• 1900 Federal Population Schedule, Mason Twp., Hannibal City Ward 5, Marion Co., MO, E. D. 104, sheet 12, dwelling 262, enumerated 12 June 1900
Welton, William P., head, b. may 1864, married 1 yr., MO, MO, MO, Laborer in RR shop
_____, Mary. wife, b. mar (?) 1864, married 1 yr, 4 children 4 living, MO, MO, MO
Maupin, Lena P., step dau, b. sept 1883, single, MO, MO, MO, clerk, dry goods
_____, Ernest C., step son, b. nov 1884, single, MO, MO, MO, clerk, grocers
_____, James A., step son, b. nov 1887, single, MO, MO, MO, at school
Donnelly, Augusta, mother-in-law, b. dec 1841, widow, 4 children 2 living, MO, KY, VA

Augusta’s death certificate says that she was the daughter of James Thrasher and Mary Weyand. Laura Thrasher of Shelby Co., MO has proposed the theory that she could easily be the daughter of Stephen R. Thrasher and Mary Wine. I think this theory is highly plausible for several reasons;

a) Augusta is the right age to be the Armilda A. Thrasher in the 1850 census enumeration of Stephen R.’s family.
b) The informant for the death certificate appears to be Augusta’s daughter, Mrs. Mary F. Maupin. Although a person is expected to know their grandparent’s names there could easily be confusion in this case because Augusta was an infant when her parents died. Her daughter never met her grandparents in question. Mary F. was probably acting on oral tradition and Mary Weyan/d sounds like Mary Wine (if you have a mid-south accent).
c) Although Mary F. got the surname Thrasher correctly, the given name James is not plausible. I have spent 30 years collecting Thrasher family information. I know 39 persons named James Thrasher and none could possibly have been Augusta’s father or to have married someone named Weyand. Augusta’s father must have had a different name.

Speculating further: When both parents die the custom of the time was for their parents to take in the children. If that was not possible, the siblings would take the orphans in. If there were many orphans, they would often be taken in by several families. It appears that Stephen R. Thrasher and Mahala left 6 orphan children.

Stephen R. Thrasher’s parents were dead when he died. The most likely person to take in one or more of the orphans was his brother Daniel who lived nearby and had the financial means. Augusta might even have been taken in by Noah Donley who lived close to Daniel Thrasher. Noah’s wife Malinda would have been Augusta’s aunt. Either way, that explains how Augusta could would met and married James P. Donley.

(If Augusta Thrasher was the daughter of Stephen R. Thrasher, then James P. Donley would have been her second cousin. Their common ancestor would be Daniel McCray of Pendleton Co., KY.)

In that era, when a girl was left as an orphan she usually married as soon as possible. That was true in Augusta’s case. She married just after turning 17. (Somebody would have had to have given consent. It would be interesting to discover who that was.)