Mystery Solved - Susannah is found!

In this blog in the spring of 2010 I presented the mystery of the disappearance of Susannah Wagstaff in 1883. This is a report on the solution of that mystery. On October 20, 2010 and again on the 27th John Earle of Portland, Oregon responded to my blog by saying that my story sounded familiar, that he was a descendant of her half sister Margaret Carlin, and that Susannah had moved from Utah to Helena, Montana. A little later we posted a public tree in Ancestry.com and Christopher Mentrum, an avid genelaogist, also of Portland Emailed me that he was a descendant of Susannah.

Let me here correct an error. The sexton’s records in the American Fork, Utah Cemetery said Margaret Carlin was buried in that cemetery beside her mother. There was confusion with another Margaret and the cemetery records no longer state that Margaret Carlin was buried there.

The story started with the employment of Susannah’s half sister Mary Carlin in the luxurious home on South Temple Street in Salt Lake City of the railroad magnate John Sharp. He wanted to build a line from Salt Lake City to the gold fields at Helena. Documentation has not been found but it is reasonable to assume that he took his household servants to Helena while scouting out the railroad prospects. What is certain is that Mary Carlin married Benjamin Malben on 6 Mar 1877 in Lewis and Clark County, Montana. He was a Civil War veteran who served at Gettysburg, was under the command of General Custer as a sargent and was at Lee's surrender at Appomattox. It has been said that he wrote newspaper articles about that war but we have not located them thus far. After working as a gold miner and engaging in various occupations he became the sexton of the Forestville Cemetery in Helena where he and his wife were buried. After Mary and Benjamin were married, Benjamin wrote to his friend Robert Barnes arranging a blind date with Mary's sister Margaret Carlin who had brought the train up from Utah. The date must have been successful because Margaret Carlin and Robert Barnes were married on 1 May 1878 in Park City, Montana. They had a large family. Their house in Helena especially after Robert's death became hotel central for the family. Several members of the extended family roomed there for extensive periods.

We have found no records to tell us when or why Susannah Wagstaff moved from Utah to Montana. It is likely that her half sisters already living there encouraged her to move after her divorce from Jacob Israel Ovard. The divorce record if it even exists has not been located. He lived out his old age in the old folks home in Provo, Utah and was buried in an unmarked paupers grave in the American Fork City Cemetery (Utah). Susannah's mother Ann Mclachlan Carlin Wagstaff was said to have desired that her daughters not marry into polygamy. Thus she may have agreed with Susannah's move to Montana. The first documentation found thus far is the marriage of Susannah Wagstaff to John Mentrum on 1 Nov 1880 in Helena, Montana. John was a tinsmith who probably built ornamentation for the millionaire houses still standing in Helena. They had three children. John Mentrum was born Oct 1890 in Helena and died on 22 May 1905 in Helena and is buried in the Forestvale Cemetery. Leonard Mentrum was born 20 Sep 1891 in Helena. He moved to Spokane, Washington following the trade of his father working in the sheet metal business. From there he moved to Portland, Oregon where some of his posterity still reside. He married Jennie Bowers on 6 Aug 1913 in Helena. He had a son also named Leonard Mentrum in Portland. In turn he had a son Christopher Mentrum. The youngest child of John Mentrum and Susannah was Clarence Cameron Mentrum born on 11 Apr 1894 in Clark, Fallon County, Montana. He joined the US Marines and was stationed in Brooklyn, New York. Later he was employed by an insurance company in Manhattan. He married Ethel (Surname unknown). No children for this couple are recorded in the census. Clarence died on 21 Jan 1970 in Hyde Park, New York and was buried in the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.

Susannah died on 29 June 1897 in Helena and was buried in the Forestville Cemetery. John Mentrum died on 17 May 1913 in Helena and is buried in the Forestville Cemetery.

Susannah died the same year as her father Samuel Wagstaff. It is not known what contact there was between the Montana families and the Utah family. But there must have been some contact because the oldest Carlin girl Ann did proxy temple work for her sisters Mary and Margaret after their deaths.

More details with some pictures will be posted on our Carlin public tree in Ancestry.com.