On May 14, 1872, less than six months after the death of Elizabeth Wonderly Emerson, Alexander, age 54, married Julia Ann Stafford, age 18. Note that Alexander had two children older than his new bride; in fact, Alex’s son, Edgar, was eight years older than Julia. This ill-advised marriage lasted only several months.
On a Sunday in June following the May wedding of Alex and Julia, one of Alex’s horses got out of the pasture and was grazing in an oat field. Alex told his son, George Edwin, to get a bridle in order to retrieve the horse. In a divorce deposition two years later, George Edwin told what happened next: “I ran to the carriage house; there was Mrs. Julia Ann Emerson and Mr. Noah Cloud and they were in the very act of cohabiting with each other.”
George Edwin said that he did not tell his father about “her action with Mr. Cloud until after she had left his house.” However, he testified that from that Sunday in June, Julia began to treat Alex badly, and when questioned about her attitude toward Alex, Julia said that she did not care anything about him.
Soon thereafter, Julia left the home of Alexander and stayed with neighbors for a short time. Alex did “everything is his power to promote the peace and happiness” of his estranged wife. In July of 1872, Julia returned to Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. Witnesses stated that her friends and relations resided in Queen Anne’s.
After Julia had returned to Queen Anne’s for a full year, she gave birth to a child. In order to prove that he was not the father of the child, Alex produced several witnesses who said that he had not left Gloucester since 1869. These statements are significant, not only for the divorce proceeding, but also to indicate that Alex did not maintain a close relationship with his previous acquaintances in Maryland. Depositions were taken from several witnesses in Queen Anne’s County concerning Julia’s life after returning to Maryland; it is significant that all of these witnesses were from a place called “Piney Neck, Queen Anne’s County,” and all of these witnesses said that they knew Alexander Emerson prior to his coming to Gloucester. Piney Neck may be a more precise location for Alex’s residence in Queen Anne’s.
In 1874, Alex filed for divorce; Julia did not contest the proceeding; quite to the contrary, her deposition verified all the accusations brought against her. On December 17, 1874, the court ruled in favor of Alexander Emerson and granted a decree of divorce dissolving his marriage to Julia Ann Stafford.