Eliza Jane (Trimble) Norris Hoolahan

Eliza Jane Trimble was first married to Elijah Norris from Tennessee at the residence of James F Trimble on January 8th, 1888 in Pulaski County Kentucky. Between 1888 and 1900, they had four daughters: Viola, Virgie, Alice and Nettie. During that time they also moved to Denison, Grayson County, Texas. The next part of the story is unclear, but it was told that Elijah left and was absent for some time after their last daughter Nettie was born in 1896. Eliza is shown in the 1900 census, listed as widowed, and as being a boarder and servant at the house of Cassie Huntley in Denison, Texas raising all four girls alone. Dennis Hoolahan is shown in the same 1900 census to be working as a Railroad tract walker in Denison. The twins Marguerite (Maggie) and Bridget were born in 1903. Eliza and Dennis married in 1905. Alice Norris, born in 1894, died at age 12 in 1906. Dennis Jr. was born in 1907. Another baby boy was born to the Hoolahans but died in infancy. At some point, the story is that Elijah Norris returned. If this is true and when he returned, we don't know, but the story goes that he found that Eliza had moved on with a new family. There is a Texas death index record for an Elijah Sherman Norris passing in 1905 in Fannin County, but it has not been confirmed that this person was Eliza's first husband or not. I read an online post regarding Elijah's oldest daughter Viola and how she had really loved her father and recalled at how handsome he was. Viola married, had seven children, and stayed in the Cedar Hill area of Dallas. Virgie married, had two daughters from that marriage that died in childhood, then remarried and she and her second husband managed a farm and grocery in Corsicana Texas. Nettie married, had four daughters, and lived most of her adult life in California. Marguerite (Maggie) married my grandfather James Roberts and had my mother Yvonne Anita Jean Roberts. They lived in the Dallas area until my grandfather died and then she lived with my Mom and our family until she passed in 1977 in Temple Texas. Her twin Bridget married several times, had two children, and spent her remaining life in California. Dennis Jr enlisted in the army in 1926 and started his military career at Fort Bliss, TX. The army misspelled his name upon enlistment as Calahan, and he spent the rest of his life known as Dennis Calahan. He moved to Washington DC in his later years and is buried as Dennis Calahan in the US Soldier's and Airman's Home National Cemetery in Washington DC.