Polly Pearl Turpin - Child 15

Polly Pearl Pitman and son Edgar

Polly Turpin was born 3 July 1884 in Newport, Nebraska. Before the age of 23, she was doing the Turpin thing – heading for new horizons!

She married John H. Pitman in Helena, Lewis and Clark County, Montana on 18 April 1907 according to the Montana Marriages at familysearch.com.  And we discover that their marriage record shows that she was a divorcee at the time. So there is more research to do there!  No record of a first marriage is found in Rock County, Nebraska.  In her mother Mary Ellen’s obituary in 1926, it states Polly's name as Polly Pearl Watson, of Port Angeles, Washington.  That might indicate a third marriage but it seems unlikely. Very confusing though!

Polly’s husband John Pitman was born in 1873 in Arcadia, Louisiana, the son of Annie Roye and Henry F. Pitman.  The Pitman family is found in the Second Ward of Bienville, Louisiana in the 1880 census.  Polly and John adopted a child, Edgar Dudley, who was born in 1917.  It appears from the censuses that Pearl raised Edgar alone.  

Polly died 26 Dec. 1936, Portland, Oregon.  Her obituary did not mention any husband at all. It was brief, simply saying that she was 52 years old, lived at 426 S. E. Belmont Street, and was the beloved mother of Edgar.   Her son would have been 19 years old at the time of her death.  Polly was only seven years old when her own father was killed.  These are some of the sadder stories of the Turpin family.

Polly’s son Edgar graduated from Hill Military Academy in 1934 and became a pilot.   He lived in Bend, Oregon and there are living descendants from this branch of the family.   Edgar died 13 November 1985.  He is buried in Pilot Butte Cemetery in Bend.