Susan M. Butts
1. SUSAN M.BUTTS was born September 16, 1824 in New Jersey?1, and died March 06, 1907 in Rockford, Kent Co. MI2 and is buried in the Rockford Cemetery3. She was the daughter of GEORGE BUTTS and MARY WEAVER4. She married JAMES PLANK Bet. January - June 1845? (Common law marriage in Michigan)5. JAMES PLANK was born February 16, 18216 in Montgomery Co., New York7, and died June 08, 1906 in Fairplains twp., Montcalm Co. Michigan8.Susan was the mother of 4 children. (In the 1900 census, she stated she was the mother of 4 children and 3 were living. Her daughter Theresa had died prior to 1900.9):
i. MARY CELESTA PLANK b. May 09, 1847, Michigan; d. November 02, 1928, Allegan, Kent Co. Michigan; m. HENRY MOORE, July 25, 1869, Rockford, Kent Co. Michigan
ii. THERESA F. PLANK, b. December 28, 1848, Kent Co, Michigan; d. May 27, 1868, Kent Co, Michigan.
iii. AMY D. PLANK, b. November 09, 1851, Cannon twp., Kent Co., MI; d. October 31, 1925, Belding, Ionia Co. MI; m. GEORGE BLETT, December 8, 1873, Cannon twp., Kent Co. Michigan.
iv. WILLIAM H. PLANK, b. June 10, 1854, Michigan; d. Bet. 1907 - 1920, Little Rock, Arkansas?; m. FLORENCE POWELL; b. January 29, 1879?. Date of marriage unknown.
Susan and James divorced sometime between 1880 (or earlier) and 1884. In the 1884 Michigan State census (taken June 5, 1884), Susan was listed as "single divorced." In the 1900 census, Susan said she was still married and had been married 55 years (which would indicate they were married in 1845). In 1880, James indicated in the census that he was divorced or widowed. James married a second time in November 1884 to a widow Sarah {Tracy} Carr.) No civil divorce record has been located yet (Sept. 2002).
Notes for SUSAN M. BUTTS:Susan's middle initial is "M" according to court records (deeds and lawsuits)
and her daughter Amy's family bible. However, there is conflicting information as to what
M stands for.
In the 1850 census with James Plank and children Mary and Theresa, the woman in the
household, who we believe to be Susan is listed as "Maria." In an 1855 deed,
James Plank sells his Cannon twp property to a Matilda Butts of Paw, Paw, Van Buren Co.
MI. In 1869, there is a deed from Matilda Butts to James Plank. In addition, my mother
(Barbara Ann Cole Holmes) made a notation about a later deed (1872) between a Susan
Matilda Butts and a James Plank, which could indicate that Susan and Matilda are the same
person.
For a list of deeds between 1855 and 1881 that mention Susan M. Butts or "Susan, wife of James Plank," and for the census records in which Susan is shown with James and their children, see the Notes and timeline for James Plank.
1880 Kent Co census, Cannon twp. Page 10
Susan Plank living with the Wesley G. Hartwell and family.
Susan Plank age 59? Married born New York parents born (blank)
1884 Kent Co. census, Algoma township. Page 18
Image:
Monroe Street?
Susan Plank, 51, female, white
Single, Divorced
Born: New York
Parents born: New York
Occupation: Keeping house
Could read and write
Had lived in the state for 30 years
Note: 30 years would be 1854; this doesn't seem to be correct.
1897 Affidavit for the Widow's pension application of her sister-in-law, Eleanor Barker
Butts.
Page 1: Page 2:
1900 census
Susan Plank found in Algoma Township, Kent County, Michigan, Page: 27
In household by herself, says she is married and has been married for 55 years.
She says she was born in NJ b. Sept 1824 and both her parents were born in New
Jersey.
She was the mother of 4 children and 3 were living.
1907 Death certificate
Image:
Notes: Kent Co. did not offer a copy of the microfilmed original record.
1907 Obituary
Image:
Note: This photocopy was in Erma M. Blett Cole's belongings. The notations are in her
handwriting.
Not all of the information in this obituary has been proven. For example, several records
say Susan was born in New Jersey but a few say New York. No record specifically says
Plainfield, New Jersey. In addition, because she was present at the wedding of her brother
in 1842 in Van Buren Co. Michigan, it is doubtful that she married James Plank in New York
and moved to Michigan with him in 1845. The obituary mentions the death of her
"husband" nine months prior. This is correct. James did die nine months before
(in June 1906); however, they divorced 22 or more years prior to their deaths.
