52 Ancestors: #12, Dolly C. (Brister) Rand

Dolly C. Rand death record, 1904

Dolly Clifford Brister, my great-great-grandmother, was born 7 Feb 1818, in Byron, Oxford County, Maine, the third of six daughters of Enoch and Sally (Chamberlain) Brister.¹

It's hard to say just what brought Dolly to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where, on 11 Feb 1842,² she married Nahum Alonzo Rand (a farmer and stone mason) – perhaps it had something to do with her father having originally come from Andover, Mass., or maybe one of her sisters had married and was living near Boston. They remained in Roxbury until about 1849 and their first four children were born there. The third, a son named Ezra D., died before his second birthday from "dropsy on the brain," and when another son was born the following year, they gave him his brother's name, Ezra Davis.

1850 U.S. census, Nahum Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

By the 1850 census, they had moved north to settle in Andover, Maine,³ where they had four more children.^{4, 5}

1860 U.S. census, "Naam" Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

1870 U.S. census, Naham Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

Over the years, most of their children married, several moving away to Philadelphia. By 1880, the household included not only the two youngest (still unmarried) children, but also the widowed Ezra Davis, returned from Philly, and his three sons, as well as yet another grandson, Walter (Kate's son).⁶

1880 U.S. census, Naham Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

Children of Dolly Brister and Nahum Rand:

• Nahum Alonzo Rand, Jr., b. 1842, married Lois Minerva Cutting
• Sarah Elizabeth Rand, b. 1845, married Edward Rhodes
• Ezra D. Rand, b. 1846, d. 1847
• Ezra Davis Rand, b. 1848, married (1) Mary A. Crutchley Homan, (2) Augusta A. (Pulsifer) Buker, (3) Margaret Amber
• Asenath Matilda Rand, b. 1851, d. 1871, unmarried
• Kate Maria Rand, b. 1855, married Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon
• Samuel P. Rand, b. 1857, never married
• Annie Grace Rand, b. 1860, married Frank Roberts

Dolly was widowed in 1884 when Nahum died in Philadelphia (apparently while visiting their oldest son, who had moved there before 1880). At the time of the 1900 census, she was living with her bachelor son, Samuel P. Rand, and her daughter and son-in-law, Frank and Annie Roberts.⁷

1900 U.S. census, Samuel P. Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

Dolly died 26 Sep 1904 from stomach cancer⁸ and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Andover.⁹

Dolly C. Rand monument, Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

My descent from Dolly Brister Rand:

• Nahum Alonzo Rand + Dolly Brister
• Kate Maria Rand + Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon
• Mary Milliken Hodsdon + Chester Frank Kirk (my paternal 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. “Maine, Death Records, 1617-1922,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com, (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 26 Apr 2012), Dolly C. Rand, 1904.
2. "Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850," database and digital images, New England Historic Genealogical Society, AmericanAncestors.org (http://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 23 Mar 2014), Nahum Rand and Dolly Bristor marriage (1842), Roxbury, Mass.; citing Vital Records Of Roxbury, Massachusetts To The End Of The Year 1849 (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1925), vol. 2, p. 332.
3. 1850 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 397 (penned), p. 199 (stamped), dwelling 94, family 101, Nahum Rand household; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 12 Mar 2012).
4. 1860 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 67, dwelling 492, family 491, “Naam” Rand household; digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 12 Mar 2012).
5. 1870 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 11, dwelling 66, family 69, Naham Rand household; digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 11 Mar 2012).
6. 1880 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, ED 116, p. 4D, dwelling 36, family 40, Naham Rand household; digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 11 Mar 2012). 
7. 1900 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, ED 177, sheet 7B, dwelling 166, family 168, Samuel P. Rand household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Mar 2014).  
8. “Maine, Death Records, 1617-1922,” Dolly C. Rand, 1904.
9. Woodlawn Cemetery (Andover, Oxford County, Maine), Dolly C. Rand monument, read and photographed by the author, 15 Aug 2012.

