Mary "Molly" Evelyn Mounts

Notes:

Known as "Molly." Her birth position uncertain, she was probably the youngest. She probably had TWO older brothers.

Ken Harvey wrote the following biography of Molly Mounts Gentry based on interviews with her daughter, Grace Ellen Gentry, grandson, Lewis Adair Payne, and other family members. He wrote that Molly was said to have been abducted by her father from his ex-wife and grandparents in West Virginia. The story that has come down is that William J. did not approve of the way they were bringing her up. He had secretly let her know that he was in the area, and she met him at a pre-arranged place. His own armed brothers, who had been on the Confederate side in the war, followed them, but William who had been a Captain on the Union side, was careful to eluded their pursuit. He let it be known that he intended going south on the Mississippi from Memphis. They, father and daughter, did just this and then they quickly backtracked going north at the first steamer wood fuel stop on the river. They arrived in Chicago, presumably by train, "as the great fire was going out"-that would have been just after 8th October 1871; when Mary was fourteen years old.

She later recalled that she had plenty of good clothes [during her three years] living with her father but she was not allowed to have a man touch her stockinged feet-this was considered inappropriate behaviour. He used to make a paper cut-out of his daughter's soles when she needed shoes. He was determined on proper behaviour. She had to walk with her arms straight down her sides and fix her gaze about twenty feet in front of her when walking in the public street.

She became engaged, at about the age of fifteen, to a young man who presented her with a large and beautiful ring. It seems highly likely that this liason had been arranged somehow by her father. One day she saw her fiance riding a horse in a park with another woman. Young Molly became very upset and went up to him. Taking it off her finger she handed the ring back to him saying that "this [marriage] is not going to work!" Her father and she left Chicago shortly afterwards.

William J. had hired a Mrs. Harris to be young Molly's live-in companion in Chicago. Mrs. Harris was a very strict and religious person who was very upset to discover her church minister playing poker with William J. one night after hours in a back room of his saloon. This saloon was somewhere to the south of Chicago. She said she was never going back to his church again. He was very amused about her outraged attitude and his surprising response to his daughter's prim adult companion was to say let us all leave the town.

They all drove off next morning and he just left his saloon business as it was when he closed it down the previous night. He used to laugh all the time about Mrs Harris' reaction to her preacher's infidelity to his supposed ideals-presumably out of her earshot.

Some time later, in the early 1870's, they all wound up in north Texas. It was presumably in Johnson Co. that young Molly set her heart on William Miller Gentry. He was six years older than her.

Molly's father, made it clear that he did not approve of her choice of Will Gentry. Was he aware of Will's probable previous marriage three years previously? He did not, however, interfere when she decided to marry him. Instead he presented the couple with a team of horses and a wagon (four wheels). William J. Mounts drove away from the wedding service in Grayson Co. having made his fairwells. He was evidently very disappointed and apparently rather angry with her choice. Angry enough for he was never to wish to see her again, nor did he.

Molly's grandfather-in-law, William Gentry, was a preacher. Mary had little time for him. It is noticable that he did not marry Molly and Will.

When they were living in Stevens Co., Oklahoma, Molly discovered that a neighbour there had once lived in Chicago. The neighbour's brother, a wealthy man, was still living in that northern city and he always wore a large diamond ring that his young fiance had returned to him when she rebuffed him. He had never married after his loss. It is not known if Molly revealed her extraordinary secret to her Oklahoma neighbour on Wildhorse Creek.

She used to tell a story about a relation of hers who had joined the army just after the Civil War. He had committed some infraction of the military rule book and was walking beside a General following an investigation into the event when he anxiously enquired of his superior, "what happens next?" The General replied, "we shoot at dawn." The comment was clearly not meant to be taken seriously, but it was. The evidently very nervous and highly impressionable young man immediately dropped dead from a severe heart attack.

1900-In the census of 1900 Molly recorded that she had had eight children of whom seven were still alive. This agrees with our list as we know Carrie had died from blood poisoning the previous year.

1930 census Stephens Co. OK King Twp., Duncan city, ED 69-4 Sheet 18B 725 8th St. ? 994/433 Gentry, Mary E., FW 73 Wd WV WV WV

The Duncan Eagle-Sept. 12, 1940 Mary E. Gentry, 84, Dead After Long Illness in Home Here Mrs. Mary Evelyn Gentry, 84, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Marvin Payne, 813 Beech Ave. Tuesday afternoon, after a lingering illness with which she been afflicted for some time. She had been living with her daughter during the greater part of her illness. Other children are Ed J. Gentry, Duncan; John W. Gentry, Alpine, Texas; Emery H. Gentry, Oklahoma City; and Mrs S. P. Hall, Great Bend, Kan. Also surviving are 31 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. Funeral services will be held at 2:30 this afternoon in the First Baptist church with the Rev. Frank Sutton, pastor of the Immanuel Baptist church, officiating. Burial will be in Duncan cemetery. The Beeson-Grantham Funeral home was in charge of arrangements.

