The Hyphen Family Lineage

Note: Researching Jessie Brown and family

Initially, the only record I had been able to find for Jessie was the 1900 US Census record for her parents' household in Lancaster Twp, Wells Cty, Indiana. Some supplemental information on a user-submitted family tree on the FamilySearch.org website pointed me to her husband and children, which helped me verify some additional information about her. There is still a great many details about her life that are not confirmed at this point.

The only record I have for vital dates is her reported age (seventeen) on the aforementioned census record, suggesting a birth year of 1883. She was still alive at the time of her mother's death in early 1913, as she listed as a surviving daughter and named "Mrs. Elzey Patterson" in her mother's obituary. Supplemental information on the FindaGrave.com listing for her husband and children, and on the tree (mentioned above) on FamilySearch.org, suggests that she delivered her youngest child, daughter Cecilia Marie, prematurely, and while unconscious from the health complications that followed, died in a housefire along with her daughter in early 1914.

Her name is not consistently reported or verified; both the 1900 and 1910 US Census listings give her name as "Jessie," though her marriage record from 1905 clearly has her name recorded as "Jennie." Her sons, on their marriage records many years later, reported her name as Jessie, "Jet," and "Jeanette." I have not found any birth or christening record that would clarify this issue.

Her husband's name is also not entirely clearly recorded in the information I have found; on his marriage record with Jessie from 1905, his name is recorded as George E. Patterson, while on the record from his second marriage in 1915 his name is recorded as George Elza Patterson. His name, on census records, his children's marriage records, and various obituaries, is typically given as some form of "Elza," Elze," "Elzie," "Elzey," or similar, usually as a called middle name. His headstone is inscribed "G. Elzie Patterson," and on his son Earl's marriage record, his name was reported as "Ellsworth Patterson." He appears to have been called by his middle name (or a nickname derived from it) for most of his life.

Elza remarried in 1915, just over a year after Jessie's death, to Rose Ann (Reed) Goodheart, herself the young widow of Vernon Goodheart and mother of a young boy (J. Vernon Goodheart, whom Elza adopted and who used the surname Patterson for rest of his life). Elza and Rose went on to have several more children, while the three sons from his marriage to Jessie went to live with Elza's father, George Patterson. (The boys were recorded in that household in the 1920 and 1930 US Census listings.)

Including the daughter mentioned above, Jessie appears to have had a total of five children, though I can only confirm three of them:

- Arthur is reported on that user-submitted tree as the oldest child, but the birthdate given for him (30 Mar 1904) predates Jessie's marriage to Elza by more than a year. I have not found any birth or death record for him, nor any burial listing. That same supplemental information states that he was injured in a fire and died of his injuries in late 1908. I am uncertain whether the birthdate listed is correct, or whether he is a child from a different relationship for either of his parents or even possibly not a child of either of them. I have found no confirmation of Arthur at this time.

- Ralph Edward was recorded in the 1910 US Census for his parents' household, and then again in the 1920 US Census living with his younger brothers in their paternal grandfather's household. I have found no vital records for Ralph, though obviously the census records confirm his existence. The supplemental information on the FamilySearch.org website states that Ralph died in late 1921 of diptheria.

- Walter Benjamin John, later called John B., was recorded in the same 1910 and 1920 Census listings as his older brother Ralph. John married in early 1929, but his first wife died less than six months after their wedding; he remarried at least twice more, and had at least three children with his second wife.

- Earl lived with his paternal grandfather until his marriage in 1931; he remained married until his wife's death in 1978, and had at least six children.

- Cecilia Marie is the daughter mentioned above that was born prematurely and died with Jessie in the fire. I have not found any vital records for her at this point, though the supplemental information does mention a death record.