Martha Estella & Willie Mae: Sisters Abel Wed Smith

(Descendants of Henry Abel series.)

In the most recent post for this series, I wrote about a grandson of Henry Abel.  Named Oscar, he was a son of William Abel and Susan Reid.  Susan died before Oscar was a year old, and William took a second wife about 1873.  She was Martha "Mattie" Jane Jones, daughter of William and Julia F. Bailey Jones.

William Abel and Mattie Jones had at least seven children:

• Elizabeth Villa Abel Jones (b. 1873 Macon, Bibb County, Georgia; d. 1941 Macon, Bibb County, Georgia)
• Julia F. Abel Jenkins (b. 1876 Macon, Bibb County, Georgia; d. 1941 Newport News, Virginia)
• Willie Mae Abel Smith (b. 1878 Georgia; d. 1918 Macon, Bibb County, Georgia)
• Martha Estella Abel Smith (b. 1881 Macon, Bibb County, Georgia; d. 1943 Bibb County, Georgia)
• Ethel Kate Abel Davis (b. 1886 Bibb County, Georgia; d. 1971 Monroe County, Georgia)
• James Benjamin Abel (b. 1889 Macon, Bibb County, Georgia; d. 1950 Bibb County, Georgia)
• Lula Ruth Abel (b. 1893 Georgia; d. 1979 Bibb County, Georgia)

Willie Mae Abel married Archibald Jordan Smith about 1903.  He was a son of Archibald J. and Caroline R. Hicks Smith.  The young couple had two sons – Arch J. Smith, Jr. and William Abel Smith – before Willie Mae died on 8 April 1918.  She was laid to rest in Macon's Riverside Cemetery, located in the same neighborhood as Rose Hill Cemetery.

Four months after Willie Mae's death, Archibald married her sister Martha Estella.  The union didn't last forever, though.  By the taking of the April 1930 Bibb County, Georgia Federal census, Martha was noted as divorced.  It doesn't appear the couple had any children.  In fact, Stella seemed to be a career girl.  She was employed as a stenographer before and after her marriage to Archibald.  A November 1943 obituary in the Macon Telegraph (Georgia) stated Stella was "for a number of years…with the government agriculture laboratory at Fort Valley."

Stella Abel Smith was laid to rest at Rose Hill Cemetery.

Archibald Jordan Smith married for a third time prior to his death in 1936.  He was laid to rest with first wife Willie Mae in the Honeysuckle section (row R, lot 4) of Riverside Cemetery.

Some Additional Sources:

1. "Illness Fatal To Mrs. Jones," issued 11 May 1941, accessed 29 May 2017, name of interest: Mrs. Elizabeth Abel Jones, Macon Telegraph, Macon, Georgia, online image (http://www.genealogybank.com).
2. 1900 census of United States, population schedule, Macon Ward 4, Bibb, Georgia, E. D. No. 32, sheet 7B, dwelling 109, family 129, William Abel household, accessed 11 December 2016, National Archives and Records Administration credited. Includes wife Martha Jane; daughters Lizzie, Willie May, Mattie Estelle, Ethel Kate, & Lula Ruth; and son James B.; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com).
3. 1880 census of United States, population schedule, Fourth Fire Ward, Macon, Bibb, Georgia, E. D. No. 16, Page No. 58, dwelling 428, family 574, William Abel household, accessed May 2017. Includes wife Mattie; son Oscar; daughters Lizzie and Julia; and Willie (listed as both male and a daughter); digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com).
4. Riverside Cemetery & Conservancy, Genealogy Data; Riverside Cemetery, Inc., Macon, Georgia, USA, 2017. http://www.riversidecemetery.com/.
5. "Deaths and Funerals: Mrs. Willie Mae Abel Smith," issued 9 April 1918, accessed 19 May 2017, name of interest: Mrs. Willie Mae Abel Smith, Macon Telegraph, Macon, Georgia, online image (http://www.genealogybank.com).
6. Rose Hill Cemetery (Macon, Bibb County, Georgia), Grave Marker Transcription by Stephanie Lincecum, Acquired between 2003 - 2013.