An anniversary: Smith Mallory's postmortem travels

Ilion house as it looked soon after construction, 1879-80

The Mallory cross in Orlando

I'm generally on the lookout for Lucas County-related anniversaries, some of them a trifle odd. Like this one: The 100th anniversary of the removal of one of the Chariton Cemetery's most prominent residents, Smith Henderson Mallory, along with his tombstone, to Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando, Florida, during June of 1920.

Here's a report of that event from The Chariton Leader of June 24:

The body of S.H. Mallory, buried for seventeen years in the Chariton cemetery, which was recently taken from the grave, has been cremated and the ashes sent to Orlando, Florida, where the family resides.

Mr. Mallory, at the time of his death, owned "Ilion," at the north edge of town, which has become known for its association with the things of the day in which he lived. Mr. Mallory was for many years a railroad contractor, a man widely known, and frequently were the doors of Ilion opened to receive as guests men of state and national reputation.

He was at that time president of the First National Bank of Chariton, which in later years became and is now known as the Lucas County National.

The body was taken up from the local cemetery on June 9. A daughter, Mrs. Jessie O'Neal, of Orlando, was in Chariton and went with the body to Des Moines where cremation took place on the following Friday. The monument which had been placed here was shipped to Orlando, where it will again perpetuate the memory of this man who was one of Chariton's foremost citizens.

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Smith Henderson Mallory

Mr. Mallory, wife Annie and daughter Jessie had arrived in Chariton during 1867 and during 1879-80 commissioned a grand house they named "Ilion" on their 1,000-acre Brook Farm, located on the city's northern edge.

He died of stomach cancer on March 23, 1903, at Ilion house and following funeral services at the new St. Andrew's Episcopal Church was buried in the far northwest corner of the Chariton Cemetery on a lot purchased five years earlier when his son-in-law, Deming J. Thayer, killed himself during a period of despair on June 21, 1898.

A towering Celtic cross was commissioned by Annie and Jessie to mark the graves, accompanied by smaller matching headstones.

Four years later, during the fall of 1907, trusted associate Frank Crocker bankrupted the Mallory family bank, First National, by siphoning massive amounts of cash for personal investment and then killed himself.

Eventually, in 1909, Annie and Jessie were held personally liable for the banking disaster --- they owned the bank and had failed to supervise Mr. Crocker. In order to avoid court, they agreed to turn over to the bank's receiver all of their assets in Lucas County, including the mansion and related property. They then packed the contents of Ilion house, shipped them to Florida and settled permanently in Orlando, which had been their winter home.

Jessie, who retained a considerable fortune of her own, and her mother lived a very comfortable life in Florida, occupying a house called The Pines that remains an Orlando landmark. During 1914, Jessie married as her second husband William R. O'Neal, Orlando businessman, socialite and historian. 

Jessie does not seem to have been an especially sentimental person, so it was most likely her mother, Annie, who instigated the plan to relocate Mr. Mallory and his tombstone from Chariton to Orlando. Jessie handled the arrangements, but left behind in Chariton the remains of her first husband, Deming, and their stillborn daughter, who occupied a crypt in the Stanton Vault.

Annie, age 81, died during March of 1923 and was buried in the place prepared for her in Greenwood Cemetery. Jessie died unexpectedly eight months later, age 60, on Nov. 16, of complications following surgery. And that was the end of the family. The estate was divided between Jessie's second husband, an uncle her own age who also was her best friend and various cousins.

Both the Mallory mansion and the family church, the second St. Andrew's building, were demolished in 1955, so little remains in Chariton as a reminder of the family --- other than the recently restored courthouse clock which was a gift from Mr. Mallory when the courthouse was new and continues to mark the passing hours.

Deming's grave is alone now on the Mallory lot and the remains of his daughter were removed from the Stanton Vault when it was demolished and buried in something of a heap with other former residents in the footprint of that structure.