As a child  and then as a young adult, I always enjoyed puzzles and
mysteries. I have been told this is a beginning, or the makings, of a
family genealogist or family historian.  But there is a puzzle, a
mystery, that I have not been able to complete or solve.  The mystery of
my grandfather Rome Waughtel and the using of the name John J. Brown for
many years.  What was the truth behind his using an alias?  Was he a
deserter from the Spanish American Resurrection?  Had he been married,
and possibly still married, when he married the divorcee, Antoinette A.
Roberts?  Or did he think, or believe, the stepmother may have died and
he and another brother might be blamed for her death, thus being a
murderer?  What was the real reason behind this alias of my
grandfather?  And will I ever know?

To go back in time, my grandfather, Rome, was the first child of John &
Eliza Ann (Keith) Waughtel.  He was born in Scipio, Jennings County,
Indiana on the 14th day of February 1875.  He was the eldest of 7
children.  His mother died January 25, 1889 approximately 2 weeks before
he turned 14.  In July 1889 John Waughtel remarried.  John Waughtel was
always spoke of, by his children in their latter years, as a "no-good"
who would take their money and spend the way he wanted to.  The children
oft-times went without shoes while working or attending school.  The
stepmother was, in the words of my grandfather & his brothers, a mean
person.  But then, how often have we heard this of a step-parent.

One day, according to my grandfather, he and one of the brothers were
"roughhousing" and throwing rocks and various other things at one
another.  One of whatever they were throwing,  hit the stepmother and
when the boys saw the blood coming from near her eye, they thought they
had killed her, and ran.  My grandfather often stated he never returned
until 1932 (and this was in 1889 when they had left), and found his
father had died that week.  He had taken his wife, their son &
daughter-in-law with their 2-week old son to meet his family, only to
find it was too late.  The stepmother was still living but I don't know
what words may have passed between them.   At the time I was told this
story, I sat and listened, never asking.

Was this a reason?  I don't think likely, since he enlisted in the
military under his true name.
Although this was 9 years later in  December 1898 when he & his brother
Clem enlisted in the military.

THEN another story goes that my grandfather deserted the army.  I have a
copy of his  discharge papers although it states "Issued in lieu of
lost" or words fairly similar.   I remember him telling Bev & I that
coming back on the ship (he was discharged at sea) they thought he was
dead and had him ready to throw overboard and someone noticed his
eye-lids flutter and brought him back to sickbed where he recovered.
He then sometime later re-enlisted and was stationed at Fort McKenzie,
near Sheridan,  Wyoming.  During this tenure of his service he again was
in the hospital there and was told when he was released that he could
leave, so he did.   I am assuming that this was near the time for the
second enlistment to termintate when he just "left".  There was never
another discharge for this 3 years service, at least none has been sent
to me, but then I never asked if there was further information other
than what they sent me.  So I really don't know for sure which story, if
either,  is true.  But he did receive a pension, he did live on land
allotted to the Military, he did have use of the Military facilities at
the Old Soldiers Home and he did have a Military funeral.  I had the
flag from his casket, and have given it to my oldest son.  BUT they
refuse to give him a headstone.

So where did this mystery begin?  Will it be solved?  Or can it be
solved?

He is out of the Military in 1905.  Sometime, between 1905 and 1907 he
meets Antoinette A. Roberts, a woman who had just been granted a divorce
after an 8 year marriage to a man who did not support her and was
abusive to her.  They were married May 24, 1907 under the names John J.
Brown and Antoinette A. Roberts.  They had my father, their only child,
February 10, 1910 in Gillette, Wyoming.  In 1916 still using the Brown
alias, they sell their homestead in Wyoming and moved to Montana.  How
long did this alias continue?  Letters in the Military file indicate in
the 1930s they were using the Waughtel name.  There is no birth record
for my father under either Brown  or Waughtel.  My father married his
first wife in 1929 under Waughtel.  Somewhere between 1916 and 1929 they
began using the Waughtel surname.  Somewhere, sometime, the marriage
record was changed from John J. Brown to Rome Waughtel.  Same color
ink,  although it looked to have been erased and written over.

The mystery remains.  Was he a deserter?  Did he have a wife "back home"
who might have passed on prior to their 1932 return to his home town and
he felt safe in taking his wife and their  family home.  Or will we ever
know the thoughts and actions behind this part of his life?

They may have been known as John J. Brown and Antoinette A. Roberts
Brown but to me they were my grandparents, Rome and Antoinette Waughtel.