| Home Surname List Name Index Sources Email Us | Sixth Generation236. Randolph "Dolph" COMSTOCK94,100,128,139,140 was born on 11 December 1865 in Lamar County, Texas.86,105,141 He died on 27 January 1924 at the age of 58 in Uniontown, Crawford County, Arkansas.138 From VAN BUREN PRESS, Aug 5, 1882: OBITUARIES, DEATH NOTICES AND NEWS ITEMS EXTRACTED FROM THE VAN BUREN ARGUS, Vol. 2, Fran Alverson Warren, 2001; p.6 1890 Reconstructed Census shows R. Comstock in the Uniontown School District; Section 31,Township 11,Range 33 R. Comstock, age 24, married T. U. Spier, age 21, on 13 May 1890, Crawford Co, AR; J. B. C. Turman, JP. OBITUARIES, DEATH NOTICES AND NEWS ITEMS EXTRACTED FROM THE VAN BUREN ARGUS, Vol. 3, Fran Alverson Warren, 2001; p.30-31 OBITUARIES, DEATH NOTICES AND NEWS ITEMS EXTRACTED FROM THE VAN BUREN ARGUS; VOLUME 2; Fran Alverson Warren, 2001; OBITUARIES, DEATH NOTICES AND NEWS ITEMS EXTRACTED FROM THE VAN BUREN ARGUS, Vol. 4, Fran Alverson Warren, 2001; The marriage side of the grave monument for Dolph & Temperance reads "A Happy Home Rendered Lonely and Disconsolate. An Untimely Death of a Dear Good Wife and Mother." Dolph married again after Temp died in 1913 but the marriage apparently did not last. By 1920, Dolph was living with his unmarried children in Uniontown [page 9a of the census]. On page 10a, also in Uniontown is listed an Ellen Comstock, age 54. She was living with her three children, Carolyn age 18, Myrtle, age 17, and John T. age 12, all are Babbs from an earlier marriage. Also her brother, Thomas J. Morton, blind, is livng with her. Paul & Jean Morton, Morton family researchers, state that "Blind Tom" Morton had a sister, Mary Ella, who married Randolph Comstock. Marriage record from Crawford Co: Randolph Comstock, age 48, to Mrs. Ella Babb, also age 48. 11 Sep 1914. H. M. Gillmore, MG Supreme Court of Arkansas, 29 Nov 1920. Appeal from Crawford County Chancery Court. Randolph Comstock v. Ella Comstock. Decree of lower court dismissed the complaint, but Plaintiff appealed. Supreme Court reversed the decision and remanded it back to the lower court with directions. This case revealed additional answers about the marriage between Dolph and Ella. They had a prenuptial contract dated 20 Aug 1914, whereby Ella Babb in lieu of dower and widow's rights agreed to take that part of the estate which each child shall inherit, counting herself as a child. They were married 11 Sep 1914 and lived together until about May of 1919. Early in January of 1918, Dolph had paid Ella $2000 which he claims she accepted in settlement of the antinuptial contract. Afterwards Ella refused to sign Dolph's real estate deeds, releasing her dower interest. She admitted she had received the $2000 but denied that it was in settlement. She stated that they could not live peaceably, both having children by former marriages, and they had agreed to separate and he had given her the $2000 to buy a home she could occupy separately. She claimed the contract was void and never acknowledged and she was entitled to the value of her expectant dower interest in any sales proceeds. Dolph they stated that he paid her the $2000 to cover everything up to January 1918 and if they continued to live together and accumulated more money, she would get her share. At the time he did not know they were going to sepaprate. Before the settlement she had purchased a home. After January of 1918, his property had lost value. He had six children and estimated his net worth at the time of the marriage was between $14,000 and $16,000, but at the time he paid Ella the $2000, he doubted that his estate was even worth as much as $14,000. He was aware she was now claiming an interest in his home in addition to her home and wanted the matter settled in case he died first. He told her when he gave her $2000 that she would have no further claims on his real estate and she agreed to it and had signed one or two deeds after that. She left him voluntarily and there was no agreement to her support if she did so as he told her he could not keep up two homes. She replied "I am going if I don't get a cent." She bought the Wood property where she then lived, paying $2000 for it. The lower court decreed that the $2000 was an advancement and consititued a lien on her dower interest and that the antenuptial contract be canceled, the complain dismissed, and Ella have a judgment for all costs. The Supreme court ruled that the antenuptial agreement had been just and reasonable. The acceptance on her part of the $2,000 was in lieu of the provisions of the contract and in advance of the contingency that he might die first. She was able to enjoy the benefits of the contract in advance. The decree of the lower was reversed and sent back to the lower court with instructions to enter a decree divesting Ella of any and all interest in the estate of Randolph Comstock.
