The Three Wives of Mylon Sarles

Above is the gravestone of Ann Eliza Sarles. She was the first of three wives married to Mylon Sarles, a local butcher. Below, you can see her documented in the census at age 25, when she and Mylon had one child, three-year-old Ann. Adding to that Mylon's mother Anna Sarles, that makes three Ann(a)s in the Sarles family.

1850 US Federal Census

Ann Eliza Sarles died on July 6, 1853, at the age of 29, leaving two children: Ann and a son Mylon, who was born in 1852 or 1853. Mylon must have married his second wife, Caroline, before 1856, when their first child, Phebe, was born. They had two more children, Wilbur and Matilda, in the late 1850s. I'm not sure why Caroline isn't listed in the 1860 census with her husband and children, as she didn't die until 1870. Nancy Sarles is probably the same woman as Anna Sarles.

1860 US Federal Census

In 1870, the twice-widowed Mylon lived with his two children by Ann Eliza and his three children by Caroline, as well as 60-year-old Phebe Baker - Caroline's mother, perhaps?

1870 US Federal Census

As I mentioned before, Caroline Sarles died in 1870, and is buried in the cemetery.

(Source)

Ten years later, 57-year-old Mylon was living with a 25-year-old woman, Sarah, whom the census-taker called Mylon's wife. At first I thought that the census-taker must have confused one of Mylon's daughters for his wife, but Mylon didn't have a daughter named Sarah. If she was indeed Mylon's wife, she was younger than two of his children! Still, it's not out of the realm of possibility. Sarah had one daughter with Mylon, Ida, born nearly twenty years after his next youngest child.

1880 US Federal Census

Mylon died in 1892 at the age of 70 under quite dramatic circumstances. It seems from the obituary that I've transcribed here that Mylon died of a heart attack or stroke after chasing his drunken wife Sarah around the neighborhood. As he collapsed, he knocked over a lamp, starting a fire that caused his 15-year-old daughter Ida to yell for help. Their neighbors extinguished the fire, but Mylon was already dead.

Eight years later, Ida Sarles was living with her half-brother Wilbur, who ran a grocery store, in Manhattan. Though Wilbur Sarles is ten years younger than he should be given his age in earlier censuses, I believe he is the right person. The coincidence of a Wilbur Sarles living with a sister named Ida Sarles, who is the right age, is too much to ignore. It also makes sense that poor Ida would prefer to live with her brother rather than her unstable mother (or perhaps living with her mother was not a possibility, as Sarah was in jail. I haven't been able to find out whether she was ever charged in the death of her husband).

1900

1. Mylon Sarles (1822-1892) m. (1) Ann Eliza (1824-1853); (2) Caroline (1829-1870); (3) Sarah (1855-)
1. Ann A. Sarles (1847-)
2. Mylon Sarles (1852-)
3. Phebe Sarles (1856-)
4. Wilbur Sarles (1857-) m. Mary (1871-) in 1890
1. Mary Sarles (1891-)
2. Alice Sarles (1893-)
5. Matilda Sarles (1858-)
6. Ida Sarles (1877-)