Mary "Molly" Evelyn Mounts

1857 - 1940  (83 years)

• Name	Mary "Molly" Evelyn Mounts
  Nickname	Molly
  Birth	27 Aug 1857	West Virginia
  Gender	Female
  Death	10 Sep 1940	Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma
  Burial	Duncan Municipal Cemetery, Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma
  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.
  Person ID	I5715	Strong Family Tree
  Last Modified	17 Aug 2014

  
  

  Father	William J. Mounts,   b. 30 Aug 1832, Virginia bur. 5 Jun 1905, Mt. Hope Cemetery, Arkansas City, Cowley County, Kansas (Age ~ 72 years)
  Mother	Salinda Galloway,   b. Abt 1835, Virginia d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	Aft 1853
  Family ID	F2835	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	William Miller Gentry,   b. 23 May 1851, Tennessee d. 23 Sep 1929, Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma (Age 78 years)
  Marriage	12 Jul 1872	Grayson County, Texas   [1]
  	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."
  Children	1. Carrie Francis Gentry,   b. Abt 1875, Texas d. 1899, Oklahoma (Age ~ 24 years)   2. Permelia Gertrude Gentry,   b. Aug 1876, Texas d. 11 Sep 1906, Stephens County, Oklahoma (Age ~ 30 years)   3. Franklin Melton Gentry,   b. 24 May 1880, Texas d. 11 Jun 1928, Stephens County, Oklahoma (Age 48 years)   4. Edgar Jeffery Gentry,   b. 26 Dec 1882, Decatur, Wise County, Texas d. 5 Jan 1967, Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma (Age 84 years)   5. John William Gentry,   b. 9 Aug 1885, Decatur, Wise County, Texas d. 20 Oct 1972, Alpine, Brewster County, Texas (Age 87 years)   6. Grace Ellen Gentry,   b. 3 Nov 1888, Decatur, Wise County, Texas d. 16 Dec 1966, Stillwater, Payne County, Oklahoma (Age 78 years)   7. Emory Howell Gentry, Sr.,   b. 26 May 1893, Stephens County, Indian Territory d. 1 Aug 1967, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma (Age 74 years)   8. Ruth Pearl Gentry,   b. 19 Dec 1896, Arthur, Parks Township, Stephens County, Oklahoma d. 27 Dec 1987, Pampa, Gray County, Texas (Age 91 years)
  Family ID	F1107	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	13 Nov 2010

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 27 Aug 1857 - West Virginia Marriage - 12 Jul 1872 - Grayson County, Texas Death - 10 Sep 1940 - Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma Burial - - Duncan Municipal Cemetery, Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Headstones

  Gentry, William Miller and Mary (Mounts)

  
  

• Sources

  [S315] Rainey, Juanita (sparklestree@aol.com) "Juanita's Family Tree" Ver. Jun 23 22:39:06 2003; http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=gentry536, Other researchers show the date of marriage as being in 1873 (Reliability: 3).