Notes for: Ruth Myrtle Allen
Ruth M. Allen married William Marcus Wright (aka Marcus William Wright) in 1892 and had five children by him in quick succession. After Marcus died of typhoid-malaria in 1897, Ruth found other homes for their three daughters and kept their two sons in her own care. This is reflected in the 1900 Census, in which the widowed Ruth reported having five living children, with only two sons in the household with her. Ruth remarried Peter Gain in 1905, and their daughter Nellie was born in 1909. This is reflected in the 1910 Census, in which Ruth reported having six living children. Complicating the documentation of Ruth and Marcus Wright's five children is that (1) they never all appeared in the same census together, (2) some of them went by different names at times, and (3) the birth records for all but one of them were delayed entries filed by relatives decades later, with varying degrees of accuracy. There are unresolved conflicts in some of their birth dates when compared to birth daes of adjacent siblings. The August 2000 obituary of Ila D. Wright Jackson accounts for all five children, listing one surviving sister, Blanche Harbert, one predeceased sister, Ala Starkey, and two predeceased brothers, Virgil Wright and Robert Wright.
1900 Census, Doddridge Co, WV (McClellan District), enumerated on Jun 13 1900:
William J. Allen, 56, b. Jul 1843, widowed, farmer; dau Ruth Wright, 28, b. Apr 1872, widowed, mother of 5 children (all still living); grandson Virgil Wright, 5, b. Sep 1894; grandson Ai Wright, 7 months, b. Nov 1899.
NOTE: Virgil Wright, who married in 1917, was not found in the 1910 Census. After this census, Ai Wright was known as Benjamin Wright or Robert Benjamin Wright.
1910 Census, Doddridge Co, WV (Central District), enumerated on May 13 1910:
Peter Gain, 59, laborer at odd jobs, married 5 yrs (2nd marriage); wife Ruth, 39, married 5 yrs (2nd marriage), mother of 6 children (all still living); dau Nellie L, 1y 1m; stepson Benjamin H. Wright, 10.
1920 Census, Doddridge Co, WV (Central District), enumerated on Jan 23 1920:
Peter Gains, 69, watchman for B. & O. Railroad; wife Ruth, 48; dau Nellie, 9; son Ora B, 7; son Willis M, 5.