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John R. Martin was the fourth child of Elza L. and Sarah (Morris) Martin. He was born 6 January 1859 in Hot Springs Township of Napa County, California. The 1860 census shows him in Hot Springs Township with his parents and his three older siblings, Hannibal, Milton, and Emma. His parents had made the long, treacherous trip to California from eastern Nebraska about 2 years before he was born. They had traveled by wagon train along with his mother’s parents and siblings (the Morrises), who had settled nearby (listed two pages later in the census). When John was 4 years old, his parents decided to return to the Midwest, again traveling by wagon train. This move took them to Fremont County, Iowa, across the Missouri River from their earlier home in Nebraska. There John met his Martin grandparents and his father’s brothers and sisters for the first time. Sadly, less than a year after the family traveled back to Iowa, John’s mother died of consumption on 3 September 1865. Two years later, his father remarried, and 7-year-old John suddenly had a new stepmother, stepsister, and stepbrother. The new blended family lived for a couple of years at Hawleyville, Iowa (on the Page County–Taylor County line), then in 1869 moved about 60 miles down to Falls City Precinct, Richardson County, Nebraska. There John finished his schooling and grew to adulthood. The 1870 census does show a John Martin living in the household of “Ellsay Martin” in Richardson County, but the listing misstates the names of some other family members and the ages of all of them. The 1880 census shows 21-year-old John living with his sister Emma and her husband, Ben Foster, in Richardson County. His occupation is listed there as “farmer.” John married (1) Martha Adella Wyant on 22 August 1883, in Falls City, Richardson County, Nebraska. In most records, she is shown as Adella or simply Della. According to a note in The Falls City Journal (24 Aug. 1883, p. 5), the wedding took place at the office of a rival Falls City newspaper, The Observer. Adella had been born in May 1857 in Scipio Township, Seneca County, Ohio, and was the daughter of Michael and Mary (Shaw) Wyant. In the spring of 1885, John and Adella moved to Sheridan County, Kansas, along with Adella’s parents and siblings. John filed claims on two 160-acre parcels of government land (one in 1885 and one in 1887). Both parcels were in northwestern Sheridan County near the town of Selden. Apparently, though, things did not go well for John and Adella in Sheridan County, either financially or personally. Between 1888 and 1892, several legal notices in Sheridan County newspapers announced lawsuits against them, some for defaults on mortgage loans and some for workmen’s liens. (Eventually, both of John's properties were foreclosed upon and sold in sheriff’s sales — in 1890 and 1893.) In the midst of this flood of lawsuits, in March 1889, Adella (Della W. Martin) sued John for divorce on grounds of abandonment for over 1 year. Although I have not found the official record, multiple newspaper reports show that Adella subsequently married Benjamin F. Crook, from Falls City, on or about 26 December 1895. (Benjamin was the brother of William Riley Crook, who was married to John’s Aunt Lucinda.) However, Benjamin died on 14 September 1899 and was buried in Falls City next to his first wife, Mollie. Surprisingly, the 1900 census shows that Adella resumed using the name Martin after Benjamin’s death. She is listed as “Adell Martin,” a boarder in the household of a family named Wagner in Falls City. Her marital status is listed as widowed, which she was, of course; it’s just strange that she had resumed using the name of her first husband — who wasn’t dead — rather than that of her recently deceased second husband. Adella’s life after 1900 is fairly well documented. She moved for a few years to Nelson, in Nuckolls County, Nebraska, where the 1910 census showed her living by herself in her own home. Thereafter, she moved down to Wyandotte County, Kansas (just outside of Kansas City), where she lived with her mother and father (until they died in 1918 and 1920, respectively) and with her brother Deane. She remained there, apparently, until her own death in 1939. She continued using the name Martin for the rest of her days, and that is what is shown on her tombstone. John, on the other hand, is much harder to track after his breakup with Adella. I have not been able to find him in any census records after 1880. “Local notes” in Sheridan County, Kansas, newspapers made several references to John’s various activities in 1893 and ’94, but he is not listed in the Kansas State census of 1895. The next information we have about him comes from his father’s obituary, which states that he was “residing in California” as of June 1916. After that, a marriage certificate from Seattle, King County, Washington, shows that John R. Martin married (2) Mrs. Julia Ellis on 9 July 1918. Although they were wed in King County, the certificate noted that they were both residents of Pierce County. The bride had been born Julia Canfield in Jackson County, Iowa, on 9 August 1859, the daughter of Ira and Julia (Erway) Canfield, and she had been married twice before. She had first married William Heymer in her native county in 1875, and he had died 15 June 1888 in Cherokee County, Iowa. She had subsequently married Frank Charles Ellis on 31 December 1889 at Sioux City, Iowa, and had divorced him on 23 May 1913 at Tacoma, Washington. At the time Julia married John, she had one grown son, Harold Ellis, from her second marriage. She had also borne two children during her first marriage, but they had not survived. Tacoma City Directories for most (but not all) of the years between 1919 and 1926 have listings for John and Julia. They are shown living first at 718 South L Street (in 1919), then at 801 South M (1923), and then at 5643 S. Alder (1924–26). John’s occupation is shown as “Laborer” for all these years except 1926, when he is listed as a “Salesman.” They were still at the Alder St. address when Julia passed away on 10 May 1926. The cause of death shown on her death certificate is “paralysis agitans” (better known today as Parkinson’s Disease). John died 16 months later, 10 September 1927, and his death certificate shows “chronic purulent cystitis” and “general asthenia” as the cause. He and Julia were both laid to rest at Mountain View Memorial Park in Lakewood, Washington (just outside of Tacoma). John had no children from either of his marriages. If you can suggest any corrections to the information above or provide any further details about the lives of John and his wives, please contact me at the address shown in the image below:
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