Rebecca Pierce Davis, the daughter of Isaac Vannorman Davis and Marguerite Robidoux, was born June 10, 1831, somewhere near Montreal, Canada. Sadly I still don't have a confirmed date of death for Rebecca. I have been to Blue River Cemetery to search for her stone but could not find it.

She married Joseph Smith Wing on June 8, 1848, two days prior to her 17th birthday. They were divorced in September of 1854. She divorced him after he abandoned her and their two children, Adelia and Byron (my great-grandfather), and after he admitted in letters that he had committed bigamy.

Whether or not Rebecca was being ironic, sardonic, or things just happened that way, she married her 2nd husband, Jacob T. Cheek, on June 8, 1856, the same day she married Joseph Smith Wing a few years earlier.

Family legend evolved that Rebecca had 3 children by Joseph Smith Wing but that he would not claim the 3rd child...and rightfully so because her 3rd child belonged to her 2nd husband, Jacob Cheek. Thanks to new information received from Dale Wing we now know that Rebecca had only 2 children by Joseph Smith Wing; Adelia Wing, born June 20, 1850 at Detroit, Pike County, Illinois and Byron Wing (my great-grandfather), born November 21, 1852 at Milton, Pike County, Illinois.

By the spring of 1853, Joseph Smith Wing left his small family in Pike County supposedly to go to Wisconsin to take care of some business for his brother, Stephen Wing, but he never returned. In September of 1853 he committed bigamy by marrying Frances Elizabeth Jarrad in Chicasaw County, Iowa.

Through letters and documents that remain at the Pike County Courthhouse to this day and were originally discovered by Jane Bonny we know that Rebecca divorced Joseph Smith Wing and that the divorce was final in September of 1854. Her 3rd child, Margaret J. Cheek was born in April of 1857.

Dale Wing was kind enough to share a letter written by Jennie Larsen to the Bohne family requesting genealogical information. In the letter she refers to Margaret Cheek as Margaret Birchard which was Margaret's married name. There is also mention of a son that Margaret adopted; Claude Ritter.