They Really Went

Here is Sigrid's Grandmother--Ann Catherine Tate!  She was born in 1830 and in 1848 she married Alfred Slover.  They lived near Kingston, AR.

Grandmother Ann and her husband are listed on the 1850 Census.  By 1850, they have a little girl named Louisa Jane.  Shortly after this census, Alfred gets the "gold fever".  All the stories of men getting rich were alluring and he leaves with a group for the gold rush.  Alfred did not get rich.  He died in an explosion in the mine shaft,  December 16, 1851.  Ann Catherine did not hear right away that Alfred had died.  She waited until some of the other miners returned to Arkansas carrying the sad news.  

In 1853, Grandma married a second time to James Gunter Maples, Sigrid's Grandfather.  He was a widower with two small children.  Ann and James Maples had a large family, including Grandfather William Burl Maples, father of my Grandmother Lee Gertrude Maples Powell!