packedwithpackards

[packedwithpackards]

Immigration, multiple partners, and cruelty: The story of three Packard divorcees

Excerpts from census documents for 1881 and 1891 via Library and Archives Canada. The yellow-colored box is my emphasis. Last month I wrote about the story of one woman who married into the Packard family, Edna Mary Myers, and divorced their husband. This month I will be continuing that focus, but will focus on three women, specifically Catherine Maud Harwood, Helen Dorothy Larson Hillstrom, and…

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Intemperance, extreme cruelty, and multiple husbands: The story of Edna Mary Myers

This is an excerpt from the full record, which I put together, so as to focus on my ancestor Edna and her husband Milton (called Benjamin here) who she was petitioning to divorce. This record was extracted from Michigan, U.S., Divorce Records, 1897-1952 for Edna Packard, 1897-1923, 1916 Saginaw-1917 Mason, Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics;…

[packedwithpackards]

Multiple marriages, cruelty, and divorce: The stories of Ellen Deborah Havers and Esther Jane Wiggins

Photograph originally shared by Josh Ross on 20 Oct 2020 on Ancestry.com. Used with permission, According to Ross, he isn’t sure “who has the original,” adding “that image has been scanned and printed at least twice.” Ellen is the one in the first row, in the center of the photo, according to some Ancestry.com hints I saw. Last month, I wrote about the story of Emma Electa Dyer, the six-husband…

[packedwithpackards]

A Dyer Warning?: Extreme cruelty and Emma Electa Dyer, the Six-Husband Woman

g Emma’s divorce record from her next-to-last husband. Recently I’ve been writing about a lot of Packard divorcees, specifically the Mormon Ella May Rhodes last month, three women in December (Ida Margaret Leisen, Jessie Bonnalee Foster, and Laura Belle Meyers), and many more in the past. [1] This post will focus on one woman in particular: Emma Electa Dyer. Emma was born on September 11, 1888 in…

[packedwithpackards]

Neglect, pinching, cruelty, murder threats, and maiden names: The story of Ella May Rhodes

Ella accuses her husband of abusing her. This is via a newspaper clip in The Herald-Press, Saint Joseph, Michigan, 08 Sep 1921, Thu • Page 1. She is one of the women whose stories I am focusing on in this post. In December of last year, I wrote about three Packard divorcees, specifically Ida Margaret Leisen, Jessie Bonnalee Foster, and Laura Belle Meyers. This post continues that focus, while…

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Where "Packed with Packards!" stands in 2025

Hello all! 2024 was a banner year for Packed with Packards!, with a total of 12 posts,  one for each month, [1] often about Packard women, on topics such as: Tobacco Farming Abolitionism Intoxication / Alcoholism Murder Disease Divorce Gun violence Unmarried people Informants Women’s suffrage Mental health Temperance Enslaved Black people Trauma Adultery Desertion Telegraph operators Court…

[packedwithpackards]

Desertion, abandonment, and cruelty: The story of three Packard divorcees

From page 8 of “100 Years of Marriage and Divorce: Statistics [of the] United States, 1867-1967” published by the Public Health Service in December 1973.In my post last month, I focused on three Packard women (i.e. women who married into the Packard family, in this case) who divorced their husbands, specifically Lovina Jennie Rock, Ruey E. Eitnier, and Edna Meyers. There are many more I could…

[packedwithpackards]

Extreme cruelty, adultery, and alcoholism: the stories of three Packard women and their husbands

The top record shows the divorce record showing Lovina’s charges against her husband Ichabod in 1898. And the bottom record shows Lovina and Ichabod living together in Clayton, Michigan in 1880. These record clips are via Ichabod C. Packard and Lovina Packard Divorce Record, Michigan, U.S., Divorce Records 1897-1952, 1898 Emmet-1899 Wayne, Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for…

[packedwithpackards]

Libby's marriage in Multnomah County and the Gordon Family

In my post last month, I wrote about the marriage of Elizabeth “Libby” Ware Packard into Gordon family. As I noted, she married into that family in April 1880, and was living in Portland, Oregon, and “was not even thirty (one month shy) when she married him. However, I further stated that she received a deed to “a house on Market and Lawnsdale Streets for $500.00, on April 23rd, eighteen days…

[packedwithpackards]

"One of the Branches": E.P.W. Packard, Libby, Mental Health, and Barbara Sapinsley's clever storytelling

A compilation of three images I posted on Instagram back in mid-September 2023, of this book, before I began reading it. At the time, I wrote “it just arrived today: the first (I think) scholarly book on my #ancestor Elizabeth P.W. Packard, which came out in 1991. While there have been two other history books focused on Elizabeth since then (by Linda V. Carlisle and Kate Moore), this book by…

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The myth of "martial bliss": Stories of female Packard divorcees

Elizabeth P.W. Packard on page 15 of in her 1864 book, entitled The exposure on board the Atlantic & Pacific car of emancipation for the slaves of old Columbia, engineered by the lightning express (the short short version of the title of her landmark book) about her personal experience inside the Jacksonsville State Hospital. She is somewhat advocating for divorce here, arguing she is enslaved to…

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"Our Near Neighbours": The interweaved story of Abigail Adams, Reverend Packard, and Nancy Ann Quincy

A page from U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930 for Asa Packard, Massachusetts,  Columbian Centinel, Marriage Nabor-Ryonson, Ancestry.com. U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014, :Newspapers and Periodicals. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts.Back in September 2019,…

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From Pontiac to Montpelier: The Stories of Over 20 Packard Women

My ancestor, Elizabeth, requests divorce from her husband, and after about a year, it is granted! Her story is briefly described in this article. Hello all! In my sixth post in 2024, I am doing another installment of my “Lives of the Packard Women” series. My previous parts of this series were published in September, October, November, and December 2023, and others in January, February, and March…

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Alaska Packard the informant?: Shadowing bootleggers, keeping tabs on peace activists, and defending suffragists

A Google search for my ancestor Alaska Packard Davidson pulls up one of my blogs on the first page of results! Screenshot taken on Sept. 2, 2023 In January 2021, I first wrote about my distant cousin, Alaska “Al” Packard. Since then, I briefly mentioned her in my post about LGBTQ+ ancestors and in a post about additional Packard women, in the third part of my “Lives of the Packard Women” series.…

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"A luxury hotel for its time": Josephine Packard the laundress, Hotel Phelps, and Greenville

Advert for hotel as shown on page 194 of the 1906 book, Souvenir History of Port Huron, Michigan. A similar add is mentioned here, calling it a home “for the travelers.” Last August, I wrote to the Flat River Historical Society and Museum (FRHS), noting that my ancestor, Josephine Packard, worked as a laundress in Greenville (as far as I know), Michigan, at 206 Lafayette Street.I noted that I…

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Divorce, disease, alcoholism, servants, abuse, and gun violence: From Hazel to Josephine

Philabert Packard, my ancestor, briefly mentioned in the probate records after her husband’s death in 1839, with yellow underlining as my emphasis, via New Hampshire, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1982 for Henry Thayer, Cheshire, Estate Files, T196-T248, 1837-1847, Probate Estate Files, 1769-1885; Author: New Hampshire. Probate Court (Cheshire County); Probate Place: Cheshire, New…

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Cora Estelle Packard and her child at a date not known. The un-colorized version of this image was originally posted by welch_donnie_41658. Cora is my sixth cousin three times removed.