 8th
day of May 1896, said court finding the allegations of the petition true, and
that said real estate ought to be sold as prayed for in said petition, ordered
that the same be appraised and on the 11" day of May 1896, said court
ordered that said guardian proceed according to law to sell the said real
estate at private sale for not less than the appraised value thereof and on the
same day in pursuance of said order and judgment, an order of sale with said
real estate therein described was issued out of said court under seal thereof
to the said Mary J. Hodge as guardian as aforesaid, directed, commanding her to
execute the sale order and of the same, together with the proceedings thereon,
to make due return; and whereas said Mary J. Hodge guardian having caused said
premises to be appraised, and the report of such appraisement to be filed in
said Probate Court, and having on the 11" day of May 1896, returned said
order of sale to said court as commanded with her proceedings thereon, stating
in substance that in obedience to said order she sold said premises on the
11" day of May 1896 to J.W. Hodge for the sum of one thousand and thirty
two dollars, said sum being the appraised value of the same; said sale being
made after diligent endeavor to obtain the best‑price for said property,
and for the highest price she could get therefor, and whereas, on the 11"
day of May 1896, the said court having examined the said proceedings of the
said Mary E. Hodge Guardian aforesaid , under said order of sale, and it
appearing to the court that said sale was in all respects legally made ordered
that the same be approved and confirmed, and that said Mary J. Hodge guard.
should execute and deliver a proper deed to the purchaser, of the real estate
so sold, all of which will more fully appear by the record of said court, to
which reference is here made. Now
therefore I, the said Mary J Hodge guardian of G. W. Hodge foresaid, by virtue
of said judgment, order of sale and confirmation and of the statute in such
cases made and provided and of the powers vested in me and for and in
consideration of the premises and the sum of One thousand and thirty‑two
dollars ($1032.00) paid, or secured to be paid to me by said J. W. Hodge the
receipt hereof is hereby acknowledged, do hereby rant, bargain, sell, and
convey to the said J. W. Hodge his heirs and assigns forever, the following
real estate situated in the county of Monroe, in the state of Ohio and in the
townships of Washington and Bethel and bounded and described as follows; Being
the undivided one third interest in the S.E.1/4 of section 28 township 4 range
6, containing 80 acres; also the undivided one third interest in the N.W. 1/4
of the S.W. 1/4 of section 22 township 4 range 6 containing 40 acres more or
less. [Note: I discontinued copying the lengthy legal description of the
property, but noted that it included another 1/3 interest in a 10 acre tract,
another 1/3 interest in a 20 acre tract, a 1/9 interest in another 24 acre
tract, and a 1/6 interest in another 28 acres (a 16 plus 12 acres). This appears to be an inheritance from
Catharine Hodge, Samuel's widow. A
straight sale deed was also recorded in which Mary E. Nalley and her husband,
G.T. Nalley, appear to have sold their share of the inheritance to J.W. Hodge
for $1,000.]]
Two
months later, on May 13, 1896, after selling her share of the Samuel Hodge farm
to her brother-in-law, John W. Hodge, Mary J. Hodge, Guardian of George
Washington Hodge bought from George W. Allen and M. C. Allen, his wife, 40 plus
6.4 acres of land described as follows: Situated in the Twp of Washington,
county of Monroe, State of Ohio, and described as follows: Being a part of the N.W. quarter of section
21 and the SW qtr of Sec 22 Twp 4, range 6 beginning for the same at the NW
corner of section 21 thence S 2 degrees west 50 rods, thence sough 88 deg, east
128 rods, thence North 2 deg. east 58 rods thence north 88 deg. 128 rd to sec
line thence with said line south 2 deg 8 rod to place of beginning being 40
acres in Sec 21 and 6.4 acre in section 22 containing in all 46.4 acres and all
the estate, title and interest of the said grantors, G.W. Allen and his wife
M.C. Allen.
Mary Jane Hodge's house on
her 46.4 acre farm on Pleasant Ridge Photo taken 1996
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This
46.4 acre property was located near the Samuel Hodge farm that Mary Jane had
sold to her brother-in-law, John W. Hodge two months earlier. The land had a house that at the time of
this writing (June 2000), is still standing.
