After Julia's marriage to Jacob Wermuth ended, she didn't wait long to remarry. But again, she found herself married to a man old enough to be her father.
Just four days after she appeared in the 1860 census in her father’s house, Julia was married to Percival Monroe.[i] He was about 40, she just 18. The start of the marriage might have been a bit rocky – the following year Percival Monroe was declared insolvent, discharged in San Joaquin county court from the payment of his debts and liabilities.[ii] I have found few records for Julia in the 1860s. It is curious to me that while she and Percival were married in 1860, the first child I can find from their union was not born until 1873. And while the marriage may have lasted twenty-some years, it does not appear that it was a bed of roses. In 1883, Percival was arrested at Stockton on a charge of libel preferred by his divorced wife, Julia A. Monroe.[iii] This would not be Julia’s last foray into the court system. The following year, she sued her father. Before Hester Withee Brannack’s death in 1869, Lyman and Hester had engaged in some real estate transactions in which property was deeded to Hester. After Hester’s death, Julia and her siblings, as heirs of Hester, brought suit against Lyman to inherit certain parcels. The court ruled, however, that the parcels in question were not Hester’s separate property, and instead belonged to Lyman.[iv] Nor was this Lyman’s only brush with a court. After Hester died, he married a woman named Sarah. They lived in Santa Cruz, California where he was on the city council[v], resigning 11 March 1885.[vi] He was involved in various ventures including shipping and lumber in Santa Cruz. A lawsuit was brought against him in 1889 by Alfred H. Fitch for the non-fulfillment of a contract to deliver shingles. An entire trial was held, Brannack called many witnesses, the case went to the jury which deliberated for a short while when they received word that Brannack and Fitch had settled, Fitch agreeing to withdraw the suit and pay the court costs, and Brannack agreeing to donate to the YMCA $150, a sum about equal to the court costs.[vii] Much as Julia struggled to maintain a happy marriage with Jacob Wermuth and Percival Monroe, her father, Lyman’s marriage to his second wife Sarah might not have been a bed of roses. More next week about Lyman’s 1889 trip to Pontiac, Michigan where he makes a new friend. [i] Ancestry.com. Marriage records of San Joaquin County, California [database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. Original data: Marriage records of San Joaquin County, California : August, 1850-December, 1865. Stockton, Calif.: The Society, 1969., “Register of marriages no. 1”, page 20 accessed through Ancestry.com 30 January 2013 [ii] Stockton Daily Argus, 14 May 1861, accessed through Newspaper Abstracts, http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=31769, 30 January 2013 [iii] San Francisco Bulletin, 7 March 1883, page 1, “State News in Brief”, accessed through Genealogybank.com 30 January 2013 [iv] The Pacific Reporter Volume 4, page 488, West Publishing Company, “Brannock v. Monroe”, accessed through Googlebooks 30 January 2013 http://books.google.com/books?id=3ek-AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA488&lpg=PA488&dq=Hester+Brannack+the+pacific+reporter&source=bl&ots=fZZp96WxFY&sig=iSNFOCy5yt3-g8ilBclNmCmrUwo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g7YJUY_5NOGjigL-0oCgDQ&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Hester%20Brannack%20the%20pacific%20reporter&f=false [v] Santa Cruz Local News Index, 15 April 1884, “Elected to City Council”, http://www2.santacruzpl.org/history/oldnews/full.php?record=1835&term=brannack, accessed 30 Jan 2013 [vi] Website – City of Santa Cruz Common Councils and Mayors, 1876-1906, http://scplweb.santacruzpl.org/history/gov/sc2.shtml accessed 30 Jan 2013 [vii] Santa Cruz Daily Surf, 12 February 1889, page 1
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AuthorMary Kircher Roddy is a genealogist, writer and lecturer, always looking for the story. Her blog is a combination of the stories she has found and the tools she used to find them. Archives
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