Mary Frances Cast was born 09 July 1855 in Madison County, Alabama to Samuel Harris and Susanah Cast. [Descendants of Samuel Cast]

Mary Francis, identified as M. F., is a five-year-old in the home of her parents S. H. and Susanah Cast on the 1860 US census. The family is living on a farm [or plantation] they own in District 3, Jackson County, Alabama. Post Office: Paint Rock.

After Mary’s father died 27 October 1867, her mother Susan stayed with the children in Union County. On the 1870 US census, 14-year-old Mary is one of the five children living with Susan Cass in Casper Precinct, Union County, Illinois, Post Office: South Pass.

In 1877, Mary Frances Cast and Elias Calvin Maples were married. Their first child was born 02 February 1878. Richard Smith has located two newspaper records concerning the birth and death of this child. He reports, "From a notice in the April 12, 1879 issue of the Jonesboro Gazette it states: "Minnie Dell Maple, only child of E. Calvin and Mary Maple of Makanda, aged 14 months, died of meningitis 6 April 1879." Also is the entry in "return of a birth" in the Jackson County, Illinois Birth Register, 1852-1878 of a unnamed female, 1st child born February 8th, 1878, Makanda, Illinois to Mary Frances Maple, nee Cast. This has to be the Minnie Dell."

Another daughter was born December 1879 as shown in the 1880 US census. Colin and Mary Maples with their 6-month-old daughter Bertha are living in South Pass, Cobden Township, Union County, Illinois. Calvin (Colin) is listed as a twenty-five year old farm laborer. It appears that between 1880 and 1883, the family moved to Missouri where Calvin had grown up and where many Maples relatives still lived.

From the 1900 census we know that two more girls were born to Mary after the move to Missouri. Clona B was born September 1885. Margarette was born January 1888. Mary states that she has had six children, with only three living in 1900. I have not found any record of the other two children. Note that a Clona Sarah Maples was born in 1889 to Noah Maples (probably a relative since Mary’s Clona had a grandfather Noah) in Stone County, Missouri which borders Christian County.

The Christian County Personal Property Tax records list E C Maples in Lincoln Township from 1883 through the 1895 payment made 04 February 1896. The 1896 record is for Mrs. Calvin Maples, and while there is an 1897 record for E C Mapels, the 1898 and 1898 records are for Mrs E C Maples. This seems to indicate that Mary Frances became a widow in 1896 or 1897.

About 1899 Mary Frances remarried to William Johnson, a merchant in Lincoln Township, where we find William and Mary F listed on the 1900 US census with Clona, age 14, and Margarette, age 12.

Mary Frances Cast probably died between 1900 and 1910. I have not found her on the 1910 US census; I know she is not living with Clona.

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