From: Correspondence with Benjamin Franklin Curry
Photocopy of Marriage Certificate and Family Record
"This is to certify that Benjamin F. Butler and Mary Brook Troute were united by me in Holy Matrimony at her home on the Sixth day of November in the year of our Lord 1895 in Presence of G. L. Cooper and Ida M. Cooper. Signed James E. Payne"
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In November of 1895, Ben married Lilly's sister, Mary Brook Trout. Ben was thirty-four and Mary Brook was twenty-one. A year later, William was born on 15 October 1896. The 1900 Census indicates that Mary Brook had another child who did not live. Mary Brook died on 27 November 1901, only a year after that census was taken. She and Ben had been married for six years.
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1900 U. S. Census, West Milton Township, District #1, Trimble County, Kentucky, p.54; by W. Willis
Benjamin Butler, b. November 1860, age 39, married 5 years, b. KY; parents b. KY, farmer
Mary, wife, b. April 1874, age 26, married 5 years; 2 children born, 1 living; b. KY; parents b. KY
Allie, daughter, b. August 1890, age 9, b. KY; parents b. KY
William, son, b. October 1896, age 3, b. KY; parents b. KY
[Allie's little sister, Mary Butler, is not listed with her father and stepmother, but is living with her grandparents, William Francis and Ruhama Cooper Trout and her seventeen-year-old aunt, Daisy June Trout.]
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In the 1900 U. S. Census, West Milton Township, District #1, Trimble County, Kentucky, widowed, twenty-nine year-old Ida M. Cooper, is living with her widowed mother-in-law, Matilda Ann Cooper. Matilda is Matilda Ann Luckett Cooper, widow of Lindsey Anderson Cooper. Matilda and Lindsey are the parents of Ruhama Cooper and the grandparents of the four Trout sisters. Ida M. is the widow of Gibson L. Cooper - Ruhama's brother and Mary Brook's uncle. Gibson L. and Ida M. Cooper were witnesses at Bens and Mary Brook Trouts wedding.
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Only a year after that census was taken, Mary Brook died on 27 November 1901. She and Ben had been married just six years.