William Nelson McIntyre and Sarah Elizabeth Rice

William Nelson McIntyre lived a life of quiet disappointment. A good deal of that disappointment was caused by his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Rice, a woman with decidedly questionable taste in men.

William McIntyre was born in Onondaga County, [1] New York in January 1865, the son of William McIntyre and Electa Rice. His father had been drafted into the Union army and his mother died sometime that year, leaving William virtually orphaned for a time. After his father's return from the war, the elder Willam married Ellen Griffin, age 18. [2] Young William would not have been able to recall his own mother, and young woman who swept in to keep house for the wounded army veteran and his three young children became his mother. As the youngest of the children, he would have required the largest share of her attention.

In 1870 the seven-year-old William was living with his family in Elbridge and was not in school. Judging by the neighbor children, children in that neighborhood typically did not start school until later. [3] The 1880 census of Elbridge indicated that 17-year-old "Willie" had indeed attended school within the year, although he was presently working as a farm laborer. [4] The elder William McIntyre was partially-disabled from his war service, and his numerous children and scanty pay as a farm laborer must have made for pinched circumstances in the McIntyre household. [5]

William married his first cousin, Sarah Elizabeth Rice, about 1884. She was born on 26 March 1870 in Elbridge, the daughter of Judson Rice and Emily McCaslin. If the McIntyres were living with strained means, the Rice family lived in absolute poverty. Sarah's father, Judson Rice, was also a Civil War veteran who was eventually paralyzed and bedridden. The family existed on the charity provided by a local church. [6] Sarah was about 14 years old when she married to William's 20, and may have thought at that tender age that marriage would bring her the security she had never known.

The marriage proved a disappointment for both parties. Their first child, Nora, died in 1887 at the age of six months. [7] Two more daughters followed. William was working as a laborer and resided with his small family in Elbridge in 1892. [8] By 1900 William and his wife were living apart. William resided alone in Camillus, where he rented a home and was employed as a cement worker. [9]

Sarah was residing in De Witt, under the name of Jennie McIntyre, with a man named William Sebring. She was described as his housekeeper and her daughter Clara lived with her. [10] Libbie used many names during her life. She was Sarah E. in the 1870 census, [11] Sarah on her daughter Nora's death certificate, [12] Libbie in the 1880 census [13] and on her daughter Clara's birth record, [14] and Jennie on the 1900 census. [15] She continued to switch between these variants throughout her life. "Jennie" may have been used to mask her identity as a married woman living with a married man not her husband. As Jennie Caslin, the surname a variation on her mother's maiden name, she was named as a correspondent in Amelia Sebring's divorce suit against William in 1900. [16]

William Sebring had had several run-ins with the law, and was a womanizer, but whatever Sarah saw in him, she never lost interest. As Jennie Sebring, she was listed as his wife in the 1910 census of De Witt. [17] and as Sarah E. Sebring, again as his wife, in the 1920 census of the same place. [18] With him to the last, she was also, as Sarah E. Sebring, the informant for his 1922 death certificate. [19]

After William Sebring's death, Sarah's taste in men did not seem to improve. On 28 July 1923 she married James Allen Leigh in Cortland, Cortland County, New York. James Leigh was born about 1874 in Martville, Cayuga County, New York, the son of Allen Leigh and Anna Lewis. [20] He enlisted in the 11th U.S. Infantry, Company A at the Madison Barracks in New York on 17 March 1892. He gave his age as 21, a few years over the mark, and hsi occupation as barber. He was 5'4" in height, with light brown hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion. He was discharged on 16 June 1895 at Fort Apache in Arizona Territory, a private with an "indifferent" record in the service. [21] On returning to New York, he was soon arrested and convicted for robbing a store in Adams, Jefferson County, [22] where he had been working chopping wood. [23] He was charged with a similar crime in Evans Mills in 1897. [24] Drifting about, doing farm labor and committing petty crimes, he may have thought that a return to army life would turn his life around, despite his mediocre performance in the past. He may also have been caught up in the patriotic fervor that led to the declaration of war with Spain on 25 April 1898. On 16 July 1898, now in Syracuse, he enlisted in Company C, the 203th Infantry Regiment. [25] His new career was brief an undistinguished. He was quickly promoted to corporal and just as quickly demoted for being absent without leave. He suffered repeated convictions for this offense and was mustered out of the regiment on 25 March 1899. [26] Army life must have suited him, even if he didn't suit it, for he quickly re-enlisted in the 26th Infantry regiment. He was appointed corporal and made an orderly to the commanding officer, helping sign up new recruits before the regiment left for the Phillipines. At the same time, he managed to recruit himself a wife, marrying Myra Dona in Black River on 26 July 1899. [27] Once again, his army career fizzled out. In 1901 he was charged with robbery and arson of a store in Deferiet. [28] He may have lost his wife, a party to a 1904 suit, [29] a few years later, for in 1908 the Watertown Daily Times reported that was staying with his father on his return after four years in the southern and western states. [30] His relationship with his father may have been a rocky one, for a few months later he was enrolled as an inmate in the poorhouse. He described his condition as destitute, his occupation as sailor, and his religion as Catholic. [31] On 21 October 1909 he was admitted to the Home for Disabled Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio. He was described as suffering from rheumatism, a missing finger tip on his middle finger, and dipsomania. Perhaps because of that dipsomania, he was dishonorably discharged from the home less than a year later, on 10 March 1910. [32]

Sarah and James were living together in Wilna, in Jefferson County, where James had spent so many of his earlier years. in 1925 where he seems to have been steadily employed as an acid maker. [33] James probably died soon thereafter, for he was not listed as a survivor in Sarah's 1929 obituary. She had returned to live in Syracuse, closer to her own family. She died on 18 November 1929 in Syracuse. [34] She is buried in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Jordan, Onondaga County. [35]

William Sebring's life after the separation from his wife was far less eventful. He returned home to live with the woman who had raised him from a motherless boy into adulthood. Ellen Griffin McIntyre's natural children had died, married, or moved away. It was her stepson who lived with her in her final years. In 1920 the two rented a home together in Vam Buren in Onondaga County, where William worked as a farm laborer and the aging Ellen a housekeeper. [36] In 1925 they shared a home in Elbridge. William had acquired work on the railroad, and Ellen kept house for him. [37] Ellen died in 1932; [38] William followed on 4 February 1937, dying at his home in Warners.[39]

William Nelson McIntyre and Sarah Elizabeth Rice had the following children: