Setting the stage for the biographies of Lewis L. Green and Mary Lydia Mooers

 Generally, I try and cram all the info I can into the biographies, but the next two need a bit of set up.  My third great grandparents Mary Lydia Mooers and Lewis L. Green got divorced.  Thanks to the Maine State Archive I was able to get the documentation for the divorce and here is the transcription.

• Here is the complaint:

To the Hon Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court now sitting at Bangor within and for the County of Penobscot, October Term, 1868.

Lydia Green of Ludlow in the County of Aroostook respectfully libels and gives the court to be informed that on the 10th day of April, 1848, at Miramachi in the Province of New Brunswick, she was lawfully married to one Lewis L. Green by the Rev. James Tozier, that she lived and cohabitation with her said husband in this State and has alway behaved herself as a faithful and chaste wife: that she has had by him six children, viz: Alfred, aged 22, Elvira, aged 18, Alma, aged 14, Alfraetta, aged 11, David, aged 9, and Agnes, aged 6.  And your libelant shows to your Honors that the said Lewis L Green, regardless of his duty, after their said marriage became drunken and dissolute in his habits. Neglecting to provide for your libelant and the family.  Treated her with great unkindness and cruelty, frequently made threats to kill her, and finally on the 28th day of December 1862, without cause wholly deserted your libelant, and has never returned to her or furnished her any support.  

Wherefore your libelant prays that the bonds of matrimony between her and her said husband may be dissolved and that the care and custody of the five minor children, because of unfitness and character of their father, may be decreed to her.  

And the said Lewis L. Green, residing out of this Stare, and in parts unknown to your libelant, she prays the court here to order such notice of the tendency of this libel to be given him, as the court shall adjudge proper returnable at the February term of said court in Aroostook County, 1869. 

December 10th, 1868

Lydia Green Her X Mark

Attest. C. M Herrin

• Here is the outcome:

This libel was entered at the present term of this court when it was proved that the following notice was daily given and published in said Aroostook Pioneer, together with said libel in December, 1868 and January, 1869. To wit: State of Maine Penobscot, ss. Sup. Jud. Court, October Term 1868. On the Foregoing libel, the Court orders that the said libelant give notice to the said Lewis L. Green of the tendency thereof by causing an attested copy of said libel and this order thereon, to be published three successive weeks in the Aroostook Pioneer a newspaper printed at Houlton in the county of Aroostook, the last publication thereof to be at least thirty days before the last Tuesday of February, 1869. That he may then appear before the Justices of said Court to beholden at Houlton within and for our county of Aroostook on the last Tuesday in February, 1869. And show cause if any he has why the prayer of said libel should not be granted.  

Witness, John Appleton, Esq. at Bangor, this 12th day of October 1868

E.L. Brett, Clerk Aline copy of libel and order of Curt thereon; Attest

E.L. Brett, Clerk. And the Defendant though solemnly called to come into court did not appear but made default. And now it appearing to the court that notice had been given as ordered, on the 6th day of the term after mature deliberation it is considered by the court, that the prayer of said Libelant be granted and it is hereby ordered and decreed that the bonds of matrimony here before existing between the said Lydia Green and Lewis L. Green be, and the same are hereby dissolved, and the custody of the five minor children be decreed to the libelant as prayed for.

So, what do we learn from this:

• Mary Lydia Green went by Lydia
• She is living in Ludlow, ME on December 10th, 1868
• Lydia and Lewis where married in Miramachi, New Brunswick on April 10th, 1848.
• She and her husband lived in Maine.  
• They have six children
• Alfred, age 22
• Elvira, age 18
• Alma, age 14
• Alfaretta, age 11
• David, age 9
• Agnes, age 6
• After their marriage, Lewis became drunken and dissolute
• Was at least mentally abusive to her, and threatened to kill her frequently
• Left her on December 28th, 1862 and did not return or send support
• Lewis was residing out of State, and in parts unknown
• Lydia cannot write, as she signed with and X
•  The court found in Lydia's favor.

There are some other documents that run at least somewhat counter to this narrative.

• If they had been living in Maine before Lewis left at the end of 1862, why was their daughter born in Miramichi, New Brunswick in April of 1863?
• The 1900 census lists her as immigrating in 1863.
• If he was such a horrible parent, why did his two daughters (Elvira and Alma) live with him in Michigan in 1870?
• Lydia's intention to marry John Lightbody was announced on March 15th, 1869.  Just after the divorce was finalized.  Their first child (Earnest Walter Lightbody) birth record shows he was born on November 19th, 1868. Though his obituary says November 9th, 1870.  The birth record also says they were already married.  

I suspect there is more to this story then what the court documents show, and we don't have Lewis's side of the story as he never showed up to the hearing.  That being said, most things points to Lewis L. Green being a nasty individual who abandoned his family.  In the next few posts I'll do my best to write up their biographies based on this and other information.