When Inez Franklin’s wedding announcement appeared in the Greenfield Daily Reporter (Greenfield, Indiana) on March 4, 1920, only her mother was listed. It appeared as if Millie Franklin was a widow. Her husband and Inez’s father, William Franklin, had died 13 years before.
Jesse Wilt (my maternal grandmother’s brother) was 24 years old and had already served in the Army during WWI. His parents had divorced almost eleven years prior to his marriage, and his father probably did not even attend the wedding on February 20, 1920.
The couple married in Anderson, Indiana at the home of the minister who performed the wedding, Rev. W.L. Lundy. The newspaper did not list those who attended the ceremony, but I suspect the two mothers and possibly siblings who lived close.
Jesse and his new wife set up housekeeping on “the bride’s farm near Pendleton.” So obviously, Inez owned land as well as a home. However, in the 1930 US Census, Jesse is related to the head of household as son-in-law. Millie Franklin is the property owner so in actuality, it wasn’t Inez’s farm but rather the home in which she’d been living prior to marriage.
They went on to have four children: Frederick Loren Wilt, Lorraina Mae Wilt, William Thompson Wilt, and Evalyn Joan Wilt. Jesse spent time in the VA Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. Inez died on March 31, 1955 at the home of her youngest daughter, Joan (pronounced Jo Ann) Borelli. Jesse died three years later on Valentines Day 1958 in Dayton.
(Image courtesy of WIkimedia Commons)
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