Much Too Young: 52 Ancestors

She was married at fifteen, a mother by 17 and dead by 19. Mary Jane Pelton Allee, my third-great-grandmother, was on this earth for too short a time.

She was born about 1827 to Samuel Pelton and Martha Adams Pelton, who were living near Little Rock, Arkansas. They had lived in Cadron at the time of their 1824 marriage and by 1834 had moved south to Saline Township, near Benton, in Saline County. The Pelton family farmed the land and  attended the Spring Creek (Benton) Baptist Church. No doubt Mary Jane was a typical farm girl of the time.

On December 29, 1842, Mary Jane Pelton, age fifteen, married Josiah Alley [Allee], age 21. Their son, Andrew Lafayette Allee, was born on August 24, 1844. The local doctor last visited her in the spring of 1846, based on a bill in the probate file of Josiah Allee, who died in the Mexican-American War in late 1846.

The marriage record in Saline County marriage book A, page 53, is the only official document known to exist for Mary Jane. Her cause of death, date of death and place of burial are all unknown.

This girl, who lived too short a life, today has dozens of living descendants, her lasting legacy.