52 Ancestors: #38, Samuel Orcutt Washburn

Samuel Orcutt Washburn, my great-great-great-grandfather, was born on 5 May 1798 or 1799, to Jeremiah and Hannah (Orcutt) Washburn in Sutton, Orleans County, Vermont.¹

Samuel Orcutt Washburn birth, 1798

Marriage of Samuel Washburn
and Mary "Polmeteer", 1829

Throughout his adult life, Samuel would repeatedly move back and forth across the U.S.-Canada border, between northern Vermont, southern Quebec, and northeast New York. In 1829, he was farming in Rougement, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, and on 10 March 1829, he married 17-year-old Mary Polmeteer at St. Paul d'Abbotsford Anglican Church in nearby Abbotsford.²

Over the next three decades, Samuel and Mary had at least 13 children, including two sets of twins, and you can trace their migrations by their children's birthplaces:³

1. Mary S. (1831-1917), b. Milton, Shefford, QC; married 1) Stephen Yates, 2) Uriah Woodward
2. Lydia Ann (1832-1902), b. Milton, Shefford, QC; married Charles Bennett
3. John P. (1834-1916), b. Milton, Shefford, QC; married Laura Armstrong
4. Samuel O. (1834-1864), b. Milton, Shefford, QC; married Mercy Moulton
5. David L. (1837-????), b. Chazy, Clinton Co., NY
6. Olive (1839-????), b. Chazy, Clinton Co., NY
7. Charlotte D. (1841-1890), b. Sciota, Clinton Co., NY; married Charles H. Griffin
8. George (ca 1843-????), b. Sciota, Clinton Co., NY; possibly married Stella Adams
9. Hannah E. (1845-), b. Farnham, Missisquoi, QC; married 1) James Rush, 2) George Rush
10. Diana P. (1847-1919), b. Farnham, Missisquoi, QC; married Leander Coffin
11. (Twin) (1847), b. Farnham, Missisquoi, QC
12. Harmon N. (1850-????), b. Canada
13. Norman E. (1856-aft 1900), b. Canada

Samuel died in Holland, Vermont, where he is buried in Mead Hill Cemetery. Vermont vital records,⁴ and his gravestone,⁵ concur that he died on 22 January 1850, at the age of 50 years, 8 months, and 17 days, which matches the 5 May 1799 birthdate on the stone.

Death of Samuel O. Washburn, 1850

Samuel O. Washburn gravestone, Mead Hill Cemetery, Holland, Vermont

It is, however, impossible to reconcile this death date with either the 1850 census⁶ in Holland – where 52-year-old Samuel Washburn was enumerated on 18 September along with his wife Mary, his son-in-law and daughter Stephen and Mary Yates and their first child, and seven of their children, misidentified as Yates children – or with the existence of the last two children, who first appear in the 1860 census⁷ in the household of "Widow Saml Washburn," next door to Stephen and Mary Yates.

1850 U.S. census, Holland, Orleans County, Vermont, Saml Washburn household

1860 U.S. census, Holland, Orleans County, Vermont, "Widow Saml Washburn" household

What to make of this? My hypothesis is that the gravestone was miscarved (perhaps erected long after his burial), and the vital records card was copied from the gravestone, rather than from town records.⁸ If so, when did he die? The numerous online family trees are about evenly split between 1850 (obviously from the vital records and gravestone) and 1855 – though no one gives a source for that year, and it's still too early to account for Norman. Conceivably the correct year may be as late as 1859.

My descent from Samuel Orcutt Washburn:

• Samuel Orcutt Washburn + Mary Palmeteer
• Mary Washburn + Uriah Sawyer Woodward
• Eva May Woodward + Peter Louis Rabideau
• Glenna Marie Rabideau + William George Murphy (my maternal grandparents)

(Note: This post is in response to Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge at No Story Too Small.)

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SOURCES

1. "Vermont, Vital Records, 1720-1908," database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Sep 2014), Samuel Orcutt Washburn birth, 1798. For the 1799 possibility, see his death record below.
2. St. Paul d'Abbotsford Anglican Church (Abbotsford, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec), church register, 1829, folio 5r, marriage of Samuel Washburn and Mary "Polmeteer"; digital images, "Québec, registres des églises protestantes, 1763-1967," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 22 Sep 2014), path: Abbotsford & Rougemont > Church of England in Canada Mission of Abbotsford and Rougemont > Baptisms, marriages, burials with index 1829 > image 7 of 20; citing Archives Nationales du Québec, Sainte-Foy.
3. The birthplaces are rather tentative; this family seemed to report their places of birth almost randomly in successive censuses, and vital records are very sketchy. Research is ongoing.
4. "Vermont, Vital Records, 1720-1908," database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Sep 2014), Samuel O. Washburn death, 1850. 
5. Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 21 Sep 2014), database and digital images, memorial # 22761238 for Samuel Orcutt Washburn (1799-1850), created by "Lar" (8 Nov 2007), with photographs by "Thomas"; citing Mead Hill Cemetery (Holland, Orleans County, Vermont).  
6. 1850 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, Holland, page number illegible, dwelling 62, family 62, Saml Washburn household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Apr 2014). Samuel's given age in the census record corresponds to the 1798 date in his birth record.
7. 1860 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, Holland, p. 71, dwelling 547, family 552, "Widow Saml Washburn" household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Apr 2014). Harmon (who disappears after this census so may have died young) might conceivably be explained as a posthumous child. I might have dismissed Norman as perhaps being a nephew or other relative, were it not that he appears in 1880 listed as a brother-in-law in the household of Charles Griffin (husband of Norman's sister Charlotte). He also appears in 1900 in the household of Leander Coffin (husband of Norman's sister Diana), though more ambiguously as a "boarder."
8. Ancestry.com's description of the database states: "In 1857, the state began requiring town clerks to create records of the previous year’s vital events and send them to the secretary of state. The state sent cards to cities and towns, where clerks filled them out with data extracted from their vital records and then sent them back.... There were also known gaps in early death records, and clerks were encouraged to fill these gaps with cemetery records [emphasis added]. You’ll find these among the records with dates prior to 1870 in this database."