52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 1 - I'd Like to Meet

I was browsing Facebook and saw a post about #52 Ancestors.  Idea being you pick one of your ancestors each week and write a little more in depth about that person.  Weekly themes each week.  Sounds cool.  Going back to my old blog to post these.

Week 1 is "I'd Like to Meet."    The first ancestor that comes to mind is my great-grandmother, Ella Josephine Cox Stobo Brockman.  There are several parts of her life that I'd like to explore more.

First would be the circumstances of her birth.  From what I've been able to find, her adoptive mother may well have actually been her grandmother.  Ella was born in 1879, and was adopted by Ellen Cox Stobo and her husband, Thomas Stobo.  Ellen's oldest daughter, Henrietta Cox, died in 1884 and her will mentions the five year old girl, Ella, and part of Henrietta's estate went towards Ella's care and benefit.  I suspect that Henrietta was actually Ella's mother.  No records exist of a marriage for Henrietta, so perhaps the potential stigma of an out of wedlock child caused Ellen to adopt her own grandchild.  Not sure.  Maybe it'd be just as beneficial to meet Ellen or even Henrietta?

Second would be her life after she became a widow.  Ella married William Franklin Brockman in 1899 and they had three children.  One of those children was my grandfather, William Thomas "Tom" Brockman.  William Franklin died in 1918.  By 1921, Ella was named as the "other woman" in a lawsuit from the wife of a local businessman in her town.

From a contemporary newspaper article:  Margaret Crump charged that her husband Charley, a wealthy sportsman and air pilot, drove his airplane thru the skies more than convention permitted with Mrs. Ella Brockman, a wealthy widow and that he used the widow's cow pasture for a landing field.  At the same time, Mrs. Crump asked $25,000 alimony and $25,000 for alienation of affections from Mrs. Brockman.  

The court fight was to have developed over whether a couple could love in approved manner in the clouds while an airplane propeller drowned all conversation and prevented the driver from turning around and whispering into the lady's ear.  The divorce suit was withdrawn by both Mr. and Mrs. Crump before it went to trial.  The newspaper article claimed that it was the first airplane divorce suit in the United States.

Ella sounds like a very interesting lady and I would have loved to have met her.