Ralph Earl Loghry

Sometimes you need to pull up your big girl panties and realize that not all relatives are created equal. Thus, is the case of my great uncle, Ralph Earl Loghry. I've never met him, so can't personally attest to whether or not he possessed a very strong mind. All I know is he threw his young, pregnant wife off a bridge, the judge refused to grant the couple a divorce, and ordered that their daughter be raised by her grandmother and granted two hours of visitation per month. You be the judge. 

Ralph Earl Loghry, born 22 February 1888, was the son of Nancy Jane Rummans and George Eldredge Loghry. He married Anna Rebecca Smith on 19 July 1909 in Clarinda, Page County, Iowa. On 10 September 1909, shortly after the marriage, the Shenandoah Sentinel Post had the following story on page one:

Earl Loghry enticed his young wife to take a walk with him down the K & W railroad track last night, telling her that he had secured a place for him and her to work and that he wanted to go to it that night. When they got about to the center of a large trestle he threw her off into the stream thirty feel below and then made his way back to Clarinda. As luck would have it she was not hurt and after she had recovered from the shock she scrambled out of the mud and water and made her way back to Clarinda through the dark. This took place between nine and ten o’clock.

A warrant was instantly sworn out and the scoundrel was arrested forthwith by Constable Mosely and O.P. Rosencrans, city marshal, and was bound over to await the action of the October grand jury on the charge of attempting to murder his wife, Rebecca Loghry. They had been married about three weeks and each is about twenty-five years old. Since their marriage they have been living most of the time with his father at Hepburn. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Smith of near Hawleyville.

Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Loghry are possessed of very strong minds. It will probably go hard with this would-be-murderer as it should be. It is currently reported that he has been mean to his wife ever since they were married making her work out to earn her own living and to keep him.

Thirteen months later, on October 20, 1910, the Shenandoah Sentinel Post reports on the petition for divorce in the case of R.E. Loghry and Anna R. Loghry:

The cause of R. E. Loghry against Anna R. Loghry in which plaintiff was asking for a divorce and defendant entered a general denial and also a cross-petition alleging cruel and inhuman treatment and among other things that plaintiff threw her off a bridge and tried to drown her in the Nodaway river last fall, was set for trial for last Wednesday morning, but when Judge Wheeler learned that the parties were the same who appeared before him last fall in the case of the state against R. E. Loghry for the alleged attempted drowning, he refused to hear it, saying he would not grant a decree to the parties and preferred not to hear it. A little girl was born to Mrs. Loghry several months ago and has been in the home of Mr. Loghry’s parents near Helpburn for some time. The court made an order that the paternal grandmother should have the custody of the child for the present and that the parents might visit the child once each month for two hours.

This child, Margaret Nancy Loghry, appears in the grandparents’ home on the 1920 U.S. Federal Census. What became of her is unknown. It is apparent that this couple was not meant to be together, making me question why the judge refused to grant them a divorce. Ralph passed away on 9 December 1972 in Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska. Anna passed away in 1968 in Clarinda, Page County, Iowa.

Ralph Earl Loghry and Anna Rebecca Smith had the following children:

         i.            i.  Margaret Nancy Loghry, born 22 April 1910 in Hepburn, Page County, Iowa.

Ralph Earl Loghry next married Luella Martha Bowen between 1910 and 1915 and they had the following children:

    i.    Edward Earl Loghry, born 4 March 1916.

       ii.            ii.   Wilma Mae Loghry, born 16 January 1919.

     iii.            iii.  Maxine Lucille Loghry, born 19 September 1922.

     iv.            iv.   Keneda Katherine Loghry, born 22 April 1924

Ralph Earl Loghry married Stella Mae Schmidt on 24 May 1934 in Papillion, Sarpy County, Nebraska.

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[1] Ancestry.com U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Iowa, Montgomery County, Roll 1643221.

[2] Ancestry.com. Iowa, Marriage Records, 1880-1937 [on-line images]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.

[3] The Clarinda Herald: Miscellaneous, Location: Clarinda, Iowa (July 22, 1909), The following marriage licenses have been granted since our last issue: … Ralph Loghry 21, Rebecca Anna Smith 18.

[4] Shenandoah Sentinel-Post: Mrs. Rebecca Loghry Thrown in River by Hubby, Location: Shenandoah, Iowa, Page 1 (September 10, 1909).

[5] Shenandoah Sentinel Post: At the Court House: Shenandoah, Iowa (October 20, 1910).

[6] 1920 U.S. census, Page County, Iowa, population schedule, Valley Township, enumeration district (ED) 118, sheet 7A, p. 1851, dwelling 143, family 143, George A. Loghry household; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 18 Sep 2016).