Mary Agnes In Charge - Deeds of Mary Agnes (Kennedy) Powers

John & Mary A. (Kennedy) Powers were my great-great grandparents. Clara (Powers), age 24, their daughter, married George Brooks, age 45, on April 19, 1882 [corrected], in Lapeer County, Michigan (Rena Davis & Daniel C. Bacon witnessed the marriage).

Genesee County, Michigan, Deed
Liber "184", Page "549"
Mary A. Powers
To
Clara E. Brooks
10 November 1896
Mrs. Mary A. Powers of Flint and John N. Powers & James A. Powers of same place of the 1st part
To
Mrs. Clara E. Brooks of Flint, of the 2nd part
Bishop's Outlet #6.....(referenced Liber 150, Page 530)
Witnesses: Egbert Parsell & Jared VanVleet, Notary Public

I am puzzled as to why Mary A. Powers is the principal person as a grantor on the deed above, and also the principal on the mortgage document in Lapeer County just a few months earlier. Neither document involved property inherited by Mary A.; why wasn't her husband the principal? They were both foreign born (Canada), so nativity did not play a role.

Lapeer Co., MI, Mortgages
Liber "66", Page 408
Recorded: 4 March 1896
John Heenan
To Mary A. Powers
Mortgage bearing date January 21, 1888 by Mary A. Powers
Liber 53” Page 203 on 8 February 1888
Dryden
Witnesses: T. J. Heenan & Wm Matthews, Jr.