Category: Seventh Day Baptist

C Is for…Cause of Death

C Is for…Cause of Death

Posted on by spuddled

Not surprisingly, a “Cause of Death” entry here is bound to be kind of gloomy. This one is both gloomy and confusing. I created a report in my RootsMagic database to help me analyze all the various causes of death in the family tree and decided to highlight William S. Davis and his daughter Harriet, my first cousin 6 times removed and my second cousin five times removed, respectively.

William was the son of Nathan and Jane (Sutton) Davis and the grandson of my 6G-grandparents, Nathan and Ann (Gifford) Davis. He was born 15 December 1805 and in 1827 he married Sophia Chaney, his third cousin, in Tyler County, (later West) Virginia.1

Their first child was Harriet, born on 14 October 1828. Daughter Jane was born 30 September 1830, and Helen Mary was born in 1833. Primary evidence is scant, so I’ll report what I have learned with the caveat that it may not be a completely accurate account. The Find a Grave website describes the fate of William and Harriet, noting that both died of injuries sustained in a tornado in 1837. Harriet has a headstone in the Old Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in West Union, West Virginia, where her date of death is noted as 1 June 1837. No headstone for William has been found.

Find a Grave Memorial ID 76947167

Find a Grave, as well as the Doddridge County Heritage Guild website, reference an account of the tornado as found in Hardesty’s 1883 History of Doddridge County. This work describes the tornado as the most destructive storm in that area but indicates it occurred on 3 June 1833, not 1 June 1837. It notes that it destroyed the log Seventh Day Baptist Church building as well as the home of a Joseph Davis when his home was also destroyed. It does not mention a William Davis or the death of a daughter Harriet.

So you can see why I am confused. Whatever happened to William, by October 1840 Sophia had remarried, to a Joseph Garlow. They had a daughter, Alice Lee, and sons, John C. and Thomas, and they eventually moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sophia died in 1886 and Joseph in 1892, and they are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids. No cause of death is listed for either of them.2

The Gazette; Cedar Rapids, Iowa: 15 March 1886, pg. 4
  1. www.findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 152838958. ↩︎
  2. ibid. ↩︎
P Is for…Prolific

P Is for…Prolific

Posted on by spuddled

Today we’re exploring the life of Absalom Davis (my second cousin 5 times removed) and his wife Polina S. W. Davis (also my second cousin 5 times removed), who raised a family of 16 children. Absalom and Polina were first cousins; his mother Sarah and her mother Hannah were sisters, the daughters of Joshua Gifford and Content (Davis) Davis. Joshua and Content were also related; they were half first cousins twice removed.

Absalom was born 9 December 1809 in Harrison County in what would become West Virginia. Polina was born 8 December 1811 (or possibly 8 February 1811) in Virginia (again, probably what is now West Virginia). On 9 October 1828 the two were married, and 10 months later had their first child. I’ve been able to find at least somewhat detailed information on all the children but one. Of Worthington Davis the only mention I’ve seen is in the obituary of his sister Penelope that appeared in the Seventh Day Baptist Church’s Sabbath Recorder newsletter of 20 January 1919, where he is listed as one of the siblings who predeceased her.

The Sabbath Recorder, 20 January 1919

The astute will notice that this listing only adds up to a total of 15 children, not 16. And it’s true that I have an Elen Murry Davis in my records, noted as born 4 April 1853, but I no longer recall where I obtained this information. The perils of not recording one’s sources from the very beginning…

The first U.S. census in which all members of a household are listed by name is the 1850 census. That year Absalom and his family were enumerated in Doddridge County, (now West) Virginia. Absalom was listed as a farmer with real estate worth $300. He was 41 and listed as being born in Virginia and able to read and write. The rest of the household consisted of: Polina, 38; Charlotte, 20; Theadore, 19; “Julian,” 17; Zacharias, 15; Elvira, 14; Donmanuel, 12; Anderson G., 9; Elijah, 8; Elkana, 6; Sylvanus, 3; and Penelopy, 1.1

