Hooper 1940 Census

Previously, I looked at the section of the 1930 Census which included my Grandpa Calvin Muir Hooper as a 5-year-old boy. I wanted to follow the family in the 1940 census to see how their lives had changed.

Charlotte Jeanette Muir Hooper

It looks like the family is all together this time. Morise L. Hooper is the 40-year-old head of household, and Charlotte J. is his 35-year-old wife. Five years before, they lived together in Pioche, Lincoln, Nevada, but have returned to Beaver, Utah. They currently rent a home for $10 per month.

U.S. Census for Beaver, Utah 1940 including Hoopers and Muirs

U.S. Census for Beaver, Utah 1940 including Hoopers and Muirs, close up of first part

She is a housewife, and my 15-year-old Grandpa Calvin Hooper is a student, who completed 7th grade in the previous year.

The document delves into educational background, acknowledging the highest educational grade completed. Apparently, Morise completed his fourth year of high school, and Jeanette finished her third year of high school. I learned before that she married at 18, so did she drop out of school to get married, was that all the education available for her, or is there a different explanation?

The employment section backs up part of the questioned 1930 census record, because again Morise is in the mining industry, previously employed as a Mill Operator. He is listed as not currently employed, but seeking work,  having worked 28 weeks in 1939, and unemployed for 12 weeks. He made $600, and it shows there was an additional source of income.

They had added two family members, my Grandpa's (half) siblings LaRoy M. and little Charlotte [La]Fay.

Again, they are either in the same house or next door to Charlotte Jeanette's mother, Mrs. Hannah E[lizableth] Muir. Her youngest, Lucy, has moved away, so now it is Hannah (65), Marion J (37), and Wallace B (33) still at home. She is listed as the owner of the property, valued at $1,500. Both sons completed two years of high school, but my great-great-grandma Hannah Elizabeth Orton Muir was only able to complete the 8th grade. It must have been a tough year for them employment-wise, because Marion was only able to work 25 weeks ($300) and Wallace only 8 weeks ($200), both as farm laborers. Hannah was no longer working as a laundress.

U.S. Census for Beaver, Utah 1940 including Hoopers and Muirs, close up of second part

Calvin Muir Hooper in his youth

Charlotte Jeanette Muir Hooper

Charlotte Jeanette Muir Hooper

Family Scandal

Some might consider the marriage and children of first cousins (both sides) or polygyny (both sides) a scandal.  I've known about these things in my family history for a while, but only recently discovered some details to my Grandpa Hooper's parentage.  To clarify the note on my Countries of Origin I post and divulge our first major family scandal, I now share what I can of the vexatious romance of Charlotte Jeanette Muir Hooper and John Marshall Sharp.

Great-Grandma Hooper was born 30 January 1905 as Charlotte Jeannette Muir in Beaver, Utah, famous for also being the birthplace of outlaw Butch Cassidy and partial inventor of T.V., Philo T. Farnsworth.  She went by Jeanette or Netty.  Her parents had their last of eleven children when she was 13.  By the time she was 18, Jeanette was ready for adventure.  She attended high school until a man from back east came to Beaver, where he worked as a cheesemaker.  John Marshall Sharp claimed to not quite be 29 when they courted and married 12 September 1923, and to be from New York City.  His new job moved them to Kansas, taking Jeanette away from her family, with whom she was very close.  He grew up Methodist, and she a Latter-day Saint, which may have strained things.  After being married about 11 months, Jeanette became pregnant with a boy.

The younger generations thought Jeanette had come home after John abandoned his pregnant wife, but found out later from some of her personal memoirs that she had left him, not giving him a chance to see his unborn son, Calvin.  After years of searching for New York records of his birth, family member and historian, Lesa Pringle, stumbled upon the website treesbydan.com, which listed John Marshall Sharpe as a Canadian citizen, born 14 September 1890, three years before the family, and perhaps Jeanette, had thought.

Further mysteries appear, as treesbydan gives a marriage certificate for John to a woman named Katie Frances Ward, on 28 December 1911 in Trenton, Hastings County, Ontario, twelve years before he married Jeanette.  He was 21 and Katie was 18 at the time.  On 9 November 1915, a Detroit border crossing passenger and crew list shows that cheese maker John Sharp crossed the border with his wife Katy Sharp to go to the home of friend Hanna Beauchamp in Detroit.  What happened to Katie?  Did they divorce; did he or she leave?  Did she die?  How much did Jeanette know?

Jeanette went back to Beaver, Utah, where she had my grandpa, Calvin Muir Sharp, and graduated from high school and seminary.  Eventually she moved with family members to McGill, Nevada, where she met the right man for her, Morise LeRoy (LaRoy) Hooper.  They married 10 July 1928, and Calvin took on the name Calvin Muir Hooper, even though he was never formally or legally adopted.  (My maiden name very well could have been Sharp).  Morise, Jeanette, and Calvin were sealed for time and all eternity as a family in the Logan LDS Temple 20 January 1965.

John Marshall Sharp(e)

It is still unknown what happened to John Marshall Sharp(e) after he left Kansas.

Calvin Muir Sharp Hooper

A treasure trove of knowledge comes from robandsusanpages.com and Lesa Pringle's compilation The James & Hannah Elizabeth Orton Muir Family, as well as http://www.treesbydan.com/p2750.htm#i69377