Maria Offutt ¹

   Another name for Maria was Mariah Offutt.²

  Noted events in her life were:

• She was buried between 1858 and 1861 in the Newton in , Scott County, KY.

Maria married John Arnsparger, son of Christopher Arnsparger and Elizabeth Sageser, on 5 February 1857 in , Fayette County, KY. (John Arnsparger was born on 17 February 1826 in , Jessamine County, KY and died after 1 June 1880.)

  Marriage Notes:

It would seem that this marriage, if there ever was an official ceremony, was a short lasting marriage. The only available record is a reference to a "John Arsperger" married on 31 Jan 1857 in Fayette County, Kentucky but that record does not provide the name of the bride. Sometimes these records from Kentucky are the actual marriage bond papers and not the marriage ceremony which some researchers believe actually occured on 5 Feb 1857.

Whatever the date for the marriage may have been, it probably would have included John Arnsparger's two infant sons, William and Hiriam, born in 1854 and 1855. If the marriage did occur on 5 Feb 1857, then Maria Offutt would have been only 16 years old at the time while John was 30. Supposedly, their own son, John Jr., was born in July of 1857 about 5 months after the marriage ceremony. No birth records for John Jr. are available and it is not known what happened to him until he appears with his own wife in the 1880 US Census.

The next question to solve is if her given name was just "Maria" or "Maria Margaret". The reason for this is that if Maria and Margaret were really two different persons then perhaps the marriage between John Arnsparger and Mari Offutt might have lasted until 1860. There is a tantalizing 1860 US Census record from Centerville, Bourbon, Kentucky as follows:

1860 US Census
Page 115, Family 819, Roll 356
Centerville, Bourbon, Kentucky, United States
22 Aug 1860
Jno Arnsparger..53..Kentucky..Master Blacksmith
Maria Arnsparger..20..Kentucky
Wm Arnsparger..5..Kentucky
Jno Arnsparger..2..Kentucky
Wm. Harp..19..Kentucky..Blacksmith

This could be an 1860 US Census record for John and Maria along with John's oldest son, William, age 5,and their own son, John Jr., age 2. Living with them was John's nephew, William Harp, age 19 who was the son of John's sister, Elizabeth. Missing from the census was John's other son, Hiriam, who would have been about 4 years old at the time. There are no other records about Hiriam so he might have died before 1860. The biggest problem with this census is that John Arnsparger was shown as 53 years old instead of the expected 34. Was this an enumerator error or did the couple split up and this was some other yet unidentified John Arnsparger?

In the meantime, if Margaret were a different person than Maria, then it must have been Margaret that shows up as living at home with her parents on the same 1860 US Census. She was shown as 19 years old whereas Maria was shown as 20 years old which could indicate that they were two different sisters.
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