In 1860 the family was still in Doddridge County, but the census taker unhelpfully listed everyone just by intials: A, P.S.W., D, A.G., E, E, S, V, P, J.W., and E. Inexplicably, V[andelee] and P[enelope] are out of order, as Vandelee is listed as 10, and Penelope as 12. “J.W.” is James W., and the final household member, “E. Davis,” is listed as 30 years old, so it’s unclear who this individual is.2

By 1870 many of Absalom and Polina’s children had left to start families of their own; in that year the couple, living in Grant Twp., Doddridge County, were 60 and 58 years old respectively and had real estate valued at $2945 and personal estate valued at $300. Only Vandelee, 19; and James W., 14 still lived at home, along with a “common laborer” named Edmund Maxwell. Elijah, his wife, and 3 children, were living at the next farm over.3

Ten years later James W. was still living with his parents, along with his wife Martha, whom he had married within the past year. The household was enumerated in the New Milton District of Doddridge County.4 Eight years later Absalom died at age 78. His death was attributed to pneumonia and dropsy.

West Virginia Division of Culture and History, West Virginia Vital Research Records.

Polina would outlive Absalom by almost 13 years, long enough to appear in one additional census without him, not counting the lost 1890 census. In 1900 Polina was in Greenbrier, Doddridge County, living with her granddaughter Lovie (daughter of Anderson G.) and Lovie’s husband James McCuen, who was a mail carrier. Lovie and James had been married less than a year.5

The following year Polina died at age 89. She and Absalom are buried in the Greenbrier Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in Doddridge County. According to the Find a Grave website, there are a total of 126 Davises buried in this cemetery; these include Absalom and Polina’s children Anderson G., Elijah, James W., Theodore, Charlotte, and Penelope. Surprisingly, of the 16 Davis children, at least thirteen lived long enough to reach adulthood and marry. Quite a feat for that time and place. At least in this instance, cousins marrying cousins doesn’t seem to have hindered them much.

West Virginia Division of Culture and History, West Virginia Vital Research Records.
  1. The National Archives in Washington, DC; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: District 13, Doddridge, Virginia; Roll: 942; Page: 25b ↩︎
  2. The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860; Home in 1860: Doddridge, Virginia; Roll: M653_1342; Page: 450; Family History Library Film: 805342 ↩︎
  3. Year: 1870; Census Place: Grant, Doddridge, West Virginia; Roll: M593_1686; Page: 22A ↩︎
  4. Year: 1880; Census Place: New Milton, Doddridge, West Virginia; Roll: 1401; Page: 417c; Enumeration District: 124 ↩︎
  5. Year: 1900; Census Place: Greenbrier, Doddridge, West Virginia; Roll: 1757; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0022 ↩︎
Interrupted by Death: Merle Ellsworth Bond

Interrupted by Death: Merle Ellsworth Bond

Posted on by spuddled
Battle Creek Enquirer,
25 November 1927

This week’s tale is another sad one. Merle Ellsworth Bond, my 7th cousin twice removed, died 97 years ago today on Thanksgiving Day 1927. Merle was born on 11 January 1899 in Fayette County, Illinois. He was the third of six children born to William H. and Clara L. (Green) Bond. The Bond family were descendants of our Seventh Day Baptist Crandalls.

In the 1900 and 1910 censuses the Bond family was enumerated in La Clede, Fayette County along with numerous Crandall households. In September 1918 Merle was living in Farina, Fayette County, when he registered for the draft. It appears he served some time in the military as he is listed as having a military service record from the U.S. Veterans Administration. He also attended Milton College (a Seventh Day Baptist institution) for one semester. By 1920 Merle was listed as a lodger at a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Seven years later Merle would tragically meet his death. Between 1920 and 1927 he would spend his summers living and working in Battle Creek but in March 1927 he made the move permanent. Since that time he had been working for Leona Miller, a florist, and was learning “the florist trade.” Shortly before his death he transferred from working for Mrs. Miller at Urbandale to living and working at a greenhouse on Waubascon Lake Road. In September 1927 Merle and a friend Paul Resser, also from Battle Creek and also a Seventh Day Baptist, attended the annual conference of the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Westerly, Rhode Island.

