Record of Marriage
Jarvis Pierce and Elewesa Gatewood, 1845
Marriage Certificate:
This is to certify that I joined together in the Holy State of matrimony, the within named Jarvis Pierce & Elewesa Gatewood, on the 18th day of November 1845; & returning certificate thereof on this day, as the law directs; this November 19th 1845.Braxton Parrish
a minister of the gospel
Marriage License:
State of Illinois
Gallatin County
Whereas there is shortly intended a marriage between Mr. Jarvis Pierce and Mrs. elewesa A. Gatewood and there appearing to exist no legal impediment thereto these are therefore to Licensed any regular minister of the gospel, Judge, or Justice of the Peace by our laws authorized so to do to join in the Holy estate of Matrimony the aforesaid Mr. Jarvis Pierce and Mrs. Elewesa A. Gatewood, and for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant.Witness Leonard white clerk of the
County Commissioners court of Equality this 18th day of November
A.D. 1845
Leonard White
Elewesa was the daughter of Adolphus Frederick Hubbard and was born about 1807 in Warren County, Kentucky. She was the widow of
William Jefferson Gatewood whom she married in 1828 in Gallatin County. He died in 1842, leaving Elewesa with several young children.
The marriage license was issued in Equality, Gallatin County. The copy of the certificate above was from FHL MF 969486, images 815 & 816, Illinois Marriage Certificates, 1837-1845, taken from the original records in the Gallatin County courthouse.
Elewesa was appointed administrator of her husband's estate and Jarvis Pierce, also of Gallatin County, was appointed guardian of her minor children in September 1850: Williamson, Ephraim H., Nancy and Isaac. Jarvis was the son of Jarvis Pierce Sr. and Rhoda Darby of Massachusetts and later Gallatin and White counties in Illinois. Jarvis was also a widower, having first married Sally Wilkerson in 1821 in Jefferson County. They had at least three children but it is not known when she died.
In 1866 Jarvis Pierce filed for divorce, the grounds being desertion, and he married Unity Barnes, a servant living with the family in the 1860 census. The household was not a happy one: Unity gave birth to Jarvis' daughter Dora in late 1860. Elewesa put her household goods into a wagon and left, telling Jarvis not to try to find her. She was living with her daughter Nancy Addison and family in 1870 in White County, Illinois, under the name Louisa Gatewood. She died in 1877 in St. Louis, Missouri, where she is buried. Jarvis died in 1880, probably in Harrisburg, Saline County, where he was living at the time. It is not known where he was buried.
Related Links
Hubbard and Gatewood families
Biographical sketch of Jarvis Pierce Jr., 1800-1880
Zephaniah Phillips, husband of Mary E. Pierce, only child of Elewesa Hubbard & Jarvis Pierce