Mary married William Miller Gentry on 12 Jul 1872 in Grayson County, Texas. William (son of John Melton Gentry and Pamelia C Harpole) was born on 23 May 1851 in Tennessee; died on 23 Sep 1929 in Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma; was buried in Duncan Municipal Cemetery, Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married:
Mr. and Mrs. W.M. Gentry Celebrate their "Golden Wedding Day"

Mr. and Mrs. W.M. Gentry of this city [Duncan] celebrated their "Golden Wedding Day" Friday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Payne, a few miles east of this city, surrounded by their sons and daughters, grand children, great grandchildren and a host of relatives and friends.

Married 50 years ago in Pottsboro, Grayson County, Texas, Mr. and Mrs. Gentry came to Oklahoma before there was any Stephen's county of a city of Duncan. They have resided in Stephens county, near Duncan, for the last 33 years and in the city of Duncan for three years.

Mr. Gentry, who has passed the 72nd milestone of life, was born in Tennessee, and moved to Texas when that state was young. Mrs. Gentry was born in West Virginia and grew to womanhood in Illinois after which she moved with her parents to Texas.

Eight children were born to this union, six of whom are living. They are J.W. Gentry of Alpine, Texas; Mrs. Marvin Payne of Chickasha; Mrs. S.B. Hall of Garber, Oklahoma; and three sons who live on farms east of Duncan.

There are 24 grandchildren and five great grand children.

Mr. Gentry carries his age exceedingly well, as does also Mrs. Gentry and to see them as they go about their daily lives one would never suspect that they had travelled a-down the rosy pathway of love and life together for half a century.

(GOLDEN WEDDING REPORT Newspaper clipping cut from unidentified Duncan City, Oklahoma newspaper, probably the Banner)

Ken Harvey had the following to report about their union:

Will married Mary Evelyn Mounts on Saturday, 12th July 1873 in Grayson Co., Texas. The marriage licence merely states that they were married by M. F. Cole. The marriage licence gives no further information. The day was incorrectly recorded as 13th. The question does arise as to why Will's grandfather, Preacher William Gentry, did not conduct the ceremony.

His father-in-law William J. Mounts did not approve of young Will as a husband for his daughter Molly. He told his young daughter that "Will was just a Tennessee farm boy, and though pleasant enough, he would never amount to anything." She was not dissuaded.

Will, it was always generally agreed, was evidently not very ambitious and rather easy going. Much later on, after her husband, Will's, death, Molly used to remonstrate with her young grandson Lewis Adair Payne "Get up and get going, you are just like Will sitting there for half an hour on your bed before making a move."

1. Carrie Francis Gentry was born about 1875 in Texas; died in 1899 in Oklahoma.
2. Permelia Gertrude Gentry was born in Aug 1876 in Texas; died on 11 Sep 1906 in Stephens County, Oklahoma; was buried in Marlow Cemetery, Marlow, Stephens County, Oklahoma.
3. Franklin Melton Gentry was born on 24 May 1880 in Texas; died on 11 Jun 1928 in Stephens County, Oklahoma; was buried in Duncan Municipal Cemetery, Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma.
4. Edgar Jeffery Gentry was born on 26 Dec 1882 in Decatur, Wise County, Texas; died on 5 Jan 1967 in Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma; was buried in Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma.
5. John William Gentry was born on 9 Aug 1885 in Decatur, Wise County, Texas; died on 20 Oct 1972 in Alpine, Brewster County, Texas.
6. Grace Ellen Gentry was born on 3 Nov 1888 in Decatur, Wise County, Texas; died on 16 Dec 1966 in Stillwater, Payne County, Oklahoma; was buried in Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma.
7. Emory Howell Gentry, Sr. was born on 26 May 1893 in Stephens County, Indian Territory; died on 1 Aug 1967 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma; was buried in Fairview Cemetery, Grady County, Oklahoma.
8. Ruth Pearl Gentry was born on 19 Dec 1896 in Arthur, Parks Township, Stephens County, Oklahoma; died on 27 Dec 1987 in Pampa, Gray County, Texas; was buried in Fairview Cemetery, Pampa, Gray County, Texas.

