Agnes Mary Morris Matheson Lewis Comstock Owens was born in Leavenworth, Kansas on Christmas Eve night, 1882. During an extraordinary ten-year period in her life she had four husbands, three children, was widowed once and divorced twice.
Marry Agnes Mary the story of the extraordinary ten-year period in her life which forced her to reinvent herself again and again, skirting through and breaking free of the expectations and limitations set for women in turn-of-the-century America.
Her first marriage to the dashing Elijah "Black Jack" Matheson in 1901 ended in a spectacular divorce petition, citing abandonment, cruel and inhumane treatment, and threats of kidnapping of their child Ethel. News of the case made the front page of the Spokane Times in 1904 and 1905.
Next, she married Charles W. Lewis, a divorcee with four children of his own. Within two years he would be dead himself, leaving her alone again to fend for her daughter and their unborn child.
In 1909 she married Irv Comstock, a widower with five children of his own at home for her to raise. By 1910 she had had enough and left.
Finally, in 1911, she married for the last time. John Barney Owens, a blacksmith with whom she would live in Spokane, Washington until their deaths.
Agnes Mary Morris is my husband's maternal great-grandmother. Born in 1882, she was married four times, widowed once, and divorced twice. Marry Agnes Mary is the story of the extraordinary ten-year period in her life which forced her to reinvent herself again and again, skirting through and breaking free of the expectations and limitations set for women in turn-of-the-century America.