Cook Family
Genealogy Pages

Home Page  |  What's New  |  Photos  |  Histories  |  Headstones  |  Reports  |  Surnames
Search
First Name:


Last Name:



Mary Francis Mabee

Female 1844 - 1936  (91 years)

Personal Information    |    Sources    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Mary Francis Mabee  [1
    Birth 22 Sep 1844  Jackson County, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Gender Female 
    No Name 1850  Hamilton Township, Jackson County, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    • Mary Francis Mabee appeared on the census of 1850 in the
      household of William Thomas Mabee and Mary E. Haythe Hamilton
      Township, Jackson County, Ohio
    No Name 1860  Jefferson Township, Scioto County, Ohio Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    • Mary Francis Mabee appeared on the census of 1860 in the
      household of William Thomas Mabee and Mary E. Haythe Jefferson
      Township, Scioto County, Ohio
    No Name 1880  Walnut, Wayne County, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    • Mary Francis Mabee and Joseph Slavens appeared on the census of
      1880 Walnut, Wayne County, IowaJoseph Slavens, Self, M, Male,
      W, 40, Oh, Farmer, Va, NY
      Mary F. Slavens, Wife, M, Female, W, 35, Oh, Keeping House, Oh,
      Va
      Clara F. Slavens, Dau, S, Female, W, 3, Ia, At Home, Oh, Oh
      John H. Greene, Other, S, Male, W, 17, In, Farm Laborer, Tn, Tn
      Della James, Niece, S, Female, W, 9, Oh, Att. School, Oh, Oh
    Anecdote Between 1933 and 1934  The Centerville Daily Iowegian, Centerville, Appanoose County, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    • Mrs. Mary Slavens, 90 Years of Age, to Iowa In1866
      Resident of Cincinnati Tells Story of Her Life, Starting In Her
      Ohio Home
      Mrs. Mary Slavens, 90 years old, of Cincinnati, has contributed
      the following interesting history of her life.

