Mollie N. Shively was born on 30-Nov-1864 in Indiana and died on 30-Oct-1957 in Stillwater, Payne County, Oklahoma. Mollie was the daughter of William Shively (1831-1885) and Margaret J. Woodsides (1840-1898). Listed on the 1860 Ninevah Township, Johnson County, IN census are William Shively age 29, wife Margaret age 22 and daughter Susan E. On the 1880 Harvey Township, Cowley County, KS census is the family of William Shively age 52, wife Margaret age 41, daughter Susan age 19, daughter Annie N. age 18, daughter Mary N. age 15 and song Charles W. age 12. On the 1910 Stillwater City, Payne County, OK census in the household of H. Chambliss is M. N. Shively age 45. On the 1920 Stillwater Ward 2, Payne County, OK census is Mollie N. Shively age 55 and roomer Laura French. Listed on the 1930 Stillwater Ward 2, Payne County, OK census are M. N. Shively age 65 a housekeeper in private family and niece Effie Moore age 25.
Mollie N. Shively was married first to James C. Day. Mollie was married second to William L. Swartz on 28-Aug-1910 in Payne County, OK. At some point Mollie N Shively abandoned her married names and resumed using her maiden name. She died on 30-Oct-1957 and is buried in Fairlawn Cemetery, Stillwater, Payne County, OK.
The happy ending for Mollie’s search for her daughter is told in the following newspaper accounts. Extracted from the Stillwater Gazette, Stillwater, Oklahoma, Friday, July 29, 1932, Page 1, Column 5:
Mother Finds Child After 35-Year Wait
Mrs. Mollie Shivley, Stillwater, Locates Daughter Who Had Been Missing For Many
Years
The thirty-five year search of a Stillwater woman for her daughter, who was taken from her when the child was 5, has resulted in success, it was learned Wednesday and Mrs. Mollie Shivley, living on Duncan street, has established communication with her daughter.
Mrs. Susie Long is the daughter’s name and her home is in Southgate, Calif.
For many years Mrs. Shivley considered her daughter dead, when efforts to locate her struck blind trails. Recently, especially in the last two years, the mother was heartened in her search by scattered bits of information that finally led to the establishment of communications. R. D. Lahman family, for whom Mrs. Shivley worked for some time, aided materially in the search.
The story is one of tragic efforts that extended over the long period of years during which the little girl was growing in womanhood. Mrs. Shivley’s first husband, Jim Day, deserted her thirty-five years ago. The mother related that he kidnaped his daughter, Susie, then 5, and his whereabouts could not be located. The years sped along and no word was learned. The Days lived near Skiatook when the family was broken up.
Now it has been learned that Jim Day took his small daughter to Wichita, Kans., and remarried. Neighbors took custody of the little girl shortly after. She remembered her mother and efforts to find her were made, but the child had no proper information.
Later Susie went to Kansas City, later to California. Through recent newspaper advertisements, Kansas acquaintances enabled Mrs. Shivley to pick up the trail. She has a letter from her daughter, as has Mr. Lahman. The father, Jim Day, died a year ago in Wichita, it has been learned.
A second account of the story was found in The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, Tuesday, August 9, 1932, Page 19, Column 4:
Mother’s Long Hunt Succeeds
Forty-Year Maternal Quest Ends In Los Angeles
Babe Stolen Four Decades Ago Found At Last
Daughter Leaves To Bring Parent To Home Here
Kidnaped forty years ago when a babe in arms, Mrs. Susie Long, 8424 San Carlos avenue, South Gate, last night was preparing to return to her mother, Mrs. James C. Day of Stillwater, Okla., to end a search of four decades.
When Mrs. Long was three years of age her father, James C. Day, in a fit of spite stole the baby from his wife. He kept her hidden for three years and then permitted her adoption by another family. The baby then became Susie Collins and as years passed she forgot her mother and was told by her father that she had died. Sue Collins grew up, married George F. Long and moved to California. A daughter was born to her eleven years ago and the years rolled away with the stolen child now forty-three years of age, living in the belief that she was without parents or relatives.
Faith Survives
This long passage of time, however, did not dim the faith of the mother that her baby daughter was yet alive and that some day she would find her. Ever since the kidnaping the mother has tried to locate her missing child. Postmasters over the entire country have received her plea to aid in her search, newspapers have carried notices requesting any information from any source. But all to no avail.
Then into the moving world came the radio.
Annually stations broadcast the search of the mother and still no word came that would end the hunt and let the mother know the whereabouts of her long-last child. Two weeks ago another broadcast went out from a Kansas City station. A woman in St. Joseph, Mo., a girlhood chum of Susie Collins, heard the plea. She wrote to the lonely mother in her Oklahoma home, telling here of her school days and friendship with a girl who answered the description given.
Trail Confused
The mother as years passed had taken her maiden name of Mollie Shively and her daughter had changed by marriage from Collins to Long. This added more difficulties to the mother’s search. She did not lose hope, but renewed her efforts through the postoffices. Finally came word that she might find her daughter in California. Then the Los Angeles search with its final ending at the modest home in South Gate. Letters and photographs were exchanged and a forty-year search was over.
The kidnap victim is going to Oklahoma, accompanied by her daughter, and they will bring back with them to spend the declining years of her life the mother who never lost hope when time seemed to work against fulfillment of her faith.
The following newspaper obituary was located in the Stillwater News-Press, Stillwater, Oklahoma, Sunday, November 3, 1957, Page 4, Column 3:
Mrs. Shively Dies At 92
Services will be held at 2:30 p.m., Monday in Strode chapel for Mrs. Mollie E. Shively, 92, 311 Maple ave., who died Wednesday at Caney, Kans.
The Rev. Henry A. Morton of the First Methodist church, will officiate with interment at Fairlawn cemetery under the direction of the Strode funeral home.
Mrs. Shively was born in Indiana on Nov. 30, 1864, and moved to Payne county in 1890. She was a member of the Methodist church.
Survivors are a daughter, Mrs. Susie Day Long, Joshua Tree, Calif., and three nephews, Jap Owens, 723 N. Ramsey st., Cal Owens, 116 S. Ridge road, and Carl Sample of Oxford, Kans.