Two months later Merle and Paul Resser were on their way to Toledo on Thanksgiving morning to attend a rabbit show (the “Fur Animal Exhibit”) and to have their Thanksgiving dinner when, according to the Battle Creek Enquirer, their trip was “interrupted by death.” About 6:30 a.m., Paul drove his Nash automobile into a Michigan Electric train on US Highway 12. According to the newspaper account, the front of the car was completely demolished. Paul Resser was killed immediately; Merle Bond survived long enough to be taken to Foote Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Michigan but died five minutes after arriving.

The Enquirer article went on to note that the railroad crossing was considered one of the most dangerous between Detroit and Chicago and that all interurban trains were required to stop completely at the crossing before continuing on. Passengers and crew of the train on that day confirmed that the train had stopped as required and was only going about two miles an hour. The motorman saw the car’s lights but believed it was going to stop at the crossing; apparently Paul Resser did not see the train in time and drove directly underneath it. Merle’s brother Howard came from Ohio to take his brother’s body back to Farina, where he was buried in the Farina Cemetery.

Find a Grave Memorial #75333495
September Lore: The Death of Richard Maggsen

September Lore: The Death of Richard Maggsen

Posted on by spuddled

Today we remember the death of Richard Maggsen, my 11G-grandfather. In researching Richard’s history, it seems that the only thing anyone knows for certain is that no one is certain of anything about him. So make of that what you will. It does seem that Richard was born in England, sometime around 1600-1605. His father was John Maxson (see, even the spelling of the surname is variable). About 1630 (or maybe 1637) he married a woman named Rebecca; there are disagreements about what her maiden name was, as well. They were (maybe?) married in Newport, Rhode Island. Sources differ as to the name of the ship on which Richard sailed to America. Some sources insist it was the Griffin, on which religious reformer Anne Hutchinson also sailed, but the Maxson Family Association website notes that this has yet to be proven.

A publication titled On the Trail of the Early Maxson, by Helen Morin Maxson, states that in 1634 Richard was a servant to a leatherdresser and shoemaker named James Everill as well as being a blacksmith. In 1638 Richard was one of 59 men admitted to Aquidneck Island (confusingly, this is also known as “Rhode Island” and is the island after which the state is named).

Richard and Rebecca had three children (maybe): Richard, Jr., Rebecca (Jr.?), and John. In 1643 the family moved to Throgg’s Neck, New Netherlands, which is now part of the Bronx. Also settled in this area at that time were John Throckmorton (hence the “Throgg’s”), an associate of Roger Williams, and the aforementioned Anne Hutchinson and her family. Interestingly, Throgg’s Neck was also called “Maxson’s Point” after our relatives who lived there.

That same year a series of skirmishes took place between the colonists and the native Americans, with much bloodshed on both sides. Among those killed were Anne Hutchinson and most of her family (one daughter survived and was later ransomed), as well as the two Richard Maggsen/Maxsons. Some sources state that the father and son (the younger Richard was about 13) had escaped the onslaught but returned by boat to try to help the Hutchinsons, only to be killed themselves. Also uncertain is the exact date when all this occurred – it was written up in a September 1643 journal entry by John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but it’s unclear how long it would have taken for news of the deaths to reach him. But still – we’re going with the 1 September date I’ve seen. Otherwise, what on earth would I write about today?

Of the two surviving children of Richard and Rebecca (now going with the “Maxson” spelling), Rebecca married Hugh Mosher, and John married Hugh’s sister Mary Mosher. John and Mary (my 10G-grandparents) would settle in Westerly, Rhode Island, part of the long line of Seventh Day Baptists in our family. John may or may not have been the first white male child born on “the island of Rhode Island.”