      I was born in Jackson County, Ohio, in 1844. Mother's maiden
      name was Mary Hayth. She was born in Old Virginia. Later her
      parents moved to Ohio where in 1840 she married William Maybee.
      Their ages at that time were 15 and 36, respectively. To this
      union eleven children were born. I was next to the oldest
      child.
      My parents lived on a farm adjoining Jackson town when I was
      born. When I was seven years of age we moved to another farm.
      Here I started to school in a frame building at the age of 7.
      I was the youngest student; many were of age. We had a man for
      our teacher. I lived one-fourth mile from school. There were
      3-month terms a year; one in summer and one in winter. The
      climate was mild. It might snow one day but would melt the
      next. When I was 10 we moved to Scioto County where we had a
      fine apple orchard. We lived here two years. We next moved to
      a farm on a cross-roads in Jackson County. Here father built a
      hotel, store and livery stable. He had a bar in the store,
      over which he sold wine, whisky and brandy. Late a post office
      was added. The post office still goes by the name Maybee's
      post office. The above was a good investment, but father got
      to drinking a little more each day in handling the liquor. He
      decided he must move or become a habitual drunkard. He sold
      out; we moved on a small farm which he soon sold for a supply
      of groceries and dry goods. Then we moved back to Scioto
      County on a peach farm where we raised over three hundred
      bushels of peaches a year. We hauled them to Portsmouth, Ohio,
      and received a dollar a bushel for them. I lived here until I
      was married.
      I first met my husband when I was only seven. He was twelve.
      My father and his father had been friends when they were
      younger. Father and mother and us three oldest children were
      out looking at a farm one day. We stopped at the Slavens farm
      for dinner. Dinner was over before Joe returned from hunting
      stray cattle. When he came in I was standing at the back of
      mother's chair, one arm resting on it. He later told me he
      thought I was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. We didn't
      meet again until I was sixteen. It was at an apple paring.
      The boys peeled the apples and the girls cored them. When I
      came in the man of the house who was sitting next to Joe got
      and said, "I have been saving a place for you." Joe said,
      "Yes, I need some one to core my apples." After the paring we
      had refreshments of pie, cookies and sweet cider. Then we
      played games and sang love songs. We walked home by couples.
      It was two miles. Then he had to walk four miles to his home.
      I had walked home from church with young men before, but from
      then on I never went with anyone else. I didn't see him for
      two weeks. One Sunday he and some other couples stopped to get
      a drink. (They were very dry.) He came to the house to get a
      cup. I got him the cup, went to the well and got them a drink.
      When I started back with the cup he said, "Miss Maybee, can't
      you go to church tonight." I replied I hadn't thought about it
      but if these other folks were going father and mother wouldn't
      care. So we went to church together. When we came home he
      left me at the door but he made a date for the second following
      Sunday. From this on he came into the house. He came only
      every other Sunday until the last six months of our engagement
      when he came every Sunday. He would come about four o'clock
      and stay for supper.
      At the ages of 18 and 23 we were married at my father's home in
      1862, just two years after we started going together. It was
      customary for the father to build a house on his farm for his
      sons to bring their brides to until they could get a place of
      their own. This was called the weaning house. My mother gave
      me my bedding, a new bed, and part of my dishes. My father
      bought us a new bureau with a mirror in it which cost twelve
      dollars. My father bought us a set of silverware and my
      father-in-law a set. My mother-in-law gave me a part of my
      dishes and a bed from her home. My husband bought a safe,
      cookstove, 40-piece cooking set, table and six chairs. My
      father-in-law gave Joe a team of horses and harness yoke of
      oxen, a cow and a few hogs. My father gave us a cow and some
      chickens. A neighbor had given me a setting of turkey eggs
      that spring, so I had some half-grown turkeys.
      The weaning house had only one large room. There were two
      doors and three windows in it. There was a fireplace at one
      end. We raised fruit, peaches, strawberries, apples, corn,
      oats and hay. We lived here until Joe went to war. We had
      been married one year and one-half when a bonus of three
      hundred dollars was offered to volunteers for the Civil War.
      Joe joined the army; I sold our stock and lived with both of
      our folks. Joe drew thirteen dollars a month. He sent it all
      to me and I saved it. When he came home we had nine hundred
      dollars. I got a letter from him every week. He wasn't sick
      or wounded during service. Joe was in the 1st Ohio Light
      Artillery, Battery L. He rode the middle horse on a cannon
      wagon. He had one horse shot out from under him. One time he
      and six other men were around a campfire cooking supper when a
      shell lit in the fire. Two men lost one leg and another had an
      arm shot off. In 1865 Joe came home. We moved back into the
      weaning house.
      It was one year later that we came to Iowa. Three families
      came with us whom we had known a long time; James Gulford, John
      Peters and Mr. Spragling. We traveled in covered wagons,
      starting the 15th of September and arriving the 15th of
      October. We started leading a cow but she wore out the first
      day , so we sold her. We saw no Indians or highwaymen along
      the way. We forded many rivers but crossed the larger ones on
      ferry boats. It rained on us a part of the way. At Keokuk we
      crossed the river on a steam ferry. Joe had bought our farm in
      Wayne County before we started. There was a frame house and
      twelve acres of broken land on this 160-acre farm. We got
      one-third the corn crop that fall and Joe put up some slough
      grass for our winter's feed. We bought three hogs at three
      cents a pound for winter's meat. We bought a cow and six head
      of sheep. It was a hard winter, Joe cut wood for our fuel.
      The next year we hired a man with a yoke of oxen to break and
      fence 80 acres of sod. From then on we had regular farm work.
      In a few years my husband bought an adjoining 80 acres and
      started feeding cattle. In 1870 the railroad was built through
      Seymour. Then we shipped our cattle to Chicago each fall.
      We prepared our own wool to weave our cloth. We sheared our
      sheep, took the wool to the creek, washed it and dried it on
      the grass. Some times people would have a "picking party."
      Just invite in all the neighbors, have them stay for dinner and
      pick the year's supply of wool. The we took it to Genoa to be
      carded by machine. Then I would spin the wool on a wheel and
      reel it into skeins. Then I would dye the wool.
      Blue and black were the usual colors, but red was not uncommon.
      I would twist the wool and knit the stockings, gloves and
      mittens for my family. We wore wool stockings the year round
      except on Sunday in the summer. We had a neighbor who had a
      loom. She wove flannel material for dresses, shirts, etc.
      Twill material for blankets, jean cloth for the men's trousers.
      The jean was woven with a cotton chain which was bought in
      town.
      I had lived in Iowa one year when we took a boy three and
      one-half years old to raise. John Green's father was dead and
      his mother worked out. I had been here six years when I
      received word that my sister was critically ill in Ohio. We
      got our mail from Genoa, usually once a week. I went to Ohio
      on the train from Seymour, accompanied by my brother-in-law,
      John Peters and family. Two days and one night later I arrived
      home to find Jeanette was dead. They were having her funeral
      which I went to immediately. I remained in Ohio four weeks,
      during which time I persuaded my folks to return to Iowa with
      me. My sister who died left a baby girl two years old. She
      came west with my folks. My father bought a farm near ours
      which my brothers tended.
      I had been married eight years when a girl was born to us who
      died in a few hours. Six years later a second girl was born on
      October 25, 1876. She was named Clara Frances. We had just
      completed a new eight-room house. Dr. Hollingsworth, of
      Seymour, was our doctor at the time. In two years another girl
      was born, dying at birth. In the spring of 1878 my father and
      mother died two weeks apart. I had two sisters and two
      brothers who continued to operate the farm until one died and
      the others were married, but my sister's daughter Della, came
      to live with me. In 1884, John Green was married to Nancy
      Harris, a neighbor's daughter. Also, in 1884, my son William
      Blaine was born.
      In 1885 we gave an acre of ground and three hundred dollars
      toward the building of the Antioch church, which still stands
      five and one-half miles south and west of Seymour. It stood
      just across the road from our house. My husband took up the
      subscriptions which amounted to over fifteen hundred dollars.
      I had joined the church while in Ohio at the age of 14. My
      husband was rather proud that our names were the same as the
      Savior's parents names, Mary and Joseph. When our son was
      three and one-half years old my husband died of pneumonia. He
      was sick one week. Burial was made in the Tharp cemetery near
      Seymour.
      In the spring I had a sale which netted me $2000. I lived on
      the farm three years, then sold it for $23 an acre. I moved to
      Alllerton with $900. At that time I received back pension of
      $300 and $12.50 a month for me and my children. I lived here
      six years. My daughter Clara married Fred Mathers. One child
      was born to them named Reva. I sold my place in Allerton and
      moved to Niffin. I bought a home and here I attended the depot
      and hung a warning light on the railroad track. For this I
      received $10 a month. I stayed here six years, sold the place
      and bought a farm four miles northwest of Cincinnati. I
      remained here until William was 20. My daughter and her child
      lived with me. We traded our farm for two houses and lots in
      Cincinnati, one which I still own. We kept one cow and one
      team which William used to haul coal with. We had lived here
      one year when William went to barber school in Kansas City, Mo.
      He traded his team and wagon for a barber shop in Cincinnati,
      where he still lives.
      When William was 27 he and Rhoda Bowen were united in marriage.
      Their children were six boys, Joe, William, Charles, Kenneth,
      Thomas and Donald. My daughter died in 1920. I lived in the
      same house in Cincinnati until I became disabled in 1931. I
      now live with my son, grandson and granddaughter by turns. I
      draw a pension of $45 a month, and am enjoying comparatively
      good health though I am in a wheelchair because of a broken hip
      suffered January a year ago.
    Name Slavens  [2
    Death 16 Jan 1936  Brazil, Appanoose County, Iowa Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Burial Tharp Cemetery, Walnut Township, Wayne County, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [6
    Notes 
    • From the Maybee Society files. Not all data is verified. Say dates are estimates and are probably within 20 years. The Maybee Society keeps its data on The Master Genealogist�, and has been modified by Gary Hester?s WIT2NOTE� to form the GedCom file. This information is also available in a TMG file.
    Person ID I33077  Glenn Cook Family
    Last Modified 30 Nov 2006 