The property is located on a gravel county road, # T-969A, which turns
off to the south from Pleasant Ridge Road (County Road 73) not far from the
Pleasant Ridge Church and Cemetery. The
"Atlas of Monroe County, Ohio - Caldwell 1898" shows the location of
the 46.4 acre property owned by Mary Jane Hodge. However, the draftsman who made the map has the property
erroneously labeled as N.J. Hodge.
The
following brief description of Mary Jane=s
life following George=s confinement
has been extracted from a document written in 1987 by Ruth Hennen Hodge,
wife of a grandson of Mary Jane and George Hodge. AShe [Mary Jane Hodge] was a midwife. She did field work for hire. She took in boarders and a brother* of hers
moved in with them. The brother was a
horse trader. He helped cut the wood
and did the butchering during the winter.
But when spring crops were in the ground he would take his string of
horses on the road. He roamed all over
southern Ohio, selling, trading, and racing horses. His life was cut short, but he had a serious influence on the
boys. He taught them to ride, cut wood,
farm, trap, and hunt. Their hunting was
a big source of meat for the table.
Small game was abundant. There was
always a sale for the furs they got in their traps. Money was scarce, but somehow this little family was able to make
a go of it.@ * [I believe this was probably not a brother but most
likely was John W. Hodge, her brother-in-
law. Mary Jane
had no brothers who were living following George=s confinement and whose Alive
was cut short,@ however, John W. Hodge died July 14, 1903, 6 2 years after
his father died and 6 years after George=s
final commitment.]
This damaged but priceless
picture of Mary Jane's three daughters: Ola (left), Carrie (middle), Addie
(right) -- taken about 1900
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The
turn of the century saw Graysville and the surrounding area where the Hodge
family lived as a boomtown. For a
decade, the frantic search for oil had moved inland from the Ohio River into
Monroe County and villages such as Graysville and Lewisville had become a focal
point for many drilling companies. It
was during this period that Graysville boasted 12 saloons, 2 or 3 hotels and a
number of other facilities. One of the
12 saloons was owned and operated by John W. Hodge. Another bit of information showed that John W. Hodge and Tom
Nalley, husband of Mary E. Hodge, shared the ownership of a general store. The saloon and general store quite possibly
could have been the same establishment.
It was also about this same time (1902) that Mary Jane=s brother, Aglon Whitacre, bought a store at Way, Ohio
which is located about a mile southwest of Graysville, between Graysville and
the site of Mary Jane=s 46.4 acre farm.
 Sam
(left) and Forrest (right) Hodge -- taken about 1909
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On
July 14, 1903 John W. Hodge died at the age of 43 years, 8 months and 19 days
of typhoid fever. He had never married and on his death record
he was listed as a merchant. It appears
that his sister, Mary E. Hodge Nalley and her husband, Tom, acquired the Samuel
Hodge farm that John had bought from Mary Jane and Mary E. Hodge Nalley a
little over 7 years before.
We do not know how long Mary Jane Hodge and her family
lived on the 46.4 acres. We do know
that the address of Mary Jane (Whitacre) Hodge was Graham, Ohio less than a
month following the death of George W. Hodge's death on March 22, 1908. Graham was a >suburb= of Graysville located in the valley just south and
west of the main street of Graysville.
This Graham address might suggest that Mary Jane had moved closer to
town or it could have meant that the Graham post office was where her mail
came. Additional information discussed
below suggests that it may have been the former.
Daughters of Mary
Jane Whitacre Hodge, Carrie (left) and Addie (right) -- taken about 1908
about the time of Addie's wedding
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George Washington
Hodge died on March 22, 1908 and on June 6, 1908 Mary Jane was once again in
the role of settling an estate. She
sold the surface rights to the 46.4 acre farm to her brother, Aglon Whitacre,
for $1000. On the same day she sold the
mineral rights to oil and gas to J.W. Martin for the sum of $400. This was lease # 26565 which was witnessed
were Carrie Hodge and Aglon Whitacre.