One of those strange coincidences revealed by family history research: Randolph Comstock, brother to my great-grandfather James Monroe Comstock, married Temperance Spier, 18 May 1890, in Crawford Co, Arkansas. "Dolph" was born in 1865, while his parents were living in Lamar Co, Texas, just following the end of the Civil War. His parents were Elijah Thomas "Tom" Comstock, born 1838 in Perry Co, TN, and Miranda Brown, born 1842 in Searcy Co, AR - they had married in McDonald Co, MO in 1859. Temperance was born 1868 in Walker Co, GA, the daughter of John "Jack" Spier, born 1819 in Tennessee, and Sarah Ann McWhorter, b. 1830, in Georgia - they had married about 1852 in Walker Co GA. Randolph Comstock's great, great-grandfather bought land that Temperance Spier's great great-grandfather had patented in Old Pendleton, South Carolina. So their great great-grandfather's had lived on the same place. The families arrived in Arkansas by very divergent means and I'm sure had no idea. This is how that happened. Miranda Brown, mother of Dolph Comstock, was the daughter of Murphy Brown [b. 1816 in KY, died 1863 in McDonald Co, AR], granddaughter of William Brown [b.1794 in Old Pendleton District, SC, d. 1874 in Grayson Co, TX] and great-granddaughter of Samuel Brown [b. 1772 in SC, died after the 1850 census, probably in McDonald Co, MO] Sarah Ann McWhorter, mother of Temperance Spier, was the daughter of James McWhorter [b. 1796 in SC, d. 1841, Walker Co GA], granddaughter of John McWhorter [b. 1768 in Lancaster Co, PA, d. 1855, Walker Co GA], and great-granddaughter of David McWhorter/McWhirter [b. abt 1741 in Lancaster Co PA, died 1789, SC] Here is a record of David McWhirter in South Carolina: Seemingly, heirs of David McWhirter, including Sarah Ann McWhorter's grandfather John, sold this land to Samuel Brown: Randolph "Dolph" COMSTOCK and Temperance Ulier "Temp" SPEIR were married on 13 May 1890 in Speir, Crawford County, Arkansas.138,142 Temperance Ulier "Temp" SPEIR, daughter of John SPEIR and Sarah Ann MCWHORTER, was born on 7 June 1868 in Walker County, Georgia.25 She died on 23 May 1913 at the age of 44 in Uniontown, Crawford County, Arkansas.138 Her side of the cemetery Monument reads Another strange coincidence in research is the discovery that an ancestor of Temperance's sold land to an ancestor of Dolph Comstock's back in Old Pendleton, SC, in 1802. Randolph "Dolph" COMSTOCK and Temperance Ulier "Temp" SPEIR had the following children:
Randolph "Dolph" COMSTOCK and Mary Ella MORTON were married on 11 September 1914. They were separated in May 1919. Mary Ella MORTON143,144, daughter of Jackson T. MORTON and Margaret HOWELL, was born in 1866 in Kansas.144,145 The 1870 Census, when Mary was 5, gives her place of birth as Arkansas Del says this sister married Randolph Comstock. The Randolph Comstock in Crawford County married Temperance Spier. ???? Did she marry Dolph after Temperance died? Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 13:23:28 -0500 My note: The court case of Randolph v. Ella Comstock states that they had separated - there is no mention of a divorce at that time. The Babb stone is in the adjoining cemetery, not in the Comstock Cemetery plot on Tom Comstock's homestead; the cemeteries are side by side with the Babb graves in the much larger cemetery. The house that Ella was in front of was either Randolph's house that she did not receive - see the court case notes of Randolph Comstock's. Or it was the Wood house that she purchased with her $2000 settlement from Randolph Comstock. In the 1920 Census, Ella is listed as Ella Comstock, widow, born in Kansas. Her brother Thomas J. Morton, age 40, Divorced and Blind lives with her. She is marked as married, but still head of household. She was four doors from Joseph Christopher Wood, one of my gg grandfathers. I do not know if she bought a house from him or other members of the Wood family. I did compare the 1920 census with 1910 - George & Ella Babb and children were only a few doors from Joseph Wood then, too. Could even have been the same house. 1920 Census of Farm Land Owners
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