    Father William Thomas Mabee,   b. Between 6 Dec 1803 and 6 Dec 1804, Ohio Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 18 May 1879 (Age ~ 75 years) 
    Mother Mary E. Haythe,   b. 1825, Virginia Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1879 (Age 54 years) 
    Marriage 20 Dec 1840  Ohio Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Census 1850  Hamilton Township, Jackson County, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    • William Mabee, 47, M, Farmer, OH, $5000
      Mary Mabee, 25, F, VA
      Mary Mabee, 5, F, OH
      Jannett Mabee, 6/12, F, OH
      Mary Mabee, 77, F, MA
    Census 1860  Jefferson Township, Scioto County, Ohio Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    • William Mabee, 56, M, Farmer, OH, $2000, $500
      Mary Mabee, 34, F, VA
      Mary F. Mabee, 15, F, OH
      Genette Mabee, 9, F, OH
      William Mabee, 7, F, OH
      Charles Mabee, 6, F, OH
      Martha Mabee, 3, F, OH
      Christina Mabee, 9/12, F, OH
    Census 1870  Union Township, Pike County, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [7
    • William Mabee, 66, M, Farmer, 1000, 200, OH
      Mary Mabee, 45, F, Keeping House, OH
      William Mabee, 18, M, Farm Laborer, OH
      Charles Mabee, 16, M, Farm Laborer, OH
      Christina Mabee, 10, F, Helps Mother, OH
      Martha Mabee, 13, F, Helps Mother, OH
      Emma Mabee, 3, F, At Home, OH
      Marget Mabee, 5, F, Attending School, OH
    Family ID F551605370  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Joseph Slavens,   b. 1839, Ohio Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 5 Mar 1888 (Age 49 years) 
    Marriage 22 Sep 1862  in the William Mabee's house, , Jackson County, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Census 1880  Walnut, Wayne County, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    • Joseph Slavens, Self, M, Male, W, 40, Oh, Farmer, Va, NY
      Mary F. Slavens, Wife, M, Female, W, 35, Oh, Keeping House, Oh,
      Va
      Clara F. Slavens, Dau, S, Female, W, 3, Ia, At Home, Oh, Oh
      John H. Greene, Other, S, Male, W, 17, In, Farm Laborer, Tn, Tn
      Della James, Niece, S, Female, W, 9, Oh, Att. School, Oh, Oh
    Children 
     1. Clara Frances Slavens,   b. 25 Oct 1876, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 14 Oct 1920 (Age 43 years)
    Family ID F551607314  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 30 Nov 2006 

