The Mystery of Ive

I spent all day Wednesday down in New Madrid, Mo. Home of the majority of my extended family, county records and, I've learned, a whole lot of family secrets and drama that are slowly unfolding before me.

The first story I bring you is The Mystery of Ive.

Family legend says that Ive, my 2nd-great grandfather, was in some sort of "accident in town" which ultimately caused his death (some say death was instantaneousness, others say he held on for awhile.) I searched and searched, but I could find nothing to back up this story. Not a newspaper clipping or a death certificate - in fact, I still can't find out where and when he died.

The only thing that I saw about Ive the entire day I was researching was newspaper clipping from 1914 that said Ive Hendricks was taken to a hospital in Illinois for "an operation." It was very vague and cryptic, so that's all I know. I figured that the "accident in town" happened sometime after that, so I looked and looked for anything else about him and came up completely empty.

However, when I was sorting through all of Flora's stepchildren - the multiple marriages, all to men much older than she was, brought her many stepchildren over the years- I found the death certificate for a guy named Carl Lee Ive Mangrum. He died in 1919, in St. Louis (160 miles from New Madrid), from an accident in town. He cracked the base of his skull and fractured his neck.

My best guess is that it wasn't Flora's husband Ive that died in an "accident in town", it was her stepson, Carl Lee Ive Mangrum. (Maybe he went by Ive?)I consider this a definite clue and a hint that the elder Ive (Flora's husband) wasn't the one in the "accident in town", but rather he died from surgery complications or just poor health. I have no record or proof though.