Ola Petitt McBrayer and Lila Petitt Chadwell, when interviewed in 1993, said that Jessie married Hettie Conn when he was 16 and she was about 14, and they had a daughter named Isabel. Hettie took up with another man while Jessie was off working somewhere. When he came back, he got suspicious of Hettie and followed her one day when she went to the spring to get water. His suspicions were confirmed when he caught her meeting another man. He shot the man with a shotgun, but didn't kill him, and divorced Hettie. She later remarried and moved to Wisconsin. (Nobody I talked to knew whether or not the man Hettie married and moved away with was the same one that Jessie shot.) Hettie's mother raised Isabell. She came to visit Jessie's family fairly regularly. (Lila has a large photograph of Pressie and his wife Mary holding their granddaughter Isabell when she was about 2.)

According to the story as told by Lila, when Isabell was 16, she in turn got married to a Stigall and had a daughter, and both baby and mother died in childbirth. Rowan County marriage records and Isabell’s death record, however, both show that her husband was Estill Sloan, not a Steagall.

1900 census of Rowan Co., KY, Hogstown, lists as family #161:
Mary E. Conn, 32, b. Jan 1868; widow, 2 children, 2 living; Hettie (dau), 15, b. Jan 1885; Mary E. (dau), 1, b. 1899 (no month given). They apparently decided to treat her marriage to Jesse as a non-event. I presume the baby is Isabell.

Rowan County Marriages Bk 4, p. 191, lists marriage of Chas Kegley, age 21, b. Elliott Co., KY, and Hettie Conn, age 18, b. Jackson Co., OH, on 7 Jan 1902. The names and ages as above are from the license application, which also says that this is the first marriage for both bride and groom, and that they are to be married at Mary Conn's. But the marriage bond has the bride's name entered as Hettie Petitt Conn, where the Petitt is crossed out. The minister's marriage return says that the marriage took place at S. J. Porter's residence.

1910 census of Polar, Langlade Co., Wisconsin, enumerated 18 April, lists on p. 2A as family #20:
Kegley, Charles E., 30, b. Ky/Ky/Ky, sawyer at lumber camp, first marriage; Hettie, wife, 31, b. Ohio/Ohio/Ky, cook at lumber camp, second marriage, married 8 years, mother of 5 children, 4 living; Sarah, dau, 5, b. Ky/Ky/Oh; Frank, son, 3, b. Ky/Ky/Oh; Loutishie, dau, 1, b. Wisconsin/Ky/Ohio.

There are three other families and three single men on the same page also born in Kentucky, including a Morton Powell age 50 with wife Loutishie age 36 whom Charles and Hettie’s daughter was probably named after, and a Stewart Jenkins age 43 with wife Amanda age 34 who may be Hettie’s cousin. (Her father’s sister Lydia married a Jenkins.)

1920 census of Price township, Langlade Co., Wisconsin, enumerated 27 Jan, lists on p. 61B as family #39:
Kegley, Charley, 40, b. Ky/Va/Va, farmer; Hettie J., wife, 40, b. Ky/Oh/Ky; Sarah, dau, 14, b. Ky; Frank, son, 12, b. Ky; Lutisha, dau, 11, b. Wis; Nettie A., dau, 9, b. Wis; May, dau, 7, b. Wis; Gracie, dau, 5, b. Wis.

1930 census of Evergreen township, Langlade Co., Wisconsin, enumerated 17 Apr, lists on p. 8A as family 130/132:
Kegley, Charles E., farmer, 48, b. Ky/Ky/Ky, first marriage at age 21; Hattie, wife, 48, b. Ky/Ky/Ky, first marriage at age 21; Sarah, dau, 25, b. Ky/Ky/Ky; Frank, son, 23, b. Ky/Ky/Ky; May, dau, 16, b. Wis/Ky/Ky; Gracie, dau, 14, b. Wis/Ky/Ky; Charlie, son, 9, b. Wis/Ky/Ky.