52 Ancestors: #11, Flora Ann (McDonald) Murphy, Woolen Weaver

My great-great-grandmother, Flora Ann McDonald, was born 2 May 1832,¹ on Prince Edward Island (possibly in Charlottetown), Canada, to William and Flora (Wilson) McDonald.² Around 1853 she married William Murphy, a sawyer and carpenter, probably in or near Vernon River, PEI.³

Flora and William had ten children:

1. Dominic, b. 1854, married Rose Ann McIntyre in Bloomfield, PEI
2. Lot, b. ca 1856-59, married Nora Kelleher in Newburyport, MA
3. Flora Ann, b. 1856, married John Sanphy in PEI
4. Mary, b. 1858, married John Cummings in Newburyport
5. James, b. 1860, possibly died young?
6. Martha, b. 1863, married Edward Perkins in Newburyport
7. Daniel, b. 1865, emigrated to Newburyport
8. Catherine ("Kate"), b. 1868, married Patrick Hart in Newburyport
9. Elizabeth ("Lizzie"), b. 1871, married George Blackwell in Lawrence, MA
10. William, b. 1873, died young

By the time of the first nominal census in 1881, the family was living in Georgetown, Kings County,⁴ and the four oldest children had left home: Dominic was a farm laborer in Prince County; Flora Ann had married John Sanphy and lived nearby; and the whereabouts of Lot and Mary are not known (though they are known to have later emigrated to Massachusetts). The youngest, William, must have died young, because he never appeared in a census.

1881 Canada census, Georgetown, Kings County, PEI, William Murphy household

Ten years later, the rest of the children had left, most having emigrated to Massachusetts – although Dominic, with his wife and children, was now living next door to his parents. Flora was listed as a "woolen weaver" in the 1891 census.⁵

1891 Canada census, Lot 51, Kings County, PEI, William Murphy and "Domnic" Murphy households

1901 Canada census, Lot 51, Kings County, PEI, William Murphy household

Flora and William appeared in one more Canadian census, in 1901,⁶ before finally following their brood to Newburyport, Massachusetts, around 1904-06.⁷ After William died in 1909, Flora moved to Lawrence, Mass., to live with her daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law George Blackwell.⁸

1910 U.S. census, Lawrence, Massachusetts, Flora Murphy in George "Blackwall" household

Sometime between the 1910 census and Feb 1911, she moved to Lowell, where she was living with daughter Kate and son-in-law Patrick Hart when she died on 22 Feb 1911, of "senility." She was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Newburyport, where William had been buried two years previously.⁹

Death certificate for Flora (McDonald) Murphy, 22 Feb 1911, Lowell, Mass.

My descent from Flora Ann McDonald:

