Oscar M. Palmer and Margaret Obrien

Oscar M. Palmer, William and Esther's oldest son, was born in 1840, three years after Kate's birth. His attendance record at the school at Elba did not quite equal hers: in 1850, he attended only 52 days as compared to her 81.5. He is listed as a "farmer" in his father's household in the 1870 Federal Census; but he apparently inherited William's bent for carpentry. At some point, he built "the little brown house," as it was always called, on the hill east of his father's barns on land William later, in 1878, assigned to him. In 1883, he sold the land to his brother, Samuel. According to an explanatory note attached to the deed of the property many years later (by Laura Worden Palmer), the girl Oscar intended to marry died and so he never occupied the house. But there is an 1864 marriage record showing that an Oscar Palmer married a Nellie E. Taylor in the village of Hudson in Lenawee County (there is no record in the 1860 Federal Census of anyone with either of those names living in Hudson then), so perhaps he did marry, only to have his bride suddenly die. In any case, the little brown house became the home of Samuel and Samuel's wife, Frances. Their two older children were born there in 1875 and 1880.

Oscar at one point thought it would be interesting to go into the mustang business and did indeed buy them and sell them, Jane wrote, to "such hopeful spirits as thought they could domesticate a mustang." He may also have left Michigan for a while, since he is not listed in the 1880 Federal Census for Michigan. But he eventually became a dealer in wool and stock (perhaps under the influence of his brother-in-law, Ben Reynolds) and, according to his obituary, in celery as well. He became a well-known resident of Tecumseh, where, in late 1886, an item in the Tecumseh News noted that he had been building "one of the neatest and completest little homes in town" for one Maggie Obrien, whom he had married in Clinton the preceding Sunday, i.e., 30 Nov 1886. No record of that marriage has been found; but the 1900 Federal Census for Tecumseh records Oscar, 60. on Ottawa Street with his wife, Margret, 40, born in Michigan. They had been married for 13 years but had no children. The Census ten years later shows Oscar still there, married for 23 years; but no Maggie is in evidence.

Maggie, as best we can determine, was the child (probably the second daughter) of Irish immigrants. The 1870 Federal Census for the village of Hudson in Lenawee Country shows as head of household a Catherine Obrien, 48, born in Ireland, a washerwoman who could not read or write. With her were Maggie, 11, Celia, 9 and a 5-year-old girl whose name is illegible (but seems not to have been an Obrien), all born in Michigan, their father and mother of foreign birth. Also in Hudson, in the household of a retired doctor, lived a Kate Obrien, 19, domestic servant, born in Massachusetts, perhaps another daughter of Catherine's. We have found no birth or death record for Margaret Obrien. Oscar died in 1912. His obituary in the Tecumseh News states he left "a widow" (unnamed), and Margaret's name appears on the deed for the neatest and completest house when it was sold in 1913. She is said there to be "of Tecumseh," but we have no evidence corroborating that statement. Oscar is buried in Oak Grove in Manchester. Maggie is not.