The Hyphen Family Lineage

Note: Marital and residence histories of Nellie Hayes and Merl Pritchard

Recording the family life of Nellie Hayes was a somewhat more complicated process than expected, even with a divorce and remarriage, owing mostly to the difficulty I had tracking the residence history of her first husband, Merl Pritchard.

The earliest record I can find for Merl is in the 1900 US Census listing for his parents' household, where he was living as a sixteen-year-old laborer in Payne, Paulding Cty, Ohio (along with his three brothers). Likewise, for Nellie the earlier record I can find is listing in that same year's census, putting her in her widowed mother's household in Cleveland Twp, Whitley Cty, Indiana. Nellie's father, Max Hayes, had died just months prior to the census taking.

The next record for each of them is their Whitley Cty marriage record, where they were wed on 16 Sep 1903. The birth of their first child, daughter Helen Mary, followed exactly nine months later, with their second child, daughter Nina, coming two days after their second wedding anniversary (September 1905).

I can't guess as to what their marital life was like, but by the time of the 1910 US Census, Nellie and her daughters were living with her mother Alice again (along with her younger brothers Guy and Joe, and her older sister Nina and her husband and children) in Fort Wayne, Allen Cty, Indiana; her marital status was given as "divorced." Nellie and her daughters also appear to be counted in the same year as roomers in the household of Sidney and Rusha Smith in South Whitley, Whitley Cty, Indiana, with her marital status here also given as "divorced."

Merl's residence at that time is unknown, but it does appear that he enlisted in the Army in Ohio in late 1910. The original record on microfilm is difficult to read, as his entry is the last on the page, but he appears to have been dishonorably discharged on 8 Apr 1912 at Fort Bliss, Texas; the remainder of the details on the record are illegible.

On 30 Aug 1911 in Allen Cty, Indiana, Nellie married August Bobay, a man more than twelve years her senior who had been married and divorced twice prior. Nellie and her daughters are counted living with August in the 1920 US Census, and she and August remained married and living in Fort Wayne until his death in 1945.

After his dishonorable discharge, the next record I have found for Merl is his marriage on 22 Dec 1917 in Whitley Cty, Indiana to seventeen-year-old Sarah (or Sara) Elizabeth Brown, when he was nearly thirty-four years old. Sarah's life seemed to be somewhat complicated before she met Merl, as it appears she was an unwed mother of a one-year-old girl, Velma Burris, at the time of her marriage to Merl. Nine months later, when Merl registered for the draft in Noble Cty, Indiana, he gave his closest relative as "Sarah E. Pritchard."

The following years show quite a bit of complitcation for Merl and Sarah, according to the records I have found thus far.

- In the 1920 US Census, just a few years later, Merl is listed as living with his parents in Cleveland Twp, Whitley Cty, Indiana; Sarah is counted with her daughter Velma and infant son Harrison Pritchard in her parents' household over thirty miles away in Noble Twp, Noble Cty, Indiana. Sarah gives her marital status as "single," while Merl reports his as "married."

- In the 1930 US Census, Sarah is counted as living with her parents but now in Richland Twp, Whitley Cty, Indiana; with her are her children (by Merl) Harrison, Viola, and Willodean Pritchard, while Velma, now thirteen years old, is living in nearby Columbia City, Whitley Cty, with Sarah's younger sister Eva Pratt, a newlywed just four years older than Velma. Merl, though, is listed that same year as an inmate on the Indiana State Penal Farm in Warren Township, Putnam Cty, Indiana (a prison now known as the Putnamville Correctional Facility). How long he served there and for what offense is unknown to me at this time, though the birthdates of his youngest two children (Willodean, 23 Aug 1922 and Jack Eugene, 22 Feb 1934) suggest to me that he couldn't have been imprisoned any earlier than late 1921 and released no later than mid-1933.

I have not found either Sarah or Merl in the 1940 US Census, but her children are found somewhat scattered despite the young ages of some of them:

- Jack, the youngest, was living with his half-sister Velma and her first husband, Otto Boschet, in Columbia City.

- Harrison, now called Harry, was living with his paternal grandmother (Merl's mother Catherine) in Cleveland Twp.

- Willodean had lied about her age on her marriage license, and was wed to Maurice Bennett only a few weeks after her fifteenth birthday. In the 1940 US Census, the two of them are counted living in Columbia City with their two young daughters.

- Viola had also married before 1940, and was living with her husband Harley in Columbia City with their two young children at the time of the census.

The last confirmed record I can find for either Sarah or Merl is the 1942 WWII draft registration card for Merl. On it, he listed his residence South Whitley and his closest contact as his mother, Catherine Pritchard. I have not found confirmed death records for either Sarah or Merl.

I have, though, found what I believe are their burial listings with details lining up to suggest these are the correct graves. Each of them appears to be buried in the same cemetery as their parents - "Merl M. Pritchard" in South Whitley Cemetery, and "Sara E. Pritchard" in Thorn Cemetery in Wolf Lake, Noble Cty, Indiana - with each listing giving the correct birth years (1884 and 1900, respectively). Additionally, the two stones match, suggesting one or more of their children picked out the markers - both stones have the same artwork and memorial line, and use the same font for the lettering. Merl died in 1949, and Sara in 1950.

The last of the family to pass was Jack Eugene Pritchard, who died in 2010; his obituary mentions family that preceded him as his parents, his brother Harry, and his three sisters Velma, Viola, and Willodean. No mention is made of his paternal half-sisters Helen or Nina, which suggests to me that Merl's children from his second marriage likely had little or no contact with their older half-sisters. I can imagine any number of reasons why Helen and Nina may have had little to do with their father: his dishonorable discharge, his marriage to a teen mother young enough to have been a classmate of theirs, and his time in prison would all have been counted as reason enough in that day and age for the two to disown their father. What the real situation and reasons might have been, though, is something at which I can only guess for now.