Monroe Hawver Really Was Killed

Benjamin Hawver and hs first 5 children

It's been somewhat of a mystery for as long as I have been researching him.

Monroe Hawver was the father of Benjamin Monroe Hawver, who went on to have 7 children and a very large clan that has extended down 5 generations full of descendants.

Benjamin's story is that when he was a teenager, he ran away from home because his step father, Ezra Pullen, beat him and treated him so bad that he couldn't stand it. He was later reunited with his mother (Julia Frances Keith) in San Fransisco after she left Mr. Pullen. In San Fransisco Ben met his wife to be, Magdalena Gall, and then off they went.

So if Ben ran away from his step dad, who was his real dad?

His name is Monroe E. Hawver. He was born around the year 1845 in the Wisconsin Territory (before it was a state). His father moved their family on a wagon train to California sometime in the early 1850s, and by 1860 they were living in Gilroy, CA.

On Sept. 6, 1874, Monroe was married in Hollister, CA (near Gilroy), to Julia Keith.

A few years later, their son Benjamin was born in Hollister on Sept. 22, 1877.

Then by the 1880 census, Julia and their son Benjamin were living on there own.

So what happened to Monroe?

The story that was passed down and later transcribed was that in 1879, Monroe was killed in an argument over a horse. I even had heard in the telling of it that it was a knife fight.

Years of searching online had not been able to confirm his death. I couldn't find a grave, or a death certificate, or a newspaper story. Now a death certificate was going to be hard, since the state of California didn't require standard death certificates until 1905. Before that each county had different ways of record keeping, if they even kept records at all. And as far as newspapers? I was assuming that his death might be listed in one, however not all newspapers from every year and every town have been digitized, so searching is only available online for certain papers and years.

It wasn't until just recently I came across this story in a more recently digitized paper, the San Jose Mercury-News. This story was published on June 15, 1883.

As you can see this story was about the death of Monroe Hawver that had happened tree years previous. Amazing. Also - Soda Springs, Idaho? That was new. So I did a search for Jesse Powell in the Idaho digitized newspaper archive and then came up with this gem, published in the Idaho Semi-Weekly World on August 10, 1880:

As you can tell from the two stories, Julia thought that the killing was not Monroe's fault. I'm more inclined to side with her, but there is no way to know for sure. I'm just extremely happy that I now have been able to confirm the story about being killed...in an argument...over a horse...even with a mention about a knife. I'm also super pumped about having a death date: July 29, 1880, and a death place: about 18 miles from Soda Springs, Idaho Territory (Idaho wasn't a state yet). So, happy 140th death anniversary today!

I'm sure there will be a little bit more to find eventually, since there was an original story written in a California newspaper, as referenced in the first story apologizing for being wrong about not believing his death. I hope to find that one and others in the continuing stories that this family has, buried in history.

The many husbands of Julia Frances Keith

My 3 Great Grandmother, Julia Frances Keith, has been somewhat difficult to research. According to her death certificate, she was born on 30 May 1856 in Placer County, California. Ok, cool she was born to pioneers, but that makes it hard to find record of her birth cause California had only been a state for about 6 years. Family stories say that she was born in the next county over, Nevada County. Regardless...still hard to find.

If that wasn't bad, family stories also say that she had been married 3 times, so her name kept changing. I've discovered that she was actually married 4 times. So in the end, I do have a trail of info on her, but I don't know what that says about her life, having 4 husbands. She could have picked bad husbands, or maybe she was more at fault.

My starting point was family stories. Fortunately a relative of mine had written them down, and you can read them here. Julia's first husband was Monroe Hawver. I since have found him to be Monroe Emilious Hawver (ca 1845-1879). They were married on 6 September 1874 in Hollister, San Benito Co, CA. I found mention of their marriage in the San Benito Advance, off of newspaperabstracts.com, and also in the county marriage records book:

Marriages Recorded in San Benito County, California Beginning 1874
Book 1 Page 18
HAVWER, M.E. native of Wisconsin, resident of Hollister, aged 28 years obtained a Marriage Affidavit on September 2nd, 1874 and married KEITH, Julia, native of California, resident of Hollister, aged 18 years on September 6, 1874 as witnessed by H.S. DRYDEN

They had a son Benjamin in 1877, and then in 1879 Monroe was killed by a Mexican in an argument over a horse, or so the story goes. I hope to prove or disprove that story, but the newspaper for the area has a gap for the year 1879, at least on newspaperabstracts.com. I've looked and the newspapers do exist, but only available at the library at UC Berkely or something like that. One thing that I did find was Julia and son Benjamin living on their own in 1880 in Watsonville, Santa Cruz County:


On 20 February 1881, Julia was married in Watsonville to W.N. Bardue. I believe his full name to be William Nelson Bardue.

