Fearless Females - Daily Prompt 1

In honor of National Women's History Month, I will be following the blogging prompts from The Accidental Genealogist blog.  She has a list of blogging prompts for each day.  I just found out about this today and after a month of writing The Family History Writing Challenge I thought I was ready for a break.  She says you don't have to feel pressured to do every one, you can pick and chose.  The prompts are interesting and I need to post something so I thought Why Not!  So here goes for Day 1.

March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.

My female ancestor that I would like to know more about is my great great grandmother, Martha Jane Eccles Pickett.  Martha was born in North Carolina on May 24, 1826.  Her father had a drinking problem after he fought in the War of 1812.  She grew up with four sisters and two brothers.  

Her father left the family in North Carolina after all her mother's family had moved west to Ohio and Indiana.  Her uncle walked back to bring her family to Ohio.  After she arrived in Ohio, sometime before 1850, she married Benjamin N. Pickett.  

She and Benjamin moved to Richmond, Indiana.  They had four children, two girls and two boys.  Her husband was a blacksmith.  I need to find out what happened with her husband.  He was living with them in 1860. 

 I haven't been able to locate them in the 1870 Census.  On the 1880 Census she is living with three of her children and Benjamin is gone.  She is 55 years old and she is doing washing to support herself.  Her 17 year old daughter, my great grandmother is doing washing, and so is her sister Lizzie. Lizzie had been married and was divorced, I believe, by then.  Her son, William, is living with them, but in later research I found that he had lost both of his legs, possibly in the Civil War.

I have not been able to locate Martha in the 1890 Census.  She died on January 14, 1893.  In the U.S. City Directory, she and her three children are still living together.  She is listed as a widow, but was she?  I find a Benjamin in census's by himself and later marrying another women.  Do I have the right Benjamin?  The 1890 City Directory just has Martha and her son William living together.  She is listed as a widow again.  She died January 11, 1893. 

I really need to find the 1870 and the 1890 Census reports.  It seems odd that she is not buried with her husband if he died before her and they were still together.  I found her grave and her obituary.  Her obituary had very little information.  

I will be going back to the Richmond Public Library to do more research this summer.  I know there has to be more information on her.  The family started living in Richmond beginning with Martha, and ending with my mother growing up there.  I lived in Richmond for a short while when I was younger.