• William Murphy + Flora Ann McDonald
• Dominic Murphy + Rose Ann McIntyre
• William George Murphy + Glenna Marie Rabideau (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. 1901 Canada Census, Kings County, Prince Edward Island, Township 51, p. 5, dwelling 37, family 38, William Murphy household; database and digital images, Library and Archives Canada, (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca : accessed 20 Feb 2012). While this census lists supposedly "exact" dates of birth, other censuses and her death certificate indicate a birth year of anywhere from 1831 to 1837.
2. "Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915," database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 13 Mar 2014), Flora Murphy death certificate #351 (stamped), registered no. 273, Lowell, Massachusetts, 22 Feb 1911. The certificate lists her parents and gives Charlottetown as her birthplace. Her reported age of 74 implies a birth year of 1836 or 37.
3. The year is an estimate based on the Dec 1854 birth of their first child, Dominic. While baptismal records for Dominic and Lot have not been located, their third through seventh children were baptized at St. Joachim's Church in Vernon River, making it a likely location for their marriage as well.
4. 1881 Canada Census, Kings County, Prince Edward Island, Georgetown Common & Royalty, pp. 3-4, dwelling 11, family 11, William Murphy household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Feb 2012). Flora's reported age of 50 implies an 1831 birth year.
5. 1891 Canada Census, Kings County, Prince Edward Island, Township 51, p. 10, families 34-35, William Murphy and "Domnic" Murphy households ; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Feb 2012). Flora's reported age of 58 implies an 1833 birth year.
6. 1901 Canada Census, Kings County, Prince Edward Island, Township 51, p. 5, William Murphy household.
7. No immigration records have been found, but city directories show a William Murphy arriving in Newburyport around this time; Flora's husband William died in Newburyport in 1909. The 1884 immigration year given on the 1910 census is clearly a random fabrication, as she was demonstrably resident in Canada through 1901. It's worth noting that an 1884 immigration is also given for her daughter Elizabeth, who would have been only 11 (or 13 if you go by her baptismal record) at the time. I suspect the informant (possibly her husband?) pulled a year out thin air for both of them.
8. 1910 U.S. Census, Essex County, Massachusetts, Lawrence, ED 350, sheet 42A, dwelling 550, family 769, Flora Murphy in George "Blackwall" [Blackwell] household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Feb 2014). Flora's reported age of 74 implies an 1835 or 36 birth year.
9. Flora Murphy death certificate.

52 Ancestors: #10, Jacques Robidas-Manseau, Sergent de compagnie de Crisafy

One advantage to a Roman Catholic French-Canadian lineage is the wealth of records kept by the Church of baptisms, marriages, and burials. Marriage records generally include the names of the parents of the bride and groom, and married women are almost invariably referred to by their maiden names. What more could a genealogist want? The only downside is that those "baptêmes, mariages, et sepultures" are recorded in French. Still, with the aid of Google Translate, it's fairly easy to decipher the "boilerplate" language of the records, and I've been able to trace my maternal grandmother's Rabideau line back to my immigrant 8th great-grandfather Robidas.

Jacques Robidas dit Manseau¹ was born in 1665² in Saint-Nicolas, diocese of Le Mans, Province of Maine, France.³ His parents were Gabriel Robida, a "maître-cordonnier" (master shoemaker), and Anne Crespin.⁴

Baptism of Jacques Robida, 1665

Jacques learned his father's trade, but came to Quebec some time before 1692 in the military, achieving the rank of sergeant in the "compagnie de Crisafy" and taking part in the war against the Iroquois.⁵ On 14 Jan 1692, Jacques married Louise de Guitre in Basilique Notre-Dame in Montréal.⁶

Marriage of Jacques Robidas dit le Manseau and Louise de Guitre, 1692

When the French finally made peace with the Indians, he left the military and became a colonist, settling, around 1699, at la Baie-Saint-Antoine (called la Baie-du-Febvre after the first seigneur, Jacques le Febvre) on the south shore of Lac Saint-Pierre.^{7, 8}

Carte cadastrake (cadastral map) of Baie-du-Febvre, 1708–1712

Jacques and Louise had ten children, six of who lived to adulthood. After Louise's death in 1732, he married again, on 7 Jan 1734 at the age of about 68, to Marie Madeleine Minville,⁹ and fathered another son before dying on 10 Aug 1741.¹⁰

Marriage of Jacques Robida and Marie Madeleine Minville, 1734

Burial of Jacques Robida dit Le Manseau, 1741

Children of Jacques Robidas and Louise de Guitre:

1. Gabriel, b. 1692
2. Francoise, b. 18 Dec 1694 (d. as infant)
3. Marie, b. 18 Dec 1694 (d. as infant)
4. Isabelle, b. 15 Apr 1696
5. Michel, b. 15 Apr 1696 (d. as infant)
6. Marie-Charlotte, b. 25 Mar 1698 (d. as infant)
7. Francoise, b. 2 Sep 1699
8. Jean-Baptiste, b. 1702
9. Madeleine, b. 1704
10. Louis, b. 21 Feb 1705

