William Thomas and Juda Frances Lee Hardee daughter
Mary Elizabeth Hardee

 Mary Elizabeth Hardee was William and Juda’s first child. Mary was born October 20, 1856 in Alabama. She is in the 1860 U.S. census in Coosa Co., Alabama as five years old. In 1870 she is in the census for Van Zandt Co., Texas as 15 years old. Her mother Juda died in 1879 and Mary is still living at home in 1880 in Johnson Co., Texas as a single 22-year-old. (She was actually 24.)  Her youngest sibling is only one year old, so I would assume since her mother had passed, she was the one taking care of her siblings.

On October 5, 1884 Mary married William Copeland in Parker Co., Texas. They had three children:

John C. Copeland born March 1886 in Texas and died in 1911.

Willie Melinda Copeland born November 5, 1887 born in Cleburne, Johnson Co., Texas and died July 9, 1951. She married Howard Luther Hall on November 23, 1904 in Johnson Co., Texas. They had seven children.

Ima Mae Copeland born May 11, 1889 in Keene, Johnson Co., Texas and died February 14, 1989 in Contras Costa, California. She married Claude Edgar Lee and they had five children.

William Copeland died in 1890 and Mary married W. R. Parsons on December 2, 1891 in Ellis Co., Texas. They had one son named Lee Parsons born October 1892 in Texas. He married Ora Lee Miller.

I don’t know what happened to W.R. Parsons but on July 31, 1897 Mary married Sargent Owings/Owens. Mary and Sargent are listed in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 census living in Johnson Co., Texas.

The 1921 city directory shows Mary and Sargent lived at 212 S. Washington Ave., in Cleburne, Johnson Co., Texas.

Mary died December 23, 1921 and is buried in Hopewell cemetery in Keene, Johnson Co., Texas.

Mary Hardee in the 1880 Johnson Co., Texas Census with her family.