  • Sources 
    1. [S1246] email to Maybee Society, BARBARA SPIDLE 22APR2002 (Reliability: 3).

    2. [S1350] Slaven Article, (Ohio Records and Pioneer Families, Vol. 42, Issue 2 The following article appeared in a series of articles in The Centerville Daily Iowegian, Centerville, Appanoose County, Iowa. These articles appeared in the newspaper between 1933 and 1934. The Appanoose County Genealogical Society has since published a book of these stories. The town of Cincinnati referred to in the article is in Pleasant Township, Appanoose County, Iowa. The town of Seymour is in Wayne County, Iowa. Contributed by Joyce Posey, 210 Chesterfield Circle, Riverside OH 45431-1461 (sent to the maybee Society by the ORPF editor, Sue Lee ).

    3. [S1254] Steve Mabie, Steve Mabie's Website, 1850 CENSUS (Reliability: 3).

    4. [S1254] Steve Mabie, Steve Mabie's Website, 1860 CENSUS (Reliability: 3).

    5. [S1273] IGI - LDS, 1880 CENSUS, WALNUT, WAYNE, IOWA, FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY FILM 1254369, NA FILM NUMBER T9-0369, PAGE NUMBER 392B (Reliability: 3).

    6. [S1233] Barbara Miller, Barbara Millar, FROM HTTP://WWW.PROOF-GENEALOGY.COM/MABEE,%20SIMON.HTM (Reliability: 3).

    7. [S1261] Steve Mabie, Steve Mabie's 1870 census, PIKE COUNTY, UNION TOWNSHIP, PAGE 202, M593-ROLL 1257 (Reliability: 3).