A blurry photo…but at least I know this is authentic since I took it
Washed in the Blood: The Death of Lucy Loofboro

Washed in the Blood: The Death of Lucy Loofboro

Posted on by spuddled

Today’s family history death is that of my third cousin five times removed, Lucy Jane (VanHorn) Loofboro. Her death was not gruesome like last week’s, and sadly not uncommon, but no less tragic. Lucy was born 13 August 1839 in Ohio, the daughter of Job and Prudence (Davis) VanHorn, another in our Seventh Day Baptist lineage.

Lucy’s short lifespan meant that she was only enumerated in a single census. In 1850 Job and Prudence were living in Stokes, Ohio. Job was 43 and a farmer with real estate valued at $1000. He is listed as being born in Virginia. The remaining family members were all born in Ohio: Prudence, 42; Maria, 19; Almarine, 17; Obadiah, 15 (and listed as a farmer himself); James, 13; Lucy, 11; Mary, 9; Joshua, 4, and Samuel, 5 months.

It appears that sometime in the next six years the family moved to Iowa. In 1856 in Welton, Lucy (then 16 or 17 years old) married her 24-year-old second cousin, Isaac Newton Loofboro. Also a Seventh Day Baptist, Isaac was born in Clark County, Ohio in 1832, the son of Davis and Mary (Maxson) Loofboro.

It’s possible that sometime within the following year the newlyweds moved to Illinois, as the few remaining records which include Lucy come from that state. On 4 March 1857 Lucy gave birth to a son, Augustus Sumner Loofboro, but she would have less than three weeks in which to experience the joys of being Augustus’s mother. On 24 March 1857, 17-year-old Lucy died. The Seventh Day Baptist newsletter The Sabbath Recorder of 16 April 1857 provides details about Lucy’s death as well as her character in an obituary submitted from Farmington, Illinois.

The article states that Lucy’s death was of puerperal fever, and that she knew from the beginning of her illness that it would prove fatal. Even so, she fought against the thought of her early death (and, surely, against having to leave behind her husband and new baby). But in the end, according to the author of her obituary, she became resigned and even “anxious to depart and join the happy company who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Lucy is buried in the Harkness Grove Cemetery in Peoria County, Illinois.

The Sabbath Recorder, 16 April 1857
Lucy Jane Van Horn Loofboro
Find a Grave Memorial ID 18964281

Puerperal fever, also known as postpartum infection or childbed fever, was (and is) a bacterial infection of the reproductive tract suffered after childbirth. If contracted, the fever usually sets in between 1-10 days after the birth of a child. According to Wikipedia, 6 to 9 women in every 1000 births during the 18th and 19th centuries suffered from puerperal infection, and about 1/3 of those who contracted childbed fever died. Many of the illnesses may have resulted from lack of hygiene practiced by doctors at the time. Improved hygiene as well as antibiotics have reduced the number of maternal deaths since Lucy’s day.

Lucy’s widower Isaac would remarry in 1863 to Annie M. Davis. Isaac and Annie had five children, but only two of them would outlive their parents. Young Augustus Sumner did not survive his father either, though he did live long enough to be enumerated in the 1860 census. He appears with his father that year in Bloomfield, Iowa, one dwelling away from Isaac’s parents. On 21 August 1868, however, he died at the age of 11; according to A History of the Loofbourrow, Loughborough and Lufburrow Families by Milton R. Lufborrow, his death was due to snakebite. He is buried in the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in Welton, Iowa.

Augustus’s father would survive until 1907, dying in Welton, Iowa, at age 75. His second wife outlived him by almost 11 years, dying at age 79 in 1918. Of the two children who did survive Isaac and Annie, the eldest, Horace, moved to Wisconsin and died in 1943 at 78, and the youngest, Lewis, also moved to Wisconsin and survived until 1961 when he died at age 89, the last of the Loofboro family to depart and join those made “white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Crandall Is Dead: The Death of Herbert Crandall

Crandall Is Dead: The Death of Herbert Crandall

Posted on by spuddled

Today we are back to the tragic deaths gleaned from our family history. This time we remember Herbert Eugene Crandall, my fifth cousin twice removed. Herbert was born 20 April 1871 in Little Genesee, Allegany County, New York, to Thomas G. and Hannah Maria (Finch) Crandall. Allegany County is another of the hotbeds of Seventh Day Baptist activity; Alfred University, founded by the Seventh Day Baptists in the town of Alfred in 1836, is in Allegany County.

