Esther Hill: The One Who Got Away

I have learned that if you are going to tell the story of your family, you have to tell the story of the people who were influential in their lives.  To date, I have not been able to find proof that my great grandfather, Chester, was married to my grandfather's mother, Mary.  I can not say for sure that this is because they were not married.  After all, all the census records and even a draft record show Mary used the last name Spragen.  This is even the name on her death certificate.  However, based on family gossip, Mary did not live with Chester at the end of their lives.  Divorce?  Separation?  Simply a desire to not live under the same roof?  Who is to say.

But this blog post is not about Mary.  At least not completely.  In my research, I have found a trend of information that suggested if not outright proves that Mary was not Chester's first and only wife. I have in fact found two other records that show Chester's marriage to other women.  The first of these, was Esther Taylor.

Based on my findings, Esther, was born April, 6, 1889 which made her three years younger than Chester at the time of their marriage.  She was the daughter of John Taylor and Laura Foster, born in Frankfort, Kentucky.  Based on a marriage record found in Indiana, she and Chester were married on December 15, 1909 in Jefferson, Clark, Indiana.  Despite the listed name of the groom being Arthur Spragens, I am sure this is Chester because of the matching DOB and location of birth in Kentucky.  Also, his parents are N.B. Spragens and Mahala Ford.  I will elaborate more about this connection in another post.

Note, however, that this record shows the groom and his family as Spragens with an "s" on the end.  This further proves that my great grandfather later in his life, dropped the "s" on his name to make the name Spragen.

At the time of their marriage, they are listed as single in which this is their first marriage.  The groom is 23 and the bride, 20.  Below is the actual page copy of their marriage record.

Indiana Marriage License Record

I have to wonder under what circumstances they wed.  Were they deeply in love?  Was it more of an arrangement between the families?  Was it a love at first site?  Or were they getting married out of some sort of duty?

Whatever the reason, 11 years later in 1920, they have gone their separate ways and divorced.  Based on another Indiana marriage license record in 1920, Esther, who is still using her married name of Spragens, is marrying Carroll B. Hill.  This is most definitely that same Esther as her parent's names and DOB are the same.  In addition, the record shows that this is Esther's second marriage and the official divorce date is the same year that she is marrying Carroll.

How interesting...Esther is marrying a man in the same year as she is divorcing the man she was first married to for 11 years!  What I wouldn't give to know the details behind their divorce!  This does, however, explain why Esther never changed her name back to Taylor.  She would not have had time to do some considering her quick turn around in husbands.

Carroll and Esther's Marriage License Record

It would be easy to judge her and say that she may have been having an affair or that she simply didn't care who she was married to as long as she had someone to take care of her, but I think there were deeper things going on.  I know for certain that Esther remained married to Carroll for the remainder of their lives which unfortunately was not long.  Death records show that Carroll died at age 39 and was proceeded in death by Esther at age 43.  During their marriage, they did leave Kentucky and lived for a time in New Mexico.  However, Esther dead certificate shows that she moved back to Kentucky, possibly after Carroll's death.

This is where Esther's story will tragically end.  According to her death certificate, Esther was killed in her home in Louisville on January 2, 1936 by a gunshot would to her chest.  While the certificate does list a man's name who shot her, it is too smudged to make out, but I believe his first name may have been Frank.

The certificate states her death was homicide.  For what reasons would this man have to shoot and kill her?
Was it a robbery gone wrong?  Did something in her past come back to ultimately kill her?  Did she even know her killer?

I wish I could find more details about Esther's murder, but my attempts to look through old newspapers have not revealed a story.

Esther's Death Certificate

Barring any further information, I must assume that Chester and Esther were simply not meant to be.  After all, if he had not met Mary than my grandfather would not have been born and thus so down the line.  It was God's will that the two of them not live out their lives together

While Esther's life is still a mystery, here are the questions I am left with:
1.  Since she and Chester were married for 11 years, one would think they had children.  I wish I could find record of this.
2.  Under what circumstances did they decide to divorce and then for Esther to remarry so quickly?
3.  Why was Esther murdered?  Was it by chance or did her life come with deadly conflict?

Whatever the truth is in the gaps of Esther's life, I have decided she shall be "The One Who Got Away."  A first love is still a first love and someone you do not forget.  Their marriage and then divorce impacted the decisions that my great grandfather made throughout the rest of his days.