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A brief and incomplete biography of Margaret:
Here’s Margaret in a photo taken by Will, around the time they were married.  She was a milliner before her marriage, so it’s only right that her hat should take up half the picture.
Margaret, who was married to Will for two and a half very happy years before she died, is rarely talked about.  She is, however, a terrifically important person in the Stokey family.  She converted Will to Christian Science.  She gave him a daughter whom he loved, and whom Will’s second wife, Kathleen, loved.  There’s no knowing what Will’s life would have been like if he hadn’t met Margaret, but if Will had never married Margaret (and, obviously, if she had not then died) then he would certainly not have married Kathleen and therefore none of Will’s current descendants - including me! - would ever have been born.
MARGARET BEFORE SHE MET WILL

Margaret was born on April 22, 1881 in Mobile, Alabama.  Her parents died when she was a young child.  Since they were in Mobile, I imagine them getting yellow fever, but I really don’t know.  Could have been a boating accident, could have been a house fire, could have been anything.  I don’t even know that they died at the same time.  All I know is that Margaret was orphaned.

She was raised by aunts.  How many aunts?  On her father’s side or her mother’s?  Were they aunts or great-aunts?  Again, I don’t know.  They disappeared from the picture before she met Will.  I think that the aunts must have died, because I can’t imagine Margaret cutting any relatives out of her life, even though her childhood with them was apparently not particularly blissful.

I think the aunts exited from Margaret’s life somewhere around 1905.  She had apparently expected to have enough money from her family to live on, but she learned that that would not be the case.  Judging from her lifestyle, I imagine she did get some family money, but not enough to live on.

She was living in Los Angeles at the time. I don’t know why she was in Los Angeles rather than Mobile.  Perhaps she wanted more excitement than Mobile had to offer.

In order to earn her living, she learned the millinery business and became the head designer at a place called “The Marvel”.  She lived at the Hotel Fremont at 401 South Olive Street, and travelled to New York about twice a year, apparently for her job.

I believe it was while Margaret was living in Los Angeles that she converted to Christian Science.  What prompted this conversion?  We have nothing to tell us.  So I resort to speculation.

The most famous belief of Christian Science is that physical ills can be healed through prayer, that they are simply manifestations of Error.  There is no indication that Margaret had any physical ills that needed healing at the time of her conversion.  But the focus on physical ills ignores other issues in life.  Just as physical ills were a manifestation of Error that could be eliminated by one’s own right thought, so other problems could be eliminated by one’s own right thought.  Margaret had no family, and supported herself.  The idea that she could make her own life better through Christian Science must have been very appealing.

Additionally, Christian Science was founded by a woman, Mary Baker Eddy, who was still alive at the time of Margaret’s conversion.  (Mrs. Eddy died in 1910.)  There is nothing to suggest that Margaret was a feminist or that she supported women’s rights, but her life as whole does suggest that she approved of strong women.

Margaret would have been raised in some Christian church or other as a child in Mobile.  We know nothing about that, but I find it hard to believe that those Southern aunts of hers weren’t church members.  So the Christian aspect of this self-empowering religion would have made it seem familiar to her.  And, beyond self-empowerment, she did have a desire for self-improvement.  We have her New Year’s resolutions for 1908, possibly made in the first enthusiasm of conversion:
I like having Margaret’s handwriting here, but in case you can’t read it, here are her resolutions.  More or less, anyway.  If you can make out #4, you’re doing better than I.

1. That I may live love and reflect love every day of the N. Year.
2. Truth shall be my guide.
3. Selfishness over come
4. Unkind thoughts melt
5. More patience for others
6. Trying to make others happy
7. Less pride and envy.
8. Not to take offense.
9. lesson should be a pleasure.
10. “Thy will be done not mine” “Divine” love always has met and always will meet every human need.”  Mrs. Eddy

After Margaret’s death, Will wrote about her religion in a letter:

Margaret always said it was the cause of our being so happy.  She said that one girl said that “If science has made all that change in Margaret Clarke, it is all right” and that the girl took it up.  I don’t think Margaret was happy until she came into science.

MARGARET MEETS WILL

Margaret met Will in late 1910 when he was also staying temporarily at the Hotel Fremont, and they sat next to each other at meals.  Will was a captain in the US Army Corps of Engineers, based in San Francisco, but assigned briefly to Los Angeles.

It appears to have been love at first sight.  I imagine them eying each other at meals, and starting up a conversation in the middle of the general clamor of the dining room.

What did Margaret see in Will?  She was twenty-nine years old and successful in her work, so clearly she wasn’t desperate for a husband.  She was happy in her Christian Science community.  Why did Will catch her eye?

