52 Ancestors: #35 - Charles Yancy Trice, Jr (1853 MO -1915 AR)

Charles Yancy Trice is both a mystery and an open book.  C.Y. Trice was born on 28 October 1853 in Cameron, Clinton County, Missouri.  His parents were Charles Yancy Trice, Sr and Mary Ann Winstead.  C.Y. was the eighth child of fourteen and the fifth son.

He was a promoter, salesman, and land advocate (real estate agent for farm lands).  At least two promotional books, talking about the benefits of purchasing farm land from him in the area he was promoting at the time (Kansas or Missouri), were written.  I have copies of each of them.  [Unfortunately I haven’t taken the time to transcribe them yet.  These are on my to-do list, when I have nothing else to do that is more important at the particular time.]  Charles served as mayor of Lamar, Barton County, Missouri, about 1898 or 1899 for 1 or 2 years. 

When Col. Trice died in 1915 [Col. was an honorary title], he was in Little River County, Arkansas. There were very long obituaries written in the papers in both Ashdown, Arkansas and Lamar, Missouri.  So, this is the area where there is a lot of information. 

So, what’s the mystery?  In both obituaries two wives are mentioned:  Miss Paralee  M. Steen (two children) and Miss Lena Estelle Drake (three children).  C.Y. and Lena raised the two children from his first marriage, and the story in the family was that Paralee died and the two children were left without a mother.  HOWEVER, it appears that C.Y. and Lena were married, or at least had one daughter, before Paralee died in 1893 in Kansas. 

The mystery continues.  There is a marriage record for Charles and Paralee.  There is a death record for Paralee.  I have been unable to find a divorce record for Charles and Paralee AND I have been unable to find a marriage record for Charles and Lena.  Considering that C.Y. had a good relationship with Lena’s father, I am assuming that there was an actual wedding between C.Y. and Lena.  But with first daughter Ruth born in 1891, to Charles and Lena, BUT court documents in El Dorado, Kansas show that Paralee died in 1893, I don’t know exactly what happened when. 

I have LOTS of information and documents on this family, many of them original.  I am definitely willing to share what I have.

SOooo…If you are interested in this family, and this mystery, or can help me solve this mystery, please contact me.