MARY GIBSON LEWIS, daughter of David Lewis and Mary Gibson ...



MARY GIBSON LEWIS, daughter of David Lewis and Mary Gibson Lewis

Mary Gibson Lewis was born in January of 1860 in Fort Bridger, Unita County, Wyoming. She have been only three years old when her mother died, and only about 6 years old when her oldest sister, Weighty Celecta Lewis married John Alma Lewis.

By the time of the 1870 census, her siblings were split among many families. Agnes was living in a hotel, working as a domestic for David Sherwood in Corinne, Box Elder, Utah. Philip was living with Alanson and Julia Lewis Norton in Brigham City. Olive Matilda Lewis was living with John I. and Elizabeth Fink in Corinne, Box Elder, Utah. It does not appear that Mary Gibson Lewis is in the 1870 census.

In November of 1878, when she was eighteen years old, she was living in Idaho. He had married William Ainsworth,[1] and they had a son, Clinton M. Ainsworth.

Looking back at the 1870 census there is a William J. Ainsworth in Baker, Powder River Valley, who is miner.[2] He is 29 years old, which means that he was born in about 1841[3] in New York.[4] William Ainsworth’s personal estate is valued at $500. If this is the correct William Ainsworth, either he met Mary Gibson Lewis in Oregon and, after they married they went to Idaho where there first son was born, or else William had left Oregon and gone to Idaho where he met Mary Gibson Lewis and married. Oregon had become a state (with its current boundaries) in 1859, so there is no confusion about these locations. Mining in Idaho had really taken off in the mid 1860s, so perhaps William Ainsworth had gone there. Gold mining had begun in eastern Oregon, including Baker County, in about 1863, and would continue through the end of the century.

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Union and Baker Counties, Oregon, 1893

By the time of the 1880 census, William Ainsworth and Mary Gibson Lewis Ainsworth are in Lower Eagle, Union County, Oregon.[5] William Ainsworth is 36 years old, was born in New York,[6] and is mining for gold. Mary is 21 years old, fifteen years younger than her husband, and is keeping house. She was born in Wyoming. Their son, Clinton J. Ainsworth, was born in Idaho Territory. They have also had a daughter, Minnie E., who is five months old, born in January of 1880 in Oregon.

Fourteen years later, in 1894, William Ainsworth and Mary Gibson Lewis had another daughter, Margarite Ainsworth in Oregon.[7]

I do not know what happened to William Ainsworth, but Mary Gibson Lewis Ainsworth married William Morris on December 2, 1897 in Baker County, Oregon.[8] They had a son, Theodore B. Morris, born in August of 1897 in Oregon.[9]

By the time of the 1900 census, Mary Gibson Lewis Ainsworth Morris’s second husband, Theodore Morris, had died. Mary is listed as a widow and is living at 11th Avenue South, Seattle, King County, Washington. She was working as a housekeeper for Edward W. Davies, and was living in his household with two of her children from her first marriage: Clinton and Minnie. Theodore Morris, her child from her second marriage, who is listed as 2 years old, is living as a boarder in the home of Jacob Roberts in Fulton Precinct, King County, Washington. Margarite, her third child from her first marriage, is not living with her and I cannot locate her in the 1900 census.

By 1910, Mary Gibson Lewis Ainsworth Morris is living on Union Avenue in Portland, Oregon. She is working as a janitor at an office building, rents a home, and states that she has had five children, all of whom are living. This means that there is one additional child that we do not know anything about. Four of her children, Minnie, Clinton, and Margarite Ainsworth and Theodore Morris are living with her.

After the 1910 census, I have been unable to located Margarite Ainsworth. Perhaps she married.[10] There is a death record for a Maggie B. Ainsworth, born 18 November 1894, who died in Port Angeles, Clallam County, Washington on July 1992. The birth year would be correct for Margarite Ainsworth.

On September 12, 1918, Clinton Marion Ainsworth completed his World War I Registration Card. He is 39 years old, and was born November 4, 1878. He was a blacksmith helper at Skinner and Eddy.[11] His nearest relative was his mother, Mary Morris, who lived at 114 17th Street, Seattle Washington. which is located quite near the shipyard. Clinton Marion Ainsworth was of medium height, had a slender build, grey eyes and “brown slightly blond” hair. This means that Mary had moved back to Washington prior to 1918.

In the 1920 census, Mary is in the Port Susan Precinct, Snowhomish county, Washington, where she is listed as head of household. She is 60 years old and lists no occupation. Two of her sons are living with her: Theodore Morris and Clinton Ainsworth. Theodore is a laborer in a shipyard, and Clinton is a blacksmith in a shipyard. Mary owns her own home.

There is no record that I can locate for Mary’s daughter, Minnie Ainsworth, in the 1920 census.

But, in 1930, Minnie Ainsworth, 50 years old, born in Oregon,[12] is listed as an inmate in an insane asylum in Sedro-Woolley, Skagit, Washington.[13] Skagit is very close to Port Susan. Her father was born in New York and her mother was born in Utah. There is also a death record for Minnie E. Ainsworth, died on April 24, 1952 in Skagit County, Washington at the age of 62, which would be the correct age. If she died in the institution, there is a real possibility that her grave is in the cemetery.[14]

I cannot locate either Mary Gibson Lewis Ainsworth Morris or her son, Theodore Morris in the 1930 census. There is a Pedigree Resource File which states that Mary Gibson Ainsworth Morris died before 1940, but I have no documentation on this.

In 1930, Clinton M. Ainsworth is living in Portland, Oregon, working as a gardener. He is a boarder.

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[1] William Ainsworth, b.c. 1844 from census data. I do not have documented proof of this marriage, but I have seen it in several family histories.

[2] This occupation agrees with the 1880 census, when he is also mining in Oregon. The Powder River runs on the boundary line between Baker and Union Counties, Oregon.

[3] The next census, in 1880, has his birth date in about 1844.

[4] This agrees with the next census in 1880.

[5] I have never been able to figure out exactly where the Lower Eagle Precinct was in Union County, although there is an Eagle Creek that runs in the southern part of the county. .

[6] His mother born in New York, cannot read where his father was born.

[7] Name and birth date from the 1910 census, where the name is spelled Margarete.

[8] Western States Marriage database.

[9] Name and birth date from the 1900 census.

[10] I have searched variations of her first name and then looked at the census data in terms of birth dates, locations and locations of the births of her parents, and have not found anyone who fits.

[11] Skinner and Eddy were shipbuilders. “ On February 3, 1916, Skinner & Eddy Shipyard starts constructing ships. During World War I, the firm builds 75 vessels, becoming the largest shipyard in Seattle. The shipyard is located south of Seattle’s Pioneer Square in the area known in the twenty-first century as SODO. After the war, the demand for ships fell off. The Skinner & Eddy Shipyard was sold in 1923. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, "Hooverville," a shantytown of unemployed, grew up on the site.” Online Encyclopedia of Washington History:

[12] Both correct with previous information on Minnie E. Ainsworth.

[13] This is most probably the Northern State Hospital, located about 4 miles northeast of Sedro-Woolley, which opened in 1912. For more information on the hospital see:

[14] E-mail mzmriz1966@ to inquire if her grave has been identified.

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