Mary Elizabeth Nott was the third of 12 children of Luther Nott & Mary Strean. She was married twice: on 25 October 1860 in Hardin County, Iowa, to Thomas S. Lacock, and on 4 October 1868 in Hardin County, Iowa, to John Clinton Dutton, both Union soldiers in the Civil War. She is buried beside her second husband.

Mary's first husband, Thomas S. Lacock (1840-1882), marched off to war in 1862, and never returned to his wife and children in Iowa, to the best of my knowledge. Rather, he returned to his hometown in Washington County, Pennsylvania and married there on 16 October 1873 to Maggie I. Baird, who was 15 years his junior. His first wife Mary was told---by one of his army comrades?---that Thomas died in the Confederate prison at Andersonville. So Mary mistakenly thought she was a widow when she remarried in 1868!

This tintype is the earliest-known photograph of Mary Elizabeth Nott, probably taken in the late 1850s, before her October 25, 1860 marriage to Thomas S. Lacock, son of John R. Lacock & Rebecca Blake.

Mary had 11 children: Rebecca Jane, Thomas Lacock Jr. (died about age 5 of diphtheria), Julia Ann, Burton Lee, John Clinton Dutton Jr., Sarah Ann "Annie" (died age 4 of diphtheria), Nelson, Beulah Lorraine, Benjamin Luther, Libby (stillborn 1884), Clarissa Maud "Maud".

Rebecca was named after her paternal grandmother, Rebecca Lacock. Julia was named after her paternal grandmother, Julia Remer Dutton. Sarah was named after her mother's sister, Sarah Nott Button. Nelson was named after his father's brother. Beulah Lorraine was named after her father's grandmother, Beulah Whitmarsh Dutton and her mother's sister Lorraine Nott Cooper, Benjamin Luther was named after his mother's grandfather and father, Benjamin Nott and Luther Nott. Clarissa was named after her mother's sister who died young of a severe nosebleed.

A tale of bundling in Iowa in the 1850s

Traditionally, bundling participants were adolescents, with a boy staying overnight at the residence of a girl he was courting. They were given separate blankets by the girl's parents and expected to talk to one another through the night, to continue their courtship. The practice was limited to the winter and sometimes the use of a bundling board, placed in the bed between the boy and girl, supposedly ensured that no sexual conduct would take place. Often the bundling board was a wooden table leaf, held upright by pillows on either side.

My great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Nott, as a teenage girl in rural Hardin County, Iowa, was walking to a neighbor's one day when a boy who was sweet on her pulled up on his horse and wagon. He offered to climb down from the wagon seat and help her climb up to sit beside him. She replied, "Don't bother! You don't even know how to climb over a bundling board!" So we know nothing intimate happened when he stayed overnight with her at her parents' farm home.

The 5-generations shown in 1926: Mary Elizabeth (Nott) Lacock Dutton holding baby Mary Colleen Doyle--born 14 May, Rebecca (Lacock) Hiserote, Maude (Hiserote) Heffern, & Faye (Heffern) Doyle.