Harmon Richard Brinkerhoff and Mary Laura Meek

It has been hard to determine exactly what happened to Mary Laura Meek and her husband Richard Brinkerhoff.

Their marriage as well as Richard's first name is documented in Miscellaneous Marriage Records, B, transcribed by Cheryl Chebow.

BRINKERHOFF, HARMAN R. [married] MEEK, MARY L. [on] 24 FEB 1867"

The LDS IGI has a record that Mary L Meek died in 1868, and is buried in the Meek Oakview Cemetery in Vincennes. That was not in the email I was sent. I'll have to investigate.

The 1870 Census has a strange entry for Richard Brinkerhoff. 1870 Census, Iowa, Lee, Des Moines, Vincennes, p 45 has the following record for Richard, just two households away from Johnson and Priscilla Meek:

Family 16
Richard Brinkerhoff, 29, M, W, Farmer, Ohio
Mary Brinkerhoff, 2, F, W, Ohio
Theodore Brinkerhoff, 27, M, W, Ohio

This census entry is clearly the Brinkerhoff identified by Hearn on page 86, but the age of Mary is not right if it is Mary Louise the daughter of Johnson and Priscilla Meek. However, if his wife died in childbirth in 1868 and the daughter lived, she would be the right age. Hearne refers to the child as Louise, but because the mother's name was Mary Louise, it is reasonable that the child is also named Mary Louise. This is my current active theory.