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- On the 1870 census, where she is “Mary Kirk,” there is also a daughter “Maria Kirk,” aged 29—born about 1831 in Kentucky.
There are several reasons why I believe her last name is Cushman.
1. The coincidence of the gravesite with known genealogical record:
a. The name Mary Kirk shares his gravestone, on which her birth and death dates are given.
b. According to Anna Cushman (Frazee) Ball, Mary, 4th child of David and Dorcas (Morris) Cushman, M. (1) ______ Mannen; m. (2) Richard Kirk. In Kirk genealogies she is named as "Mary Mannen." In Cushman genealogies she is "Mary Cushman" and given no husband. No dates are given for Mary, but in Burt two dates given for her siblings (1796, 1798) jibe very well with her's on the gravestone. There is no record of her first marriage to a Mannen in Mason or Bracken Co. Her second marriage is recorded in Mason County.
2. The name persists in the family:
a. Her brother, Thomas Cushman, named his youngest daughter (b. 1837) "Mary Mannen Cushman." A "Thomas Cushman" stood for her at her second marriage, presumably her brother.
b. "Cushman" is the name of one of her grandson Leslie Mannen's sons (abbreviated to "Cush").
3. And she and her son John lived right next to each other:
a. In the 1860 census, John and Minerva Mannen are living in the house next door to Mary Kirk (aged 66),who also lives with Maria, aged 29. This is not surprising. Next to them, however, are families only related via the Cushmans: Joseph Frazee (aged 65), his wife Eliza (aged 58), and son David. This is Joseph and his third wife Eliza Sanford. Joseph's second wife was Ann Cushman, Mary's sister. [2]
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