Married Women’s Separate Property Register
Sherman County, Oregon
Transcribed by Sherry Kaseberg
Volume A of Married Women’s Separate Property Register provides some insight into the lives of women in the 1880s and 1890s. Women declared personal property, stating that their property was not acquired by or through their husbands by gift, purchase or otherwise, or was acquired by money earned through their own personal labor, or by gift from a mother or father or by natural increase. While most property was noted to be horses, cows and pigs, with descriptions of color, sex, age, breed, brand and mark, some women owned a buggy, wagon, teams with harness, two-wheeled cart, an organ, and a house. One woman owned blacksmith tools that she leased to someone. Surprisingly, one woman owned a fish wheel one-half mile below the mouth of the John Day River, and a scow with a fish wheel thereon. Names follow filing dates.
1 October 1889 Virginia M. Hennagin, wife of Henry H.
11 October 1889 Mary E. Eaton, wife of Jesse
12 October 1889 Martha E. Barzee
14 October 1889 Emma Siscel
23 October 1889 Elvira A. Brock
7 January 1889? Jane Courtnay, wife of W. F.
10 November 1890 Mrs. Olive A. West, wife of John I.
22 November 1890 M.J. Baker, wife of H.A.
26 November 1890 Lillie May Murchie, wife of W.A.
15 December 1890 Ida King, wife of William M.
18 May 1893 Lina Gomez
20 November 1893 Mrs. Orie H. White, wife of W.E. of Rutledge
22 November 1893 Minnie A. Mason
24 November 1893 Dora L. Matthias
17 January 1894 Minnie B. Garlick, wife of E. W., near Moro
23 June 1894 Mrs. Emma B. Carlson, wife of A. F., near Moro
4 March 1896 Mary E. Allison, wife of W.E.
7 December 1896 Mary Bohan, wife of Michael Bohan, dau. of Frederick Krull.
One woman owned blacksmith tools that she leased to someone. Surprisingly, one woman owned a fish wheel one-half mile below the mouth of the John Day River, and a scow with a fish wheel thereon.