Herbert appears with his parents in the 1880 census in Genesee, along with his sisters Julia, Josie, and Nina. Another sister, Anna, would be born in 1889. One hundred twenty-nine years ago yesterday (2 March 1895), Herbert, then 23, married Margaret “Maggie” Helm, 17, in Angelica, also in Allegany County.

By the time Herbert and Maggie were enumerated in the 1900 census in Genesee, Maggie had given birth to two children, of whom one, Eugene, was still living. He was born in April 1896. Herbert’s occupation is listed as “oil producer.” If this were a television show, there would be a menacing chord of some kind played here to foreshadow what is to come next for Herbert. As with so many occupations at the time, Herbert’s would provide a living but at a very high cost.

The Sabbath Recorder, a weekly newspaper published by the Seventh Day Baptist Church, notes in its “Deaths” column on 27 April 1903 that Herbert died 3 March 1903 as a result of an oil tank falling on him while he was unloading it from a wagon. It also states he is survived by his wife and two children. A bit more detail is provided in the 4 March 1903 issue of The Buffalo News, which indicates that Herbert’s back was broken on Monday (which would have been the day before he succumbed to his injuries) in Bolivar when a 40-barrel oil tank fell on him while he was assisting in unloading it. Here he is listed as being survived by his wife and three children. The following day The Buffalo Enquirer ran an article about the accident, providing even more grim details. Here the oil tank is listed as a 30-barrel tank containing six inches of ice; the article states the tank fell on Herbert, breaking his neck and paralyzing him from the waist down. “His body was doubled up like a jack-knife and his head driven between his legs by the blow.” Herbert was buried in the Wells Cemetery in Little Genesee.

Herbert Eugene Crandall
Find a Grave Memorial ID 5011360

Whether Herbert was survived by two or three living children, by 1910 there appear to have been only two remaining. Some three years after Herbert’s death, on 17 May 1906 in Olean, New York, his widow Maggie married Thomas Peavy. They are enumerated together in the 1910 census in Bolivar, along with Maggie’s sons Eugene Helm and Theodore Albert, as well as Maggie’s 62-year-old father, William. Theodore would graduate with honors from the school of economics at the University of Pittsburgh in 1923 but would only live another four years before dying of pneumonia.

His brother Eugene would live a bit longer, marrying Gertrude MacEachern in 1917 and raising three children before dying at age 53 after a year of ill health. He is buried in the Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Olean, New York. Maggie’s second husband died in 1946 at age 67 and is buried in the Wells Cemetery in Little Genesee. Maggie would outlive all of her immediate family. She passed away in Bolivar on 11 December 1974 at the age of 97. Her obituary notes she was a founder and past president of the Allegany County Women’s Christian Temperance Union and was the oldest resident at the Allegany Nursing Home where she lived at the time of her death. She is also noted as being active in the Bolivar First Methodist Church. One likes to think her faith gave her the necessary strength to endure all the blows which life dealt her.

The Buffalo News, 4 March 1903
Hemorrhage of the Lungs

Hemorrhage of the Lungs

Posted on by spuddled

Today’s is a sad anniversary I came across while scouring the Find a Grave website for the relatives of one “Bottom Billy” Davis, so called because he bought all the bottom land east of Salem, (West) Virginia after moving to the area in 1792. “Bottom Billy” was the grandson of my 9GG William and Elizabeth (Pavior) Davis, making him my first cousin 9 times removed.

One of his other relatives (and also part of that massive migration of Seventh Day Baptist congregants mentioned here before) was Clarence Manly Whitford, son of Asa Maxson Whitford and his wife Catharine Coon. Clarence was the first cousin three times removed of “Bottom Billy,” and the fifth cousin 5 times removed of…me.

