Hidden Gems

Elizabeth Grace Miles

Thomas John Miles

Mary Ann Rowe and nephew Thomas John Miles

Sometimes via Ancestry.com I am able to communicate with other people who are also connected to my Family Tree, and we are able to help each other and they are able to share memories from their family history which sometimes can shed some more light on my own family history.

This was the case with the communications that I had with Alan Williams, his grandparents Mary Elizabeth Rowe and Joseph Sincock Williams emigrated to the United States in 1877 and settled and lived in Butte, Montana, which I discovered from Alan had a large Cornish community because of the many copper mines in that place.
Alan's grandmother left many recorded memories of her time in Cornwall, her mother Mary Ann Miles was the sister of Thomas Miles, the first husband of Wilmot Stickland. (My great great grandfather's sister)
Here follows  a short excerpt about her memories of her uncle Thomas and of the tragic murder which occurred when she was about 12 years

“After spending some time in California during the Gold Rush, Thomas returned to his father's home in Angarrack a rich man.  Shortly thereafter his father passed away.

 One night, while drinking in a "public house," he loudly proclaimed to the clientele that he would marry and take to America any barmaid who would kiss him.  One of them (name not recollected) took the dare and, true to his promise, he did marry her and they set out for California.  (Was this Wilmot!?)

They had two children born in the U.S.---Elizabeth "Lizzie" and Thomas III "Tommy."  When Tommy was an infant and Lizzie was two, the family returned to Angarrack making a great display of wealth including much gold and jewelry, even golden arm-bands on the baby.   Thomas proceded almost immediately to build a large house on a hill for themselves.

It was not long, however, before the wife began to clandestinely meet a man she had been keeping company with before she was married.  One day a maid allowed little Tommy to fall out of his highchair.  Thomas rushed down to the village to get a doctor, and then back up to the house again, whereupon he was seized with a heart attack and dropped to the ground dead.

Tommy had received injuries to his back which left him deformed---a hunchback for the rest of his life.  The mother married her former lover and they began a life of extravagance and waste, continually fighting over her money.  On May 1, 1869---May Day---while the children were playing around the town May Pole, they were summoned to their aunt Mary Ann (Miles) Rowe's home.

Another tragedy had struck the family.  Their mother had been murdered by her husband.  He had cut her throat in an argument over money, and then tried to cut his own throat.  Police found him still alive, however, clutching the razor in one hand and the wife's bankbook in the other.  He survived and was found guilty of the crime and spent the rest of his life in Bodmin prison.

The children---Lizzie and Tommy---were taken in by their aunt Mary Ann Rowe to live with her own two children.  The court awarded Mary Ann custody of the two children, plus what was left of her deceased brother's estate for their support."

Even though there are some discrepancies in her memories about the murder, Wilmot Stickland did die on May Day, but she wasn't murdered, she died of consumption. Two days later her distraught husband, John Stickland, cut the throat of his 4 year old daughter and then his own throat in a double suicide attempt. He was indeed discovered as you can read in my previous blog of June 2016 and spent his last years in  Broardmoor Prison.  "Skeletons in the cupboard "  https://debrakluit.blogspot.com/2016/06/skeletons-in-cupboard.html
Some of the facts of Mary Elizabeth Rowe's story I knew about but not in such great detail, I knew via census records that Wilmot and Thomas Miles had lived in California and that their eldest daughter Elizabeth Grace Miles was born in California in 1859. I had also assumed because of the dates that they had gone to California to take part in the Gold Rush. I also knew that they had returned to Cornwall before or shortly after their second child Thomas John's birth.
Thomas Miles certainly seems to have struck lucky in California though it must have been a strenuous life for Wilmot and I can imagine that she was happy to be back home in Cornwall. I knew via records that Thomas Miles had died shortly after their return but obviously didn't know about the tragic circumstances of his death. I had seen on the 1891 census that Thomas John Miles was recorded as been deformed, I now know how that deformity came about.
I obviously don't know for sure whether Wilmot was having an affair with her cousin John Stickland, they didn't marry until two years after her first husband's death and only after discovering that she was a few months pregnant.
The money certainly does seem to have gone quickly as this was one of the things that was discussed in the trial of John Stickland and also one of the added causes of his distress, that he had no money left to bury his wife.
Wilmot's two children from her first husband were indeed brought up further by their paternal grandmother Elizabeth Miles and later by their aunt Mary Ann Rowe nee Miles.
Elizabeth Grace Miles eventually emigrated back to the United States and married a fellow Cornish man Charles Dawes Pascoe on 11th August 1886 in Butte, Silver Bow, Montana where her cousin, Alan's grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Rowe was also living.
Alan has also very kindly supplied me with copies of many old photos from his grandparents photo album, including photos of Elizabeth Grace Miles and Thomas John Miles the children of Wilmot Stickland.
Through communications with other family historians we can sometimes find hidden gems and can fill out the stories of our ancestors lives.