Civil War, Sex and Intrigue! Part 2

So you want more, eh? Well....... The truth of the matter is that Indiana marriage records indicate that Minerva did not marry William Young until September 7th, 1870. This would make sense since William was not released from the military until early 1866 and spent a year wandering around Georgia before returning to Indiana as the 1882 biography states. So she may not have even met him until after her divorce in 1867. So why did she seem to leave so quickly? The intrigue part really kicks in here..... Buried off in the corner of the Jones family plot are two graves. One reads "Horace A. Kelly 1890-1957 Brother" Next to it is one that reads "Minnie Jones Kelly 1864-1954" Did you catch that? Eh? "Minnie Jones Kelly 1864-1954" Now this is pure speculation on my part and I will have to do some research of birth records BUT if Minnie Jones Kelly was born after October 1864 then it is possible that Minerva (Jones) Edgar would have had some explaining to do to her husband and this could explain why she "deserted him without just cause" on April 26, 1864 as stated in the divorce petition. My guess is that Horace Kelly was a half brother to Minnie to another woman since there are 26 years between their years of birth. So, if Minerva ran off to have an illegitimate baby and later married a man 14 years her junior then I can see why the grand children were kept in the dark about the "family secret." Oh, by the way, here is what Minerva looked like, she is no "scream at the bingo table" but that is just my opinion.

 

 Samuel Edgar is pictured in the lower right on the main blog page in a portrait done in the 1860s. I suspect that the image of Minerva was done for a portrait but she wasn't around long enough to have it made!I just checked the obituary index at the Dayton Library website and Minnie J. Kelly is listed as having died April 1954 age 89 years and was a pioneer family member. Methinks I shall pay a visit to the library tomorrow to read the microfiche. Maybe it will say who dad was and more interesting who mum was...