Child of Jacques Robidas and Marie Madeleine Minville:

11. Joseph, b. 16 Mar 1735

My descent from Jacques Robidas dit Manseau:

• Jacques Robidas-Manseau + Louise de Guitre
• Jean-Baptiste Robidas-Manseau + Josephte Pepin
• Jean-Baptiste Robidas + Therese Lefebvre-Senneville
• Jean-Baptiste Robidas + Marie Jeanne Lupien
• Jean-Baptiste Robidas + Divine Louise "Ludivine" Girardeau
• Louis Robidas + Marie Deshaies-Saint Cyr
• Louis Rabideau + Marie Célina Cloutier
• Peter Louis Rabideau + Eva May Woodward
• 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.  The "dit" name Manseau signified that the family was "of Mans." Occasionally it was expanded to "dit le Manseau" ("of Le Mans"). Often the "dit" was omitted and the surname hyphenated as Robidas-Manseau. Some descendants used the surname Robidas alone, while others used Manseau alone. Robidas seems to appear interchangeably with Robida. In later years some of the family spelled the name Rabida or Rabidas and eventually it evolved to Rabideau.
2. I don't have the faintest idea where I got that baptismal record. It does give the year as 1665, but I can't decipher the month and date.
3. Joseph-Elzéar Bellemare, Histoire de la Baie-Saint-Antoine, dit Baie-du-Febvre, 1683-1911 (Montréal: Imprimerie "La Patrie", 1911), p. 457; digital images, Our Roots/Nos Racines (http://www.ourroots.ca/toc.aspx?id=3984 : accessed 11 Dec 2013). The "compagnie de Crisafy" probably refers to either Antoine, Marquis de Crisafy, or his brother Thomas. Both brothers captained companies that were sent to New France in 1684 by Louis XIV.
4. Basilique Notre-Dame (Montreal, Quebec), Registre de Baptêmes, Mariages, Sépultures, 1681-1694, unpaginated (image 152), Jacques Robidas dit le Manseau and Louise de Guitre marriage (14 Jan 1692); database and digital images, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967,” Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search : accessed 1 Jul 2012); citing Gabriel Drouin, comp., Drouin Collection (Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin). 
5. Bellemare, p. 457.
6. Basilique Notre-Dame (Montreal, Quebec), Registre de Baptêmes, Mariages, Sépultures, 1681-1694, unpaginated (image 152), Robidas-de Guitre marriage (14 Jan 1692).
7. Bellemare, p. 457.
8. Bellemare, unpaginated map, "Carte Cadastrale de M. de Catalogne 1708-1712". The map appears to be a folded sheet inserted before the title page. A cadastral map or "cadastre" is a map or survey showing land ownership, boundaries, property lines, etc.
9. St-François-du-Lac (Yamaska County, Quebec), Registre de Baptêmes, Mariages, Sépultures, Vol. 3, 1733-1748, unpaginated (image 10), Jacques Robidas and Marie Madeleine Minville marriage (7 Jan 1734); database and digital images, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967,” Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search : accessed 1 Jul 2012); citing Gabriel Drouin, comp., Drouin Collection (Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin).
10. Paroisse de St. Antoine de la Baie du Febvre (Baieville, Quebec), Registre Vol. 1 1686-1773, unpaginated (image 150), Jacques Robida dit Le Manseau burial (10 Aug 1741); digital images, "Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1900," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.com : accessed 13 Jul 2012).

When was Uriah S. Woodward born?

In my most recent "52 Ancestors" post, I gave Uriah Sawyer Woodward's date of birth as "circa 1846-47", with this explanatory footnote:

This is based on his given age in the 1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses, and on his marriage record; the 1859 census places his birth year at 1846, and the other three sources at 1847. I find it hard to credit the implied birth in 1842 (from 1880 census) or 1843 (from his disinterment record and grave marker), when his age was given so consistently in the early censuses.

