My 2X great grandmother, Annie, was married three times - first, at a very young age, to an elderly invalid, the second to a Civil War veteran who had abandoned two wives before marrying her and would go on to marry three more times after their divorce, and the third to the “love of her life.”

Annie disappeared during her divorce in 1899, having “fled the state,” according to court documents. In 1932, she joined her family in Creede, Colorado shortly before her death.

Who was this mystery woman? Who were her parents? Who was the elderly, invalid relative her family forced her to marry so that she could care for him without forfeiting her honor? Who was her third husband, the love of her life? Where was Annie for all those years after her divorce from her second husband? Why is Annie the only relative in the cemetery who does not have a headstone?

Annie E. Cheney - my abiding brick wall.