Although divorce is the frequent cause of one parent families today, death was the usual cause in the 19th century. Frequently a man or woman would be left alone by the death of their spouse leaving them with a home full of young children and both the household and outdoor work to be done.

Remarriage was a practical solution to the situation for man widows and widowers, combining their households for mutual benefit. In the summer of 1849, one such remarriage was that of James Lyttle and Dorcas Pace.

James Lyttle and his first wife Margaret had parented at least seven children in Virginia. Sometime after their son Alexander was born in 1845, Margaret died. The spring of that same year, here in Harlan County, Dorcas' husband, Richmond Pace, did leaving her with eight children ranging in age from 16 years to a babe in arms.

As the dower allotted to her from Richmond's estate, Dorcas possessed 100 acres on Clover Fork. In 1849, James Lyttle moved to Clover Fork from Virginia acquiring a neighboring 100 acres and he and Dorcas married. In the following spring, a daughter was born although she appears not to have lived to adulthood as she does not appear in their household in 1860.

Two years later, on June 22, 1852, they had a son, James, who did survive. In 1900, James and his wife Marinda, a native of North Carolina, are listed with five children: Albert, Louisa, John, Arthur and Martha. Another daughter, Jane, had married Samuel King in 1895.

Several of James Lyttle's children by his first wife stayed in Harlan County and raised their families here. Sampson Lyttle, born in May of 1841, and his wife Rebecca had 11 children, nine of whom were still living in 1900.

His brother Arthur, born about 1843, had at least five children by his first wife, Mary, before he remarried in 1899 in Lee Co., Va., to Griff and Kitty Taylor's 16-year-old daughter, Malinda. Sampson and Arthur's sister, Rebecca, became the second wife of James, son of Aley and Betsy Farmer Ledford.

Their brother Alexander married Abigail Farmer, daughter of William and Catherine Branson Farmer, in 1867. Their son Lewis Lyttle became a missionary working at Hindman, Wallins, Dione, Poor Fork and Pine Branch. He was one of several people instrumental in establishing Sunday Schools in the county.

One of James and Margaret's sons, Woodard, born Nov. 15, 1839, in Lee Co., Va., settled in Clay County where he married Tabitha Murray. According to John Jay Dickey's interviews with him in 1898. Woodard served as a spy for the Union during the Civil War and afterwards as a United States Marshall.

Richmond and Dorcas Pace's children also remained mostly in Harlan County. Their oldest son John had married Nancy Hall, daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Anderson Hall, two years before his mother's remarriage. By 1850, this young couple had settled on lower Martins Fork near her family and had two children, William and Dorcas. In 1878, John R. Pace remarried to Barbara Jones.

Daniel Pace, born about 1833, married Manerva Fields in 1852. They raised a large family and also raised their son Richmond's daughters Charity and Manerva. Daniel's sister Nancy married Fielding Hensley, son of Samuel. They had at least 12 children.

William Pace, born about 1832, and his wife Elizabeth had six children and Calvin Pace and his wife Levina Wynn had five children. Their brother Edmond appears to be the Edmond Pace who married Tabitha Osborne in 1866. Their two sisters were Martha, who married Albert Houston in 1871, and Sabra who married William Osborn.