Now, anyone researching this Woodward line is almost certain to have noticed numerous online family trees giving an exact birth date for Uriah of 10 Mar 1844 (or, in some cases, 1843).¹ So why didn't I take this into account in my estimate? Well, in fact, I did take it into account – but I don't believe either date is correct, and I didn't want to add a lengthy explanation to an already lengthy post. So here is the full explanation.

To begin with, these ubiquitous dates are universally presented without any source or documentation. Almost certainly, the vast majority were simply copied from another (unsourced) online tree. Oddly enough, I found that a pedigree chart prepared by my late brother, Marshall K. Kirk (who had done extensive research into our Woodward line), had the same 10 Mar 1844 birth date, without explanation.² A painstaking and meticulous researcher, my brother could not have pulled this date out of thin air, yet none of the extant public records appear to have a birth date for Uriah. Where did he get it? After digging through my brother's voluminous research papers, I believe I have discovered the ultimate source of this information.

Around 1989-90, Gertrude F. Woodward (Uriah's granddaughter) provided my brother with a typed "family record" (with some handwritten additions) of the Woodward and Washburn families, which included exact dates of birth for most of the named individuals.³ It was evidently prepared by Gertrude's older brother, Bernard C. Woodward, sometime before 7 Mar 1960, when he mailed it to their mother, Mrs. Althea L. (Hawkins) Woodward, wife of Uriah's son Fred. My brother photocopied the document before returning it to Gertrude, and then transcribed and annotated it. While she was unable to tell him anything further about its origins, he believed it may have been derived from a family Bible record, and his analysis states:

That it is an authentic family record, and not the product of ex post facto research, is made likely by the very wide territory covered by the Samuel Washburn family, and the impossibility – as I can attest – of gleaning all the above data from public records. A year's work, however... has shown that all statements in the record that could be checked against public records were, in the main, correct. (Where discrepancies occur, they are minor – as, for example, in exact dates...).⁴

This family record gives the birth date of Uriah S. Woodward as "Mar. 10, 1844." Given its pre-1960 provenance, this document is almost certainly the ultimate origin, then, of the unsourced birth date found in so many online family trees. To my knowledge, my brother never published an online tree, but he undoubtedly had shared this information with other active researchers and relatives of the Woodward line, one or more of whom may well have published the information sans source. (The 10 Mar 1843 date is most likely a simple adjustment based on Uriah's gravestone.)

Which still begs the question, why don't I believe either of these dates? The answer lies in the apparent accuracy of the birth dates of Uriah's siblings compared to the census records. The table below lists the birth dates of Royal and Mary Woodward's children given in the family record sheet, along with the ages and calculated birth years where I was able to locate census records.^5-11 (I calculated the birth year from each census based on the assumption that the birth month in the family record was correct, i.e., an age of 7 in the 1860 census implies a birth year of 1853 if the birth month is before the census month, but 1852 if the birth month is after the census month.)

Birth dates of children of Royal and Mary (Sawyer) Woodward from family record
vs. ages and calculated years of birth from census records.

The ages given in the earlier censuses for each child are likely to be the most accurate. Looking at the ages from the first two censuses found for each child, we find that – with the notable exception of Uriah – in every case the calculated birth year is the same as, or at most one year off from, the birth date in the family record. What are the chances that the informant would be able to report the ages of the other children so accurately, but then report a 6-year-old as 4, or a 16-year-old as 13 (with the same child being the sole discrepancy each time)? I have to conclude that Uriah's given ages of 4 and 13 (and calculated birth years of 1846 or 1847) were equally as accurate as those of his siblings, and that the 1844 birth date in the family record is incorrect.

