DAUGHTER OF MICHIGAN: THE YEAR OF SORROWS

When Margaret returned to Hudson for her mother’s funeral, she was twenty-seven years old. She was not old according to her family traditions. Her brother Samuel and sister-in-law Sarah had been in their early thirties when Mary was only five years old. Thomas and his wife were married later in life. They had not started a family by the 1900 census. Her mother was sixteen years old when she married her first husband, John. She was thirty-five years old when she married her second husband, Margaret’s father, Samuel. Yet, for women of the early 20th century, Margaret was old and most would think her prospects were dwindling. She must have seen her mother as the icon that had held the family together. A woman of strength and fortitude who carved out a place and a home in the midst of tragedy, Lucinda had also given her youngest daughter a role model that was to serve her well in the future.

We cannot know if Lucinda gave Margaret her blessings to leave and move to the city, or that she approved of her career choice. It may have been possible that she met Margaret’s future husband, but it is only speculation. Yet, Margaret returned often to Hudson after her marriage and it may be surmised she did so because she had a good relationship with her mother and that included her approval of Margaret’s choice in men and career.

After her mother’s death, Margaret did not return to Detroit. She might have returned to her position of milliner in a shop located in Hudson, or she may have stayed behind to help settle her mother’s affairs. Whatever her reasons for staying, Margaret did not give up her relationship with Edward. It was to become very important to her in the next few years. If Margaret thought the death of her mother was the end of her world she could not have envisioned the next year and the sorrows it brought.

1906 was not going to be celebrated with joy and wishes for happiness in the coming New Year. Instead, it would be marked by a death. Margaret’s brother Thomas Belchor died at the age of fifty-five on January 1, 1906. He left behind a wife, Mary and no children. Margaret was no stranger to death, but it seemed a cruel beginning to a New Year.

She had not yet turned twenty-eight when death once again knocked on their door. On July 2, 1906, her brother Samuel King died at the young age of thirty-five two days and six months after her other brother. His death left behind a wife, Sarah and their daughter Mary, now eleven years old. For Margaret, the burden of grief must have been over-whelming. Yet, she was much grounded in her Methodist faith and it was most likely that faith which gave her strength and helped her to cope.