Notes:

Ken Harvey wrote the following biography of William Mounts, based on interviews with Grace Ellen Gentry, William's granddaughter, and Lewis Adair Payne, his great grandson, along with other family members. Some minor edits have since been made by Melinda Strong. Additionally, for more information about William J. Mounts and Salinda Galloway's siblings and parents contact Jay Kimmel - plainj@ieee.org

Ken wrote that "William J. Mounts apparently trained as a carpenter and was thought to have attended the University of Virginia in about 1850. Afterwards he was to join the Union cavalry. He quickly became a Captain. Some of his brothers, however, fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War.

William J. Mounts married in about 1854. He later maintained that he was pushed by his parents into what he claimed was an unfortunate relationship with Salinda Galloway, thought to be his step-mother's younger sister. He used to say later that people should not be bred like animals, he apparently considered that this is what had happened to him. When he divorced Salinda after the civil war, his family took Salinda's side-as did most of his own brothers. One of them, George Dobbs Mounts (apparentely a half brother0, however, evidently later maintained contact with him.

The Mount families antagonistic reaction to William J's decision to divorce Salinda was so strong that he claimed that he had to leave his parental home in West Virginia. He took with him daughter Molly, accordingly with her consent, and headed ultimately for Chicago. His training as a carpenter now paid off. He laid a parquet floor in a new saloon there that was being built, for which he was paid $40 a day. This was a small fortune at the time, but carpenters were worth their weight in gold in Chicago after the fire. At the time a labourer earned only a dollar a day. In his woodwork he always drove a nail in at an angle as he was a very careful worker.

Later he purchased or rented a saloon himself and set up business for a year or so.

Father, daughter and live-in companion Mrs. Harris were said to have then moved south to Texas in the early 1870's. After his daughter Mary's was married to Will Gentry in 1872, he went north again.

William J. remarried in about 1879, this time to an educated Indian woman originally from Kentucky whose name is unknown. The marriage probably took place in Arkansas City. He was living in Dewey, OK, at time of his death twenty-six years later. His second wife's former husband was said to have been a fellow Union officer of William J's who was killed in the Civil War. William and she had originally met in Kentucky. There were no children to this marriage.

He was an intellectual type with very high standards. It was said of him, with some hyperbole, that he had voted in twenty states. William J. was a very fastidious dresser. However he apparently had no great strong family feelings. He always seemed to have money when it was needed.

He broke off all contact with his daughter Mary after her marriage to Will Gentry. She heard occasionally about him but she never saw him again, nor is it thought that she ever saw her mother Salinda, although it is possible there was some contact.

In old age he visited Arkansas City in order to get a horse and had a fatal stroke as he returned home to Dewey, Oklahoma. He fell from the buggy and was still clutching the horse's reins when his body was found by locals. His wife was unable to attend the funeral as she may have been ill and the ceremony was too far away from Dewey. His half-brother, George Dobbs Mounts, looked after his funeral arrangements. His funeral director was Undertaker Oldroyd. His son, David, was in San Francisco. Daughter Molly Mounts Gentry didn't hear about the event until someone sent her a newspaper cutting which described his death. She was to say that this was the first time she knew he had been living in Dewey, although in retrospect this is a little hard to believe.

Mary was definitely in contact with both her step-brother James McCoy and her own brother David Mounts. One of them probably sent the newspaper cutting to her in Stephen's Co. Mary said that she knew that her father had been south visiting near her on several occasions but he never actually came to see her. She had been upset by this. He presumably would have heard about where she was even though he appears to have refused to contact her.

She was to say that if he wanted her to have anything of his estate he would have said so and he didn't, so she never made any inquires about the matter."

William married Salinda Galloway after 1853. Salinda was born about 1835 in Virginia; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

There is an oval format, quarter length, photograph of Salinda Galloway aged about fifty in the possession of Lewis Adair Payne (1997). It would have been taken in about 1885 and passed to Lewis via his grandmother Mary Evelyn Mounts and his Aunt Pearl. On the reverse is the inscription "My grandmother, Salinda Galloway McCoy."

Pearl Gentry (later Hall) wrote on the back. Her children have another larger picture of Salinda.

Ken Harvey said that Salinda married second a McCoy, and they had a son James F. McCoy. Jim was a 33rd degree Free Mason who was a Post Master in Wichita, Kansas. Mary Evelyn Mounts had a very high opinion of him and used to refer to him as "Brother Jim." He was evidently very popular. His children were Carl, Frank and Mary McCoy. Mary might have married a Mr. Cross.