He wasn’t tall, dark, and handsome.  In fact, as far as I can tell, he was an inch or two shorter than Margaret, he was losing his hair, and while he wasn’t ugly, he didn’t look like a movie star either.  Not that there were movie stars back then.

But he was fun.  He liked going out to shows and concerts.  One might expect a career military officer to be stiff and stern, but instead he made jokes, and if Margaret ever saw him with a cat she probably saw him being totally distracted by it.  She was not fond of cats, but who wouldn’t be enchanted by a thirty-four-year-old Army Captain playing with a cat?

And he had a family.  Margaret had none, and she wanted one.  Will’s family was thousands of miles away, in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Illinois, but he was in touch with them.  Maybe she saw him picking up his mail in the lobby.  Maybe he started telling her the latest news about his mother and his sisters.

And maybe he told her about the careers his three sisters were pursuing - in botany, in osteopathy, and in music.  Maybe she noticed his respect for his sisters.  Margaret did not work outside the home after her marriage, but as a woman who had supported herself, she must have liked a man who was proud of the accomplishments of his sisters.

He was open to the idea of Christian Science; in fact, at some point after he met Margaret - I don’t know when - he joined the church.

On the down side: He lived in San Francisco.  This Alabama girl loved the warmth of Los Angeles.  Also, a certain portion of Will’s income went to help out his family.  His army income was good enough, but he wasn’t rich.  Oh well, you can’t have everything.

​They took a little time to make sure there was something real between them, and then on October 18, 1910, Will wrote home to his mother that he was engaged.
ENGAGEMENT

Margaret dived wholeheartedly into prospect of being part of a family.  She started corresponding with her future in-laws - with Mama Margaret, with Alma, and with Eva.  Mama Margaret wrote a very nice letter to Will’s Margaret.  (I wish I had the letter.)  In November Margaret encouraged Will to send a copy to Fred of a photo that Will had taken of Mama Margaret.  He did so, and told Fred:

I made this picture of mother for Margaret and she said to send it to you.  She had a picture of one of the hymns in a beautiful silver frame.  The other day she took it out and instead of putting in mine put in mother’s.  Isn’t that the limit?

I think she even tried to effect some sort of reconciliation between Will and his father.  Mama Margaret had divorced Papa Charles ten years before, and most of the family had moved away from him and did not communicate with him.  But on December 22, 1910, Will wrote to Papa Charles of his engagement, enclosing three photographs of Margaret.  That must have been at Margaret’s urging.  I don’t think Papa Charles ever responded, so Margaret gave up.  But she had tried.

THE WEDDING

Margaret left her millinery job, said goodbye to her Los Angeles friends, and got introductions to potential friends in San Francisco.  On March 22, Margaret took the train up from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  The train was several hours late, but never mind, it got there, and Will was waiting for her at the station with a bouquet of violets.  They were married in a Methodist Episcopal church; marriage is not a sacrament in Christian Science.  They then took a train about 300 miles to Del Monte for their honeymoon.  Will only had eyes for Margaret, so he took some pictures of Del Monte so that (he said) he would have some idea later on of what it looked like, but Margaret the (now former) milliner noticed the fashionable clothes of the people at the Del Monte hotel.

Meanwhile, back east, Margaret’s new family had a celebration on the wedding day in honor of the bride and groom.  Margaret later wrote to Mama Margaret:

Alma wrote us about the wedding you all had on “The Twenty second of March.”  Isn’t Alma just a dear?  I enjoy her letters so much - we had our wedding dinner at Del Monte about seven thirty in the evening.

Here’s their wedding announcement, with the accompanying At Home announcement:
MARRIED LIFE

​There’s lots to tell about Will’s and Margaret’s married life because we have lots of letters.  I just haven’t gotten around to writing it up yet.  But I’ll mention one thing:

After Margaret’s death, Mama Margaret went to California and met a friend of Margaret’s.  The friend told Mama Margaret that Will 

was inclined to be backward and that she pushed him forward and brought out all that was in him, encouraged him and helped him in his work.

I think one of the ways she encouraged him was in the visual arts.  As a milliner, she paid attention to such things, and would have noticed that he took good pictures, and made cute drawings, and encouraged him in both.

Margaret gave birth to a daughter on November 7, 1912, and died on November 8.  It seems plausible that the issue was pre-eclampsia.  (I asked somebody who would know, but I didn’t bother to get permission to mention her name.)  There was good treatment for pre-eclampsia in 1912, but since Margaret was a Christian Scientist, she very likely had no idea there was a problem until it was too late.

As noted: there’s so much more to write.  Margaret’s a lot of fun - you can see it in the photographs Will took of her.
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