When I was at Malone/Burke, I found out that James Wilder had a first wife, before Almanzo’s mother. It seems that other people were as surprised as I was by this fact. Other than mentioning it in passing in my posts about Malone/Burke I was going to let it go until I could do some research myself, however as I’ve gotten questions about it, I decided to ask Sharon Jahn, one of the major authorities on the Wilder family in Spring Valley (and the more I see of her work the more I think she’s probably one of the top authorities on the James Wilder family in general) if she would give me a little more information and she generously gave it and said I could put it here. Below is information from two e-mails from Sharon:
“In the estate papers from Mrs. Angelina Day Wilder, with information
for the papers from her granddaughter, Angelina Howard Merritt, in the
Parish of Acadia, state of LA, the following: “That my grandmother, Mrs.
Angelina Albina Day Wilder, was married but once and then to my grandfather,
James Mason Wilder; that my grandfather was only married twice and of his
first marriage there were no children born; that his second marriage was to
my grandmother…..”
(Sarah here again, that was important because of Louisianna’s inheritence law at the time which gave primary interest in an estate to children of the first marriage, why EJ was disinherited when her husband died.)
“From the records of the First Congregational Church of Malone “November 4,
1840 Mr. James M. Wilder aged 27 years, farmer of Malone, and Miss Mary
Shonyo, aged 20 years, a house maid of Constable, were married by me, Ashbel
Parmelia?. Witnesses: Abel Wilder & wife, Mr. & Mrs. Shonyo, the parents of
the bride, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Nichols & wife.
On her tombstone is gives 1842 as her death date & I couldn’t find the
reference but I have been told she died either from a miscarriage or during
birth…..
I found a letter from Ed Tattershall,
who was historian at Malone for years. He said James purchased the farm in
1840 because of his marriage to Mary. Ed also said James sold his cemetery
lot to Harriet & Richard Shonyo in 1874 & thought they were probably Mary’s
parents. In her book (p. 18) Dorothy Smith mentions the lot sold to Horace &
Richard Shonyo. “
I also contacted Elizabeth Menke at the Malone site who also confirmed the story, but said it was deliberately downplayed at the site because it didn’t fit with their interpretation focus of the site.
Thank you to both Sharon and Betty. It’s their research and I am very grateful that they were willing to share it on this unique facet of the Wilder story.
Sarah Uthoff
