© Kathy Duncan, 2026
Mary O'Hara was James S. Piper's first wife. They married in Baltimore, Maryland, on 31 June 1841. Their little son, Henry Clay Piper, died on 4 August 1845 in Baltimore.
Then James S. Piper turned up on the 1860 census of Washington DC with a wife named Elizabeth and a son named William H. Piper. The old me would have killed off Mary O'Hara by 1860 and assumed that there were no surviving children from the marriage of Mary O'Hara and James S. Piper.
But that was the old me.
This census record for a Mary Piper and son James S. Piper turned up on the 1850 census for Carroll County, Maryland.
Mary Piper was 24 years old and had been born in England. Her implied son was James S. Piper, age 4, born in Maryland. If this was James S. Piper's wife, where was he?
Then a Findagrave memorial for Mary Piper turned up. She died on 31 December 1866 and was buried in the Meadow Branch Cemetery in Westminster, Carroll County, Maryland. Her tombstone says that she was 40 years old, so she is the same Mary Piper who was on the 1850 Carroll County census. To date, I have not found her or her son James S. Piper on the 1860 census.
But was she the first wife of James S. Piper?
Mary Piper's noncupative will contained testimony from several people. Apparently, Mary Piper had been living with Elizabeth Englar for several years. Everyone testified that Mary wished for her property to go to her son James S. Piper. However, their testimony also revealed that she had one other son from whom she had been estranged:
The testimony of Elizabeth Englar's son, Ezra, revealed that the other son of Mary Piper was "always absent and had been weaned from her [Mary]":
Their testimony did not reveal the name of the other son; however, he promptly turned up to contest her will. He was none other than Horatio N. Piper:
The court, however, recognized James S. Piper as the sole heir.
In 1850, Horatio N. Piper was living in the household of his grandfather, Philip Piper, in Baltimore. Horatio was eight years old, so he was two years older than James S. Piper, Jr. Where was James S. Piper, Sr., in 1850? He was not with either of his sons by Mary O'Hara nor with Mary. My guess is that James Sr. was somewhere with his son, William H. Piper, and possibly with William's mother. That's just a guess.
In 1880, Horatio N. Piper was living with his wife, Cora, and his aunts, Lizzie and Mattie Piper. They were all still living in Baltimore.
When Horatio N. Piper married Cora Felch in Boston, Massachusetts, on 25 July 1878, he stated that his parents were James S. and Mary Piper.
Somewhere, there is a divorce record for James S. Piper and Mary. I think James was too public a figure to commit bigamy. Their divorce would have occurred before William H. Piper's birth in 1848. Then there should be a marriage record somewhere for the marriage between James S. Piper and William H. Piper's mother. I would guess that marriage occurred by 1847. Since James S. Piper, Jr., was born about 1846, that creates a small window of time in which a divorce and remarriage occurred.
When the statement was made that Mary's other son, Horatio, was "weaned away from her," it is almost literal. James S. Piper, Jr. was probably still a nursing baby when Mary and James S. Piper parted ways, so she would have been able to keep him. Horatio would have been a toddler. When other events of James S. Piper's life are taken into consideration, yet another picture emerges. In May 1846, James S. Piper was raising a company to fight in the Mexican War. He returned in 1847. At the same time, his marriage with Mary fell apart, he entered a relationship/marriage with someone else, and had another son by 1848.
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