Thomas Townsend Barrett (abt. 1804 - abt. 1871) Who is his wife? All 3?

Question

Thomas Townsend (Towns) Barrett was born 1804 (per gravestone). Family search has him born in 1815 with over 51 sources. He married twice (per FindAGrave bio) a Sarah Wheeler and second a Lucy Elvira Stowell. He died April 11, 1871. The wife he is connected to is Lorena Fretts. (Lemira’s obit mentions her mother as a Clara (Fretts) Barrett. Family search has him married to all 3 women. He is connected as the father of Lemira A. Barrett who is the mother of former President Calvin Coolidge’s Wife Grace Anna (Goodhue) Coolidge. 

I need help sorting this out and confirming this Find A Grave belongs to Lemira’s father. 

Thank you

Note: Famous Kin shows the father of Lemira as Thomas Barrett and mother as Laurena Fretts

The book A Genealogy of the Wives of the American Presidents and Their First Two ... does mention Joel Barrett as Thomas father and a Sarah Wheeler

Answer 1

The marriage that looks bogus to me is the Laurena Fretts marriage. One child born just 3 years after Townsend's marriage to Lucy. The other two marriages look fine to me - both have marriage records, both have children produced in the right years and Sarah dies in the right year. My bet is that EITHER Lemira's mother is Lucy or the Thomas who was married to Sarah and Lucy is not Lemira's father. 

The Hart book doesn't have Sarah's death date, which means he doesn't realize it's chronologically impossible for Lemira, born 1849, to be the daughter of Sarah, who died 1846. 

Note: this is all based on the dates involved, it could be very wrong. 

https://archive.org/details/historygenealogy00byugood/page/204/mode/2up - Goodhue genealogy 

Now my bet is on there being two Thomas Barrets - see your newspaper link here:

Mrs. Goodhue's father, Thomas A. Barrett

Emphasis mine. There is no name starting with an A anywhere in Thomas Townsend's name. 

Comments

The more I look at this, the more I get confused.

The daughter of Townsend Barrett born 1857 (Susan Barrett) was clearly born to Lucy Elvira Stowell (see her death record). As was George Barrett, born 1850 (see his birth record). So unless we posit a divorce and then remarriage, the man who married Clara/Lorena Fretts is not the same man who married Lucy Elvira Stowell.

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We have Susan, Edwin, and Mary attached to the wrong mother on Wikitree. They should be children of Lucy Elvira. Lemira and Leroy should be children of Lorena. 

OK I finally managed to find the marriage record for Lorena Fretts - It's on ancestry here. 24 Dec 1846 between Towns Barret and Lorena Fretts. 

Here's the 1850 census record for the family in New Hampshire, with Lemira in the family. 

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Update, I believe Mary is attached to the correct family unit - her mother was a Lucretia (Goodwin?). Susan and Edwin are children of Lucy Elvira.

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I've done a number of corrections and we will be back to finish up the families.

This is the correct FindAGrave profile for Lemira's father - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184875668/towns-barrett

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Yes! This is her father. She was attached to wrong father initially

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I've added warnings at the top of both Townsend and going to clean up their profiles before working on wives, children and parents.

Answer 2

Now i'm confused over the Mary Barretts.

Marriage record has her born in Tynesborough, there is a Tynesborough record for a Mary Lucretia Barrett born April 5th, 1854.But the 1860 census has her born in New Hampshire. And why would Lucretia and Townsend go to Massachusetts, a place where Townsend didn't go until 1880?

Comments

Believe I puzzled through it. The Massachusetts birth record is indeed for the daughter of the Massachusetts Towns Barrett born circa 1804, it's just that Lucy Elvira's name is also Lucretia.