Sarah Drusilla “Sallie” Brock (1866-1933) is Allen Turner Duckett’s second wife. They married on September 11, 1895.
A T Duckett, as principal, and W J Neighbors, as surety, posted bond for a marriage license between A T Duckett of Duckett, Howard, Arkansas, age 48, and Miss Sallie Brock of Hatton, Polk, Arkansas, age 29. J R Allen, JP, solemnized the marriage on 11 Sep 1895.
What you would never guess from this marriage license and its reference to Miss Sallie Brock, though, is that Sallie had a previous marriage. She married James Van Pate in September 1888.
The Pate-Brock marriage license authorizes a marriage “between Mr. J. V. Pate, in the County of Polk and State of Arkansas, aged 17 years, and Miss S.D. Brock, in the County of Polk and State of Arkansas, aged 22 years, according to law …” W. L. Wilson, Gospel Minister, certified that “on the 23rd day of Sept. A.D. 1888 I did, duly and according to law, as commanded in the foregoing License, solemnize the Rite and publish the Banns of Matrimony.”
Due to his youth, James Van Pate had to have permission from his father. (I wonder if his father actually wrote the note, or if young James forged it.) The note is still in the files. It reads:
Septembar 26, 1888 Hatton PO Polk County Ark Mr. W J Davis You pleas Isheyou Mr. J V Pate his Merrig Lisenes. Accoriding to Law. By the honer & consent of H J Pate & Wiffe.
Translation:
September 26, 1888 Hatton Post Office, Polk County, Arkansas. Mr. W. J. Davis. You please issue Mr. J. V. Pate his marriage license, according to law. By the honor & consent of H J Pate and wife.
He almost surely lied about his age (based on later census records), in claiming to be even as old as 17. He probably didn’t turn 16 until the next month (October 1888). Under Arkansas law at that time, the age you were considered “capable at law of contracting marriage” was 14 for females and 17 for males. However, if you were under the age of majority (18 for females, 21 for males), you also needed the permission of your parent or guardian. State law also provided that under-age marriages (under 14/17, respectively) could be declared null and void.
I haven’t found any records (yet) about what happened to Sallie’s first marriage. We have a note in our files that Sallie was divorced when she married Turner, but the marriage might well have been annulled instead. (I think our information was from Sallie’s nephew, Guy Turrentine. I haven’t looked at the Polk County courthouse records.) Certainly, her second marriage license calls her “Miss” Sallie Brock.
James Van Pate went on to marry Martha Burton in Polk County in 1896, and apparently married (or at least had children with) Laura Cagle (Robards?) about 1919 in McIntosh County, Oklahoma. I have found records of five children, plus stepchildren, from his later wives. We have no records of Sallie having children.