According to Lewis Edwards' History of Richardson County, Nebraska (p. 367), Mary was the first person to teach at the District 48 school, north of Falls City.  The second teacher was W. R. Crook, who eventually married Mary's sister Lucinda, and the third teacher was Isaac Gilruth Rhine, who became Mary's husband at Falls City on 18 August 1870.  He had been born 18 July 1850 in Blackford County, IN, the son of Martin Rhine and Sarah Prudence (Maddox) Rhine.  He was also the nephew of Sarah Margaret Rhine, who had married Mary’s brother Joseph 2 years earlier.

Mary and Isaac settled close to Mary’s parents, her three brothers, and her sisters Jane Humphrey and Lucinda Crook.  These families were close enough that they could all visit frequently and help each other with chores, and it was during one such family gathering that tragedy struck.  According to the Falls City Globe-Journal of Aug. 16, 1879 (p. 3, col. 3):

One of Isaac Rhine’s descendants told me that the death of little Susan Nellie Martin haunted Isaac for the rest of his days. 

The 1880 census shows Isaac and Mary still in Falls City Precinct along with their five oldest children (all daughters).  The twins, Edith Mae and Mabel, having been born only 2 days before the official census date of June 1, are listed as “unnamed,” and their ages are shown as “2/30”.  In 1884, Isaac and Mary moved down to Oxford, Sumner County, Kansas.  Their last child (and only son) was born there in 1890.  All told, the following children were born to Isaac and Mary:

• Nettie E. Rhine, 1871–1907 (married Lee Walter Todd).
• Myrtle Sarah Rhine, 1875–1958 (married Elmer Robert Mercer).
• Mary Alice Rhine, 1878–1904 (married Charles Lamerton Rosecrans).
• Edith Mae Rhine, 1880–1958 (married Francis Lowell Tannehill).
• Mabel Rosetta Rhine, 1880–1963 (married (1) her cousin Crary Judson Martin and (2) Charles Henry Eastman).
• Isaac Richard Martin Rhine, 1890–1964 (married (1) Fern Olive Easterday and (2) Maria M. Thomson).

 
Mary Alice, Edith Mae, and Isaac Richard were all more commonly known by their middle names, “Alice,” “Mae,” and “Richard.”  After Richard was born (April 1890), the family began a series of moves:  first to Conway Springs, Kansas, in September 1890; then to Winfield, Kansas, in September 1893; next down to Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, in the spring of 1894; and finally to Wellston, Oklahoma Territory, in February 1896.  There Isaac operated a small general store and established himself as the town’s postmaster, and there it was that he was cruelly murdered on 2 February 1898.  The family was living in a set of rooms above Isaac’s store.  Isaac was awakened in the early hours of the morning by his daughter Nettie, who told him there was a man in the street below yelling that he needed some medicine for his sick wife.  As Isaac went downstairs to open the store, the man fired both barrels of a shotgun through the glass front door.  Isaac reportedly lingered till sunrise before dying of his wounds.

News articles published at the time described the murder in more detail, and also identified the suspected killer.  They offer conflicting explanations, though, for the killer's motive.  Depending on which account you believe, Isaac was killed either by (1) an insanely jealous husband who accused Isaac of flirting with his wife or (2) a political rival from the nearby town of Ingalls who was angered because Isaac had used his influence to route the area�’s first railroad line through Wellston, causing it to bypass Ingalls.  Mary's brother Joseph wrote and published a touching obituary for his late brother-in-law.  Isaac's body was returned to Falls City for burial.

Without much to keep her in Wellston after Isaac’s death, Mary decided to move to Paonia, Delta County, Colorado, where her three brothers and two of her sisters then lived.  The move didn’t happen until early 1899, though, perhaps so that Mary could finish wrapping up Isaac’s estate and possibly also to wait for her daughter Nettie to marry Lee Todd and move out, which was done in January 1899.  Soon after, Mary made the move, along with her son Richard, daughter Mabel, daughter Alice Rosecrans, son-in-law Charles Rosecrans, and granddaughter Opal Rosecrans.  The 1900 census shows her in Paonia with all of the above except for Mabel, who had married her cousin Crary Martin and moved to Iowa.

The next decade was a difficult time for Mary, as she lost two of her daughters and two grandchildren.  Her daughter Alice Rosecrans died in Paonia in November 1904, after which Alice's husband Charles returned to his family home in Wellston, Oklahoma along with his three children, and Mary and her son Richard moved to Burden, Cowley County, Kansas, where her daughters Myrtle Mercer and Mabel Martin were both living.  It was right about that time (February 1905) that Mabel’s daughter Orpha died and Mabel separated from her husband  Then in May 1905, word came from Wellston that Charles and Alice's little boy Lloyd had died.  In 1907, Mary’s eldest daughter Nettie Todd came up from Oklahoma for a visit, became ill, and died there in Burden.  The 1910 and 1920 censuses both show Mary living in Cowley County, Kansas, with her daughter Mabel Martin and her grandson Richard P. Martin.  Mary’s son Richard (“Isaac”) is also in the household in 1910 (although his name looks more like “Jim” in the census record).  In 1920, he has his own household but is still nearby, as he is listed (as “Richard Rhine”) on the next census page.

Mary died at Burden, in Cowley County, 2 January 1930, and an obituary for her was published in the Winfield Courier.  She is buried in the Burden Cemetery.

If you can suggest any corrections to the information above or provide any further details about the lives of Mary, Isaac, and their descendants, please contact me at the address shown in the image below:

Thanks,      
     —Pete Martin

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