Mary "Georgia" Smith

As Zack Mulhall’s work with the ATSF required him to travel in Kansas and the Western states, Zack was often away from the family’s home in St. Louis. His cattle enterprises led Mulhall to the Oklahoma Territory, so it wasn’t a surprise that in about 1885, Zack Mulhall happened to be conducting business in the southeast Kansas town of Parsons, located just 30 miles north of Indian Territory. It was in Parsons that Zack became acquainted with a seventeen-year-old girl, Mary Smith, who was working as a waitress at a roadhouse.

Mary Smith was born in 1870 or perhaps as census reports suggest, 1869, in Illinois, the third daughter of William V. Smith and Martha Haskett Smith. By 1870, the Smiths had moved to Jefferson County, Iowa where they resided for just over ten years. In 1875, the Smiths had a son, William, but by the 1880 census, Mary’s oldest sister, Laura had moved to Republic County, Kansas, where she lived with her mother’s brother, Eli Haskett and his family at Belleville, Kansas. By 1885, Laura had married William Little, and the couple farmed in Jewell County, Kansas at Burr Oak. In that census, Mary Smith, said to be 17 years old at the time, lived with the Littles, but by the end of the year, Mary had moved to Parsons, where she took a job as a waitress.

Zack Mulhall was infatuated with the young Miss Smith, and he wasted no time in making promises to her of a good life together. By July of 1887, Mary Smith was pregnant with Zack Mulhall’s child, and on April 23, 1888, she gave birth to a son, Charles Mulhall. Evidence suggests that Charley Mulhall was born in Missouri, and it may well be that Zack had moved Mary Smith to a St. Louis apartment by the time she gave birth.

Once the Mulhall family had moved to Oklahoma, Zack was able to move Mary Smith and her son, Charley into the Mulhall home at 4643 Washington Boulevard in St. Louis. After Mary and Charley moved into the Mulhall house, a new name was in order for twenty-year-old Mary Smith, one which would stay with her for the remainder of her days. She became known as Georgia Mulhall but some modern records identify her as Georgia Smith and Georgia Casey. Zack Mulhall reportedly represented Georgia to the neighbors as his wife.

Zack Mulhall continued to live dual lives with his family in Oklahoma and with Georgia Smith and their son, Charley Mulhall in St. Louis. On August 23, 1895, Georgia gave birth to a daughter. Twenty-five-year-old Georgia Smith, with her infant daughter on her shoulder, boarded a train in St. Louis under the escort of Zack Mulhall. Their destination was Mulhall, Oklahoma Territory.

Zack Mulhall must have had a story. He was never without one. In this case, Zack’s fabrication rang with too much truth. The young lady was an unwed mother, and she was bringing her just-born infant to give to Mary Locke Mulhall to raise as her own. In fact, the story went, the baby had no name, and “Mother Mulhall” was allowed that privilege, and the baby girl began her life as Mildred Madeline Mulhall, named by Mary in memory of her twin girls who died in childbirth. After a brief visit, Georgia returned to St. Louis. Cynthia Rhodes writes of Georgia’s decision, “Years later when the Mulhall children learned the truth, ‘Georgia told them it was the hardest thing she ever did to give up her baby.’”

Wertheim and Bair write of Georgia Smith’s attempts to establish a life for herself separate from Zack’s control in The Papers of Will Rogers, “Georgia Mulhall tried repeatedly to break away from Zack Mulhall’s influence and establish a separate life for herself. At one time she became engaged to marry another man, but he died suddenly and shockingly after eating the dinner prepared for the wedding party the night before the ceremony. No one else at the table became ill. Zack Mulhall was known to be furious about the impending marriage, and the circumstances of the young man’s sudden death were therefore questionable. Many believed that Mulhall had poisoned the man, but no autopsy was done and no proof of the cause of death exists. In 1917, Georgia tried again, this time marrying a young man from Ireland named Casey, who had courted her for some time. This effort, too, turned to tragedy, for she soon discovered (upon intercepting a telegram from Casey’s daughter entreating Casey to come home because his wife was critically ill) that her husband, unknown to her had another wife and family back home in Ireland. The marriage was annulled, but Georgia kept the name of Casey and remained living in Parsons, Kansas.”

Georgia’s later years were difficult and distressing. Wertheim and Bair write in The Papers of Will Rogers, “In later years Georgia Casey was severely impoverished. After breaking off with Zack Mulhall in mid-life, she worked at a series of temporary jobs, including one as a child-care provider for a family in Augusta, Ga. As an elderly woman she was reunited with the Mulhalls when her granddaughter, Mildred’s daughter, Martha Fisch, learned the truth about her, sought her out and invited her to come live close to her family in Guthrie, Oklahoma…Martha Fisch continued to care for Georgia until the older woman’s death from cancer (in 1955).”

Source and additional information: https://flinthillsspecial.com/2020/12/04/lucille-mulhall-and-the-mu...