The Pacific Coast, March 5, 1881
Married -- BARDUE - HAWVER -- in Watsonville, Feb. 20th, W.N. BARDUE to Mrs. Julia F. HAWVER

But by 1883, she was getting a divorce from him:

The Hollister Democrat, March 2, 1883
Personals --
The case of BARDUE vs. BARDUE, divorce, came up for hearing before Judge BREEN yesterday

Then around 1885 or so, Julia married again. This time to Ezra F. Pullen. The family story is that he beat Julia's son Benjamin, which led to him running away. I haven't found a marriage record for them yet, but did find a few articles mentioning their names. Here is one relating to Julia's niece staying with her.

Salinas Weekly Index, Thursday, 28 Apr 1892
Hollister ‘Free Lance,’ 22nd: Mrs. Ezra PULLEN appeared before the superior court Monday and produced Isabella KEITH, in response to a writ of habeas corpus issued out of the supreme court. Judge BREEN ordered the child to be returned to the Sisters of Charity and turned over to her mother, Mrs. W.E. KEITH of Panoche. The sheriff was charged with the execution of the order. The contempt proceedings against Mrs. PULLEN will come up for hearing today. It is very probable that they will be dismissed, however, as Mrs. KEITH is indisposed to push the matter.

A few years later, Julia came in contact with her son that ran away. She moved to San Francisco to be with him, and divorced Mr. Pullen. An article about her divorce in the San Francisco Morning Call, on 24 Jan 1895, points to his alleged violent behavior:


About 5 years later Julia married again. This time to Gustav David Hirschler, on 1 June 1900, in Floriston. I found a mention of their marriage in an article relating to marriages of people who possibly had not been divorced yet (15 June 1900, San Francisco Call).


Whether the divorce was finalized or not doesn't really matter because Ezra Pullen died in 1895. In 1910, the trail of Julia is picked up again in the census record. But now it appears that she is not living with her latest husband, and is instead living with her son again, in the town of Mokelumne Hill, CA.


To make things even more confusing, it looks like she is mentioned twice in the 1910 census. The other time she is listed as Mrs. G.D. Hirscher living in Meadow Lake, CA. So is she still living with her husband, or did she move out in between when these 2 census records were being filled out?


I'm always on the hunt for more information, but I don't know if that will lead to more answers. I don't know if she ever had any more children. I don't know if some of the marriages were good or bad, or if it was her fault or one of her husbands fault for having the marriages fail. One thing for certain though is that she didn't like to be alone. Even in death, she is buried in between her son and his wife.


Update: I have discovered a 5th husband! This one was before the other 4. Crazy.

Sacramento Daily Union, 1 July 1872

MARRIED

In Panoche Valley, Fresno County, June 20th, by A. F. Gove, Justice of the Peace, Charles C. Wainright, Late of Ohio, To Julia Frances Keith. 

Julia would have been about 16 years old in 1872. They must have gotten a divorce. Charles Wainright married again in 1879 to Ramona Carteron, and on their marriage record it says that he was previously married to Julia Keith and that she was still living.

Black Sheep Sunday - Mr. Pullen

I don't know of too many black sheep in my family, but this guy would probably qualify. The story that has been passed down is about a man named Mr. Pullen. I guess technically he is not a blood relative, but he still had a big impact on the family.

Mr. Pullen was the 3rd husband of Julia Frances Keith. Julia had been married to Monroe Hawver in 1874, had a son in 1877 by the name of Benjamin, and had become a widow in about 1879. She married Mr. Ezra F Pullen around 1885. He had a ranch in King City, near Hollister, California. The story goes that Mr. Pullen was a bad husband and would frequently beat her son Benjamin. When Ben was 12, Mr. Pullen kicked him so hard in the groin that Ben was injured. When he got better, Ben ran away from home and went to San Francisco. He wrote to his mom to let her know that he was ok, but Mr. Pullen intercepted the letters before they got to her. But one letter finally got through to her when Ben was about 16 or 17, and she left Mr. Pullen to go live with Ben.

This story was passed down by one of the daughters of Benjamin. So far the evidence that I have found seems to support the movements of Julia and her son Benjamin. And I did find in the San Francisco Call a mention of their divorce.


Although this little mention in the newspaper doesn't prove the story passed down, I think that this little line seems to speak to Mr. Pullen character: "In his answer to his wife's complaint for divorce, Ezra F Pullen denies that he drew a knife on his wife and threatened to cut her heart out."

And today happens to be the anniversary of Mr. Pullen's death. He died on 22 April 1895. Although I didn't know him, or even about him until the last couple of years when I started researching him, I couldn't help but find some satisfaction when I found his grave. He is buried next to his parents in Hollister, California.