In 1841 Letitia Jane Glenn was
a beautiful young lady of 18, living with her father, Thomas Glenn, her
mother, Anna Scott Glenn, and eight sisters and two brothers. Her
father loved all his children dearly, but, being an early ministear of
the Gospel, he had very definite ideas of behavior for his young family.
His rules were very stern and emphatic. Anna loved her hisband for
his high moral standards but sometimes could not help it if she was a little
sympathietic for her children.
When Letitia was 18 years old she decided
to marry her cousin, James Scott. James was six years older than
Letitia and his father John Scott, was Anna Scott Glenn's brother.
This made Letitia & James first cousins.
Elder Thomas Glenn, as he was called because
of his office in the church, forbade Letitia to marry James. He told
her if she did marry against his will, she would be disinherited and he,
or none of his family should ever see her again. This was a very
harsh ruling and it took considerable courage for James & Letitia to
disobey. However, one day Letitia slipped out and met James and they
eloped to an adjoining county and were married.
Letitia could take very few belongings
with her but her eight sisters had helped her dress for the elopement and
they had piled eight sdresses, one on top of the other, on her small body.
In August the following year, James &
Letitia had a son and named him Martin Galey Scott. Then followed
two daughters, Mary & Ruth Ann. Soon after the third child was
born Letitia died, in less than five years after she had left her fathers
home.
Elder Thomas Glenn never relented in his
ruling that none of the household should visit his daughter, who disobeyed
and married her cousin. When Thomas was asked why he did not relax
his strict ruling, he said that he had ten other children and the same
rules mist apply to all. However, the mother secretly stole out and
visited her aughter, when she heard she was so very ill. It was talked
that Elder Thomas did help his wife on these secret visits, but he always
denied this.
The mother said she felt that having three
children so close together and Letitia's longing to see her family, could
possibly have hastened her early death.
Another
detail added by a family member was that they met at a grandparent, or
other relative's, house, but mostly they visited separately and left
notes for each other in a copy of 
d/o Isaac Newton & Louisa Higgens Thomas b. 18 Jan 1861 Daviess
co. Mo. d. 21 Feb 1918 Daviess co. Mo.; 5 children. Martin
served in the Civil War, enlisting in Co. H of the 23rd Regt. Missouri
Volunteer Infantry on 5 Aug 1861, served 3 years, taken prisoner at Shiloh
6 Apr 1862 and held captive for six months, and was wounded on 27 July
1864 (shot in the right lung, "from which he never fully recovered").
Martin's 2 wives were first cousins. His second father-in-law, Isaac
N. Thomas, married as his third wife Elizabeth Scott McCoy, James' father's
first cousin, youngest daughter of Alexander Scott.
William Stretch s/o Thomas & Jane Stretch b. 3 Dec 1837 Rush
co. Ind. d. 4 Jan 1884 Daviess co. Mo., 4 children. Ruth m/2.
after 1889 George W. Flint b. 1833 d. 1901, no children.
