Earlier this week I began detailing the information I found in the pension file of John L. Gamble. You can read about click here to read about the information found in his pension questionnaire.
The questionnaire confirmed that his first wife, and my ancestor, was Alice Wise. She is listed with the middle initial “J” in the questionnaire. Other sources listed her with the middle initial “L”.
Another deposition given by John L Gamble states that:
I was married to Alice Wise in the fall of 1865 in Butler, Pa and she died about April 1887, and is buried in the graveyard at Pine Creek Church, 5 miles south of Butler, Pa. She has no grave-stone. Undertaker Alexander Martin of Etna, Allegheny Co., Pa. , buried her, and her physician was Dr. (?) Purvis, dead.
John L. Gamble continues in the next paragraph that Alice must have died in 1886 because he married Margaret Thompson in 1887.
Using the Obituary Index at the Butler Area Public Library website, I was able to find Alice. I sent off for Alice’s obituary and promptly received two in the mail. There was both a death notice and short obituary in the paper on the same day but different pages:
Deaths
GAMBLE – On March 12th, 1886, at her residence in Etna, Allegheny county , Pa., Alice L. wife of John L. Gamble, of pneumonia, aged 40 years.
and
Mrs. A.L. Gamble, of Etna, Allegheny county, died of pneumonia on Friday last. The remains were taken to the residence of her father, Mr. Daniel Wise, of Penn Township, this county, and on Sunday were interred in the church-yard at that place.
Democratic Herald, 19 March 1886, Page 2, Column 2 and Page 3, Column 2, Butler Area Public Library, Film #060.
I think John L. was my Great, Great Grandfather. This would make her my Great, Great Grandmother.
Kathy – I would love to compare family trees. I will send you an email! Sierra