Burial information, from http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikent/cemeteries/plainfield/rockford/pt.html
Rockford Cemetery
Plank, Susan M.; b.Sept.16,1824 d.Mar.6,1907 7
Family stories:
Story #1. Sept. 11, 1940 Card to E. Ackerman Blett from Bertha Wheeler Blett. " Dad
(Ernest B.) would like to know more about his mother's people. Her mother's name was Susan
Butts, quite well to do. She eloped with James Plank and they came here [Michigan] from
NY. Later she regretted her rash act for they were poor. She had quite refined ways, must
have been born about 1824. The ball player Plank belongs to this family some say."
Notes about this story:
1. I have found no evidence that the "ball player Plank" belongs to this family. The ballplayer, Eddie Plank, was born in Gettysburg, PA in 1875. The Planks in our family seem to have come from New York. For more about the ballplayer Plank, see his biography at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Web site: http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/plank_eddie.htm
2. Although the family might have considered James Plank and Susan M. Butts to have eloped, the fact that they came to Michigan TOGETHER from New York is questionable. In the affidavit that Susan wrote for her sister-in-law (who was applying for a Civil War widow's pension), Susan said "Henry W. Butts is my brother." and "I was present at the marriage of Henry W. Butts and Eleanor Barker." This marriage took place in Van Buren Co. Michigan in 1845--the same year she "eloped" with James Plank. My theory is that James and Susan met in Michigan and that Susan moved to Michigan with her brother and possibly other members of her family prior to July 1842 when Henry and Susan's sister Mary Ann was married in Van Buren Co.
Story #2:
Grace Blett (great-granddaughter of Susan M. Butts) would tell the story to her niece,
Barbara Cole Holmes, that "Susan Butts as a young girl [about 16] traveled to her new
home with her parents in a covered wagon with her pig skin trunk." Grace used the
trunk until she gave it to her daughter, Lorraine Skaggs Thurmond.
Story #3:
Ernest Barton Blett II "Bart" said that Susan in her 80's, shot rabbits with a
pistol off her back porch in the moonlight.
Below is a photo on the back of which is written (Grandma Plank's old cabin in Rockford
area). I don't know if this was a cabin she lived in later in life (after her divorce from
James) or if this was the original Plank cabin.
Endnotes
1. Family bible owned by Amy D. Plank Blett, Susan M. Butts born September 16, 1824. See image.
2. Family bible owned by Amy D. Plank Blett, Susan M. Butts died March 6, 1907 Age 82 years, 6 months, 18 days. See image.
3. http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikent/cemeteries/plainfield/rockford/index.html
"P-T" Burials -- Rockford Cemetery Plainfield Township, Kent County, Michigan
Transcribed on or about 9 April 1929 by the Sophie de Marsac Campau Chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) Plank, Susan M.; b.Sept.16,1824
d.Mar.6,1907.
4. Kent County death certificate, lists parents as George Butts and Mary Weaver. See image.
5. No civil or religious marriage record for Susan M. Butts and James Plank has been located. Kent Co. Michigan Circuit Court in Chancery, docket # 4370, Calendar 6, Complaint filed June 7, 1880, describes "common law" marriage between Susan M. Butts (called oratrix in the record) and James Plank as follows:
... Item II.Your oratrix further shows that for upwards of thirty-five years yours last past she has lived and cohabited with one James Plank as his wife and that during said period she has borne several children to him and that said Plank and your oratrix have in every respect lived together and have looked upon and treated each other during the whole of said period as though they had been husband and wife, and that they now live together and cohabit in manner aforesaid: that the said James Plank during said years has acquired great and undue influence over your oratrix and that your oratrix has during said years been accustomed to yield and defer to the wishes and opinions of said Plank to a great degree, the same as though she were the wife of said Plank.
Also see image for page 1 and image for page 2.
6. Family bible owned by Amy D. Plank Blett, James Plank born February 16, 1821. See image.
7. Montcalm Co. Michigan Marriage Record, 249, Gives birthplace of James Plank as Montgomery Co. New York.
8. Montcalm Co. Michigan Death Records, Book B, page 275, Date of Death: June 8, 1906 Name: James Plank Sex: M Race: W Martial status: Widower Years: 93 Months: 3 Days: 23 Location: Fairplains twp. Montcalm Co. Michigan Cause: Heart failure Birthplace: New YorkParents' names: Unknown Parents' residence: Deceased Recorded: July 6, 1906.
9. Birth and death date of Theresa F. Plank, recorded in family bible owned by Amy D. Plank Blett. See image.