In a separate lease, # 28857, between Mary Jane Hodge and J.W. Martin,
M.J. Hodge leased production rights to Martin.
This lease shows the land to the west of M. J. Hodge's 46.4 acres to be
owned by Mary E. Nally and Ed Kincade.
The witnesses to this lease were Aglon Whitacre and F. E. Whitacre. The lease was for 3 years + time oil/gas
would be produced. There was to be no
drilling within 200 feet of buildings.
"The lessee to deliver to the lessor, in pipe line, the 1/8 of all
petroleum produces from the premises and to pay $150 per annum for each gas
well from which the gas is marketed payable yearly from this date and while the
same is utilized....."
This
or succeeding leases provided Mary Jane with a modest income for the rest of
her life. Upon her death, her lease was
bought by her two sons-in-law, William Young and Douglas Dillon.
Mary
Jane and her family may have lived on her 46.4 acre farm until 1907 or
1908. By then her oldest daughter,
Julia Viola (Ola, as she preferred being called) Hodge had married William
Edward Young. Her next two children to
marry were her two sons, Samuel and Forrest.
It could have been their marriages and the loss of their help that
resulted in Mary Jane=s decision to abandon the farm. The order and dates of her children=s marriages were as follows:
Julia Viola (Ola) Hodge (age almost 17) married William Edward Young September
7, 1905
Samuel Sidnor Hodge (age 21) married Martha
(Mattie) M. Blair September 20, 1905
Forrest Henry Hodge (age 20) married Edith Richards Edington December
5, 1906.
Addie Mabel Catharine Hodge (almost 19) married
Douglas Dillon January 8, 1909
Carrie Nevada Hodge (age 21) married John Roscoe (Ross) McVey December 2,
1914
The
addresses of Mary Jane Hodge and her children given on the AApplication for Letters of Administration@ of George W. Hodge=s
estate which was signed on April 10, 1908 are as follows:
Mary J Hodge,
widow, P.O. Graham,
Ohio
Samuel S. Hodge, son, Robinson, Illinois
Julia V. Young, dau., Lewisville, Ohio
Adda M. Hodge, dau., Graham, Ohio
Carrie N. Hodge, dau., Graham, Ohio
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Addie and
Carrie Hodge (Carrie at that time apparently went by the name Vada -- likely
from Nevada) were unmarried and still lived at home. Addie, however, married Douglas Dillon 
on January 8, 1909, less than a year after her father=s death.
Carrie or Vada who was just over 14 years old when George died, remained
at home for another 6 years when she married John Roscoe (Ross) McVey on
December 2, 1914.
Mary Jane Hodge in
1919, age 54
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There
are practically no records to help us establish where Mary Jane Hodge was or
what she did after her children left home.
It seems likely that she was still in the Graysville area when Carrie
married and she may have stayed there for some years. She may have moved to a house about a mile outside of Lewisville
in the early 1920s. Grace (Dillon)
Fletcher and Edith Young think Mary Jane (Whitacre) Hodge moved from Pleasant
Ridge to where Wilene & Carl Jackson subsequently lived and died; a farm
now referred to as the Jackson Farm.
Both
Edith Young and Wilene Young Jackson recall staying with Mary Jane Hodge when
she lived in the Jackson Farm house.
Edith=s recollection puts her visit at about 1925 and Wilene
recalls staying there in about 1922 or 1923.
During
a period of 3 or 4 years, that appears to be between 1925 through 1928, Mary
Jane moved to West Carlile, Ohio to be near her oldest son, Samuel Hodge and
his family. West Carlile is near
Zanesville and Newark, Ohio. Mary 
Jane (Whitacre) Hodge lived with Maggy McGee -- Mary
Jane (Whitacre) Hodge lived on one side of a double house while Maggie lived on
the other. The date that Mary Jane
lived near West Carlile, Ohio is surmised, in part, on the basis of a comment
by Grace Dillon Fletcher that stated that Mary Jane (Whitacre) Hodge lived in
West Carlile for 2 or 3 years when Floyd (Bob) Dillon was about 4 years old.
