A Marriage of No Little Excitement

On October 9, 1875, the marriage of one Cuba City couple--Mary Jane Symons and Carter Hardgrove--received an unusual amount of media attention. The couple allegedly tried getting married in Cuba City, but the local officiant feared the marriage would be illegal, so they tied the knot in Platteville.

The reason behind all this attention? Mary Jane Symons was White and Carter Hardgrove was Black.

Below are some of the mentions of the marriage in local newspapers:

Published in the Dodgeville Chronicle (October 15, 1875).

Published in the Grant County Witness (October 14, 1875).

Published in the Galena Gazette (October 12, 1875).

Published in the Mineral Point Tribune (October 21, 1875).

Mary Jane Symons had come to the lead mining region from Cornwall as a young girl with her parents, Francis and Celia. In 1850, she was living with her mother and father and two sisters in the Village of Weston, near Elizabeth, Illinois. By the time of her marriage in 1875, Mary Jane had made her way to the Hazel Green/Cuba City area, where there were several Symons/Simmons families living.

Carter Hardgrove, according to one of the newspaper articles above, had been a slave in Tennessee before living in Cuba City. While there is no proof that it is him, there was one Black man living on the John Heil farm west of Cuba City in 1875.

How Mary Jane and Carter met is likely lost to history, but on the day of their marriage, they traveled by train to Platteville and said their vows before local official C. W. Hill before returning to Cuba City.

Five years after their marriage, the couple was living in Waldwick Township, Iowa County, east of Mineral Point. Carter Hardgrove's occupation was "laborer."

1880 United States Federal Census (Waldwick Township, Iowa County, Wisconsin).

From there, the story of Carter and Mary Jane Hardgrove is a bit of a mystery. It is possible that after Carter's death, Mary Jane returned to the Cuba City area. In 1900, a Mary Hardgrove is living and working on the George and Margaret Ralph farm south of town. In 1905 and 1910, a Mary Hardgrove is renting accommodations in Cuba City and working at "odd jobs." 

The Galena Gazette received the following information from its Cuba City correspondent and published it on August 2, 1911: "Mrs. Mary Hardgrove was found dead in bed last Sunday morning. Death resulted from heart failure. She leaves a daughter and one brother to mourn her death. Interment will be made in the Carr graveyard east of town." 

There are many frustrating unknowns in the Carter and Mary Jane Hardgrove story, but what a story it is to mark Cuba City's first year of existence!