Clarence was born 14 August 1854 in Adams, New York. He is enumerated there with his parents and brothers (S.C., Edward Maxson, Asa Adelbert, and J. Myron) in the 1860 Federal Census and the 1865 New York State Census. By the time of the 1870 Federal Census, however, the family had moved to La Clede, Fayette County, Illinois, as they were enumerated there that year. Six years later, on 5 September 1876, Clarence married Orpha M. Crandall. I suspect she is also a cousin, as Crandall is another name common among the Seventh Day Baptist adherents, but I haven’t tracked her down as yet. Sadly, Clarence would not live to be enumerated with this new family in the 1880 Federal Census.

The Find a Grave entry for Clarence quotes The Sabbath Recorder, a Seventh Day Baptist newspaper started in 1844:

“The Sabbath Recorder,” Vol 36, No 8, p 3, Feb. 19, 1880.

At North Loup, Neb., Jan 14th, 1880, of hemorrhage of the lungs, Mr. Charles [sic] M. Whitford, in the 25th year of his age. Mr. Whitford’s home was at Farina, Ill. For many months previous to his death he had been steadily declining in health from the effects of diseased liver and lungs, and in July last, he left his home and family and came here, hoping to regain his health by a change of climate; but his disease had already too firm a hold on him. Learning that he could not long survive, he sent for his wife and little daughter; but they arrived twelve hours too late, and he expired at the residence of Dr. Charles Badger, under whose care he had placed himself, with only one relative, his brother-in-law, Mr. Alfa Crandall, to comfort him in his last hours; but brethren and friends assisted Bro. Crandall in doing all that could be done to provide for his comfort. The funeral service was held with the Church here on the Sabbath-day following, the attendance being very large. He was a member of the Church at Farina, and at the hour of parting he told his brother-in-law that ‘he was satisfied with his hope.’
O. B.

It is not mentioned in his obituary, but Clarence is buried at Hillside Cemetery in North Loup, Nebraska. And though Clarence does not appear in the 1880 Federal Census, he does appear in another type of census from that year: the 1880 U.S. Census Mortality Schedule. These schedules, enumerated in conjunction with the 1850-1880 Federal Censuses, listed information for those who had died the 12 months prior to the established census date. In looking at the record for Clarence in this schedule, I noted that (as I expected), his “hemorrhage of the lungs” was defined there as “consumption” (tuberculosis). What I was not expecting was the entry immediately after Clarence’s:

Ancestry.com. U.S., Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Horace M. Whitford, five months old and born in Illinois, had died, also of consumption, in July, six months prior to Clarence’s death. I confirmed my suspicions that little Horace was Clarence and Orpha’s son with a search of my own through the Sabbath Recorder archives:

Sabbath Recorder, 7 August 1879

It is even more poignant to note that Clarence’s obituary states that he left his family behind in Illinois to try to improve his health in Nebraska “last July.” This suggests that Orpha was on her own when baby Horace died at their home in Illinois at the end of that month. Her own obituary on Find a Grave notes that she and Clarence had had three children in total, two of whom died in infancy, so there is another lost baby I still need to identify.

However, happier times would come for Orpha, in spite of this latest tragedy that struck her 144 years ago today. The “little daughter” who traveled with her but was too late to see Clarence before he died was Lena Louise Whitford, 2 1/2 years old in January 1880. She would marry Theodore Byington Davis in 1900, and they would raise seven children. Lena would die in San Fernando, California, at the age of 77.

And what about Orpha? Nine years after Clarence’s death, she married his older brother Asa, who had been widowed the previous year. Asa and his first wife had had two children, then 17 and 9, so the family home was filled once more. Orpha died in April 1919 in Milton, Wisconsin and is buried in the Milton Junction Cemetery. She shares a headstone with her second husband, who outlived her by 15 years. I’d like to think that at the end she, like her first husband, was “satisfied with [her] hope.”