Daughter of Henry & Hester Orwig Crocker.
Married first to Henry H. Crocker, he died March 10, 1878 in Iowa.
Married to John T. Bishop in 1886.

(The Courier-Tribune, Oct. 26, 2016)

The startling headlines on the front page of the Courier on July 9,1934.)

A GOULISH HOAX BARED
HOLD MYRTLE LATIMER
Arrested After Discovery She
Hid Mother's Body 2 1/2 Years
So She Might Collect Pension.
A SCENE OF UTTER FILTH
Interior the Latimor Horror House Almost Beyond the Descriptive Power of Newspaper Men
Is There Chance It Was Murder?

(Her daughter, Myrtle Latimer said her mother died peacefully in her sleep on January of 1932. She wanted to still collect her mother's Civil War Pension check of $30. so kept her mother's death a secret. Myrtle was convicted on charges of forgery and defrauding the federal government. In December 1934 she pled guilty and was sentenced to three years at Alderson, West Virginia, in a women's federal prison.)

On August 6, the paper reported on the mother's delayed burial. "The remains of Mrs. Marietta Bishop, whose body was hidden two and a half years by her daughter, Mrs. Myrtle Larimer, were laid to rest Tuesday morning in the Seneca cemetery, near the grave of Mrs. Bishop's second husband, John Bishop.
*****************************************************************************
COURIER TRIBUNE, SENECA, KANSAS Monday July 9, 1934. Page 2.
Find Mother's Family History
Told of Her Life in Application for A Pension
In the not-to-be described litter of odds and ends which are stacked heap on heap in the two little front rooms of the home of Myrtle Latimer, Sheriff Charles E. Carman and newspaper men Saturday morning found a brief account of Mrs. Marrietta Bishop's earlier life. It is written in the first person and probably was inscribed by Mrs. Bishop herself before old age made her an invalid.

Mrs. Bishop was seeking a pension. There are large envelopes containing endless documents showing how zealously the late Congressman O. R. Anthony, Jr. and other representatives were working to secure a pension for the old lady.

Seneca people recall Mrs. Bishop's life here for more than half a century. They speak of her as a lovable lady. One former neighbor says Mrs. Bishop used to do nursing about town and at other times plied her needle as a seamstress. Other neighbors in north Seneca spoke in the highest terms of the frail little woman whom they had occasion to visit prior to January, 1932. After that date they saw her no more. To their friendly inquiries her daughter had the most natural answers.
"Mother is feeling badly today. She cannot see visitors. Perhaps you can call tomorrow."
Or
"Mother is with her sister in Kansas City. She had an operation for cancer of the throat. Yes, thank you, she is doing splendidly and we think she'll get well now."

Up to the summer of 1931, Mrs. Marrietta Bishop drew $15 a month county aid. She was getting a pension of $30 a month from the government. In view of depressed conditions, it probably was considered this sum adequate to maintain the mother and daughter whose wants were believed to be few.

Telling of her early life and places of residence in a memorandum in connection with pension matters, Mrs. Bishop wrote the following:
"I was born on April 21, 1844 at New Georgetown, Pennsylvania. My mother's maiden name was Hester Orwig. My father's name was Henry Crocker. Our family left Pennsylvania in 1860 and moved to Iowa, ten miles west of Dubuque. We were there one year and then moved to Illinois for five years. From there we went to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and came from Iowa to Seneca about 1872."
"I first met Henry H. Crocker, my first husband in Pennsylvania when I was about 15 years old. As I remember it, my husband had seen our family name in the paper and called to see if there was any relationship between his family and ours. He was a few years older than myself. I next met him in Cedar Falls, Iowa. I was engaged to marry him about a year before the marriage took place at Seneca, Kansas."
"After our marriage we moved to Eldora, Iowa, to live and later to Ottumawa. We lived at Ottumawa about five years when he died. He died at Paul Castor's sanitarium, March 10, 1878, and was buried near Perry, Iowa."
"Henry H. Crocker's discharge papers from the army were around the house for years but were lost or misplaced and I have not seen them for some years."
"My age is not correct in the marriage record to John Bishop. Henry H. Crocker was not married before he married me."
"My second husband, John T. Bishop, said he was in the army but I know nothing about his service."