FAMILY HISTORY AND STORIES
The Life of Mary Jane Wagner Gross
This entry made 9/94 by
LMZ after a visit with JTP. Re-edited 11/98
Mary Jane Wagner (our great Granmother) was born 15 September 1845. She was the daughter of John Jacob Wagner and Rebecca Fisher. Mary Jane married George Robert Gross Jr. and was the mother of Selena Catherine Gross who married Warren Wesley Parker.
Mary Jane was 21 years 2 Mo old when she married George Gross on 15 November 1866. (The marriage record states
she was 22 years old.)
Mary Jane married Alonzo Fenton in 1890. Alonzo was 33 years old. Mary Jane's age is given as 35 years on the marriage record. She is actually 45 years old - 12 years her second husband's senior.
Mary Jane and George Gross's children at the time of M.J.'s marriage to Alonzo were:
Annie Dorcas, 19; Rebecca, 17; Selena, 16; (George) Daniel, 14;
Edwin Albert (Bert), 11; Maude, 8.
George Gross, Mary Jane's first husband and the father of the above children did not die until 3 July 1904. There is no record of a divorce.
Mary Jane bought a cemetery lot at the Hillcrest Cemetery, Plympton, MA in 1932 for
$10.00. She had every intention of being buried there. The headstone reads "FENTON-ALONZO and MARY"
By that time
Plympton had been her home for 44 years. She had owned a home at
the corner of Main and Mayflower Road and paid taxes in her own
name (Mary Jane Fenton) from 1913 until 1923 - even though she
had a living and live-in husband. (It is an interesting question as to how she got local authorities to agree to this since it was a man's
world.) Her husband paid poll taxes and taxes on a
wood lot. The house was sold in 1923 and the Fentons went to
Marlboro to live with daughter Maude MacKenzie. They spent every
summer with M.J's granddaughter Bertha Shurleff in No. Carver and
there were many tears when it came time to "go home" in
the fall.
Alonzo Fenton died in Marlboro 7 July 1938 accoring to town records. Mary Jane brought him back to Plympton for buriel. However, when Mary Jane died 24 Feb 1943, her daughter Maude had her buried in the Rocklawn Cemetery, Marlboro. Death records show her age as 91Y, 5M,, 9D. She was actually 97 years old.
JTP: "Mary Jane Wagner
(Gram Fenton) was my great grandmother and one of the most
exciting people I ever met. I just loved her. When I lived in
Plympton I would actually run up town on Memorial Day because I
know Gram would be at the cemetery for the parade and memorial
serviced. She walked with a cane be then - well, not so much
walked with it but "swang" it a lot as she talked and
laughed and played and joked."
LMZ: "She died in 1943. I was 9 but I also remember her arrival at the cemetery on
Memorial Days. She would be dressed in black from head to foot
and with her cane she still "swang". I remember it as a
great event that everyone stood and took notice of when she made
her arrival."
JTP: "She wore make-up
which rather awed me at the time as no one else I know cared to
wear lipstick and rouge. To me she was wonderful. Yet, her
grandchildren, Selena's children, seem to agree that "she
wasn't much of a grandmother." I guess they expected a lot
more of her after their mother died in 1918 leaving six children
at home ranging in age from 2 years to 16. Their grandmother
Parker (see notes) seemed the more helpful to them in practical
ways. Guess Gram was cut from a more playful design which they
were in no position to appreciate."
"I still feel badly
when I read her name "MARY" on the Fenton's headstone
that Gram is not buried there where she wanted to be. Aunt Maude
was jealous of the love Mary Jane felt for her granddaughter
Bertha and family. Maude was always angry when Gram cried at
having to go home with her. Maude may have felt justified in having
her way at the end." (JP)
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