Possibly
around 1927 - 1928, Mary Jane appears to have moved from West Carlile, Ohio to
Lewisville, Ohio where she lived in a couple of different houses over the final
15 or so years of her life. Mary Jane
Hodge was definitely in Lewisville, Ohio in 1935-1936 when Edith Young was in
high school. Edith graduated from
Lewisville High School in 1936.
There
are several reports from relatives who knew Mary Jane Hodge well, that in the
final years of her life, she had begun to get quite forgetful. She was nearly 78 years old when she died,
so her forgetfulness is understandable.
Mary Jane Hodge about 1929 -- age 64
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Audra Young Harrington
told the story about having chicken at the home of her grandmother, Mary Jane
Hodge, one Sunday and finding feathers under the wing. Audra also told that on a different
occasion, she was having fried potatoes at her grandmother=s house that had been fried to a golden brown and that
she found to be very good. Upon closer
inspection she noticed that the nice red-brown color was due to the potatoes
being covered with tiny ants before they had been fried.
When
Edith Young and I (Richard Harrington) visited Grace Dillon Fletcher in August
1996, Grace told another story about an event that happened in the late 1930s
but before 1939 because Mary Jane=s
son, Forrest Hodge was still alive. One
day, while driving near Lewisville, Ohio, Forrest Hodge stopped by the home of
his mother for a visit. While there he
persuaded her to come home with him for a visit to their home in Newark,
Ohio. Mary Jane Hodge was reluctant to
go saying that she should stay home and wash her curtains. However, she relented and went with her son,
but, all the way from her home to Forrest's house she lamented that she
shouldn't have come. She should have
stayed home and washed the curtains.
When she got to Edith and Forrest's home, Edith said, "Oh, you
brought Mother." Forrest replied,
"Yes, but she is only staying till after dinner. She is going home to wash the curtains." After dinner, Forest drove her home ‑‑
a distance of about 80 miles.
Other
memories of Mary Jane Hodge include:
Mary
Jane (Whitacre) Hodge used to have straw ticks on her bed which she would
fluff-up and the occupant would sink deep into the bed when they lay down. She also used feather blankets or quilts
which were very soft and warm.
Mary Jane Hodge smoked a clay pipe. Grace (Dillon) Fletcher and Edith Young
recalled that they used to walk to Feiock's store to buy Mary Jane (Whitacre)
Hodge her pipe tobacco. She smoked
Union Leader tobacco which came in a red metal can. Nellie Dillon Schumacher, recalled that her apron, which included
a large front pocket, had holes burned in it where she would sometimes put her
pipe before it was fully extinguished.
Nellie also recalls that Mary Jane used to place her clay pipe in the
coals of the fireplace to burn out the tars and tobacco accumulation. Nellie also recalled rolling up paper torn
from a newspaper into long round pipe >lighters= for her grandmother.
Mary Jane Whitacre Hodge
on her front porch in Lewisville in 1940, age 75
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In
the early 1940s, Mary Jane became quiet feeble and no longer able to care for
herself. By arrangement of her
children, she was moved from her home in Lewisville into the County Elderly
Care Home in early 1943. Within a
period that varies depending on the telling, between 3 weeks and 3 months, Mary
Jane Hodge died on March 19, 1943. Ola
Young served as Administrator of the Mary J. Hodge estate.
Mary
Jane (Whitacre) Hodge (1865 - 1943) is buried at the Pleasant Ridge Church of
Christ (1889 to present) Cemetery along side her husband George Washington
Hodge (1862 - 1909).
The following was published in a local paper in memory
of mother, Mary Jane Hodge:
"In
memory of our dear mother, Mary Jane Hodge, who departed this life four years
ago, March 19, 1943.
Into Heaven's mansions mother has
entered
Never to sigh or to weep;
After long years with life's
struggles
Mother has fallen asleep.
But in our hearts our memory
Lingers sweet and tender, fond and
true;
There's not a day dear mother
That we do not think of you.
Sadly
missed by her daughters, Mrs. Wm. Young, Mrs. Douglas Dillon and Mrs. Ross
McVey."
Prepared
by: Richard E. Harrington June 5, 2000
e-mail: Richard Harrington
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