The simplest explanation for this one glaring discrepancy may be a simple typographical error; or, assuming that the typed family record was a transcription of a handwritten record such as a Bible record, the transcriber may simply have misread a handwritten 7 as a 4, not a far-fetched possibility when you look at some typical examples of the number "7" as written in contemporary census records:

Some "7" characters from mid-19th century census records

If either of these explanations is correct, then Uriah's actual birth date is probably 10 Mar 1847 – exactly what we could expect from those early census ages.

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SOURCES

1. See, for example, “Public Member Trees,” database, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1030), results of search for Uriah Woodward, born 1843.
2. Marshall K. Kirk, comp., Ancestry of Kathleen Murphy Kirk, ca 1990; Kirk-Murphy Family Charts, privately held by Kathy Kirk McCracken, Virginia Beach, Virginia. 
3. Bernard C. Woodward, comp., Washburn-Yates-Woodward family record (typescript with handwritten additions, ca 1960); photocopies privately held by Kathy Kirk McCracken, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Originally mailed to Mrs. Althea L. Woodward (Mr. Woodward's mother) in 1960, the document was privately held by Gertrude F. Woodward (Mr. Woodward's sister) in 1989, when she supplied it, and the original postmarked mailing envelope, to Marshall K. Kirk for photocopying; the current owner of the photocopies inherited them in 2005 from Mr. Kirk. The current owner and location of the original document are unknown.
4. Marshall K. Kirk, NEHGS Enquiries Service, "Woodward-Washburn Family Record" (typescript with handwritten notes, ca 1990); Marshall K. Kirk Research Files, privately held by Kathy Kirk McCracken, Virginia Beach, Virginia. This draft of an unfinished transcription/annotation of the Bernard C. Woodward family record (see note 3) includes Kirk's evaluation of the document as "an authentic family record".
5. 1850 U.S. Census, Caledonia County, Vermont, Walden, p. 579 (penned), p. 289 (stamped), dwelling 457, family 453, Royal Woodward household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2012).
6. 1860 U.S. Census, Caledonia County, Vermont, Walden, p. 65, dwelling 1, family 1, Royal Woodward household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2012).
7. 1870 U.S. Census, Caledonia County, Vermont, Walden, p. 4, dwelling 32, family 27, Royal Woodward household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2012).
8. 1870 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, Holland, p. 8, dwellings 56-57, families 61-62, John S. Woodward and Uriah "Woodard" households; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2012).
9. 1880 U.S. Census, Coos County, New Hampshire, Dummer, ED 38, p. 4 (penned) D (printed), dwelling 32, family 33, Uriah Woodward household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2012).
10. 1860 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, Barton, pp. 187-8, dwellings 1482-83, families 1479-80, Wm. S. Allard and "Ellen" S. Woodward households; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 3 Mar 2014). Nancy J. Allard is is Nancy Woodward.
11. 1870 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, Barton, p. 36, dwelling 285, family 323, Eben S. "Wooward" household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 3 Mar 2014). 
12. 1880 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, Barton, ED 150, p. 25 (penned), dwelling 201, family 214, Eben S. Woodward household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 3 Mar 2014). 

52 Ancestors: #9, Uriah Sawyer Woodward

Uriah Sawyer Woodward, my great great grandfather, was born circa 1846-47¹ in Danville, Caledonia County, Vermont,² the seventh of eight children of Royal Woodward³ and Mary Hawley Sawyer. He first appears as 4-year-old "Uri" in the 1850 census,⁴ and again at 13 in 1860 (not shown).⁵

1850 U.S. Census, Danville, Caledonia, Vermont, Royal Woodward household

 He appears to have lied about his age, claiming to be 18 – he would actually have been only about 16, or at most 17 – when he enlisted as a private in the Vermont Third Battery Light Artillery on 28 Oct 1863. He mustered in on 1 Jan 1864, and mustered out on 15 Jun 1865.⁶ Eventually, on 1 May 1886, his widow would file for a pension based on his Civil War service.⁷

Excerpt from the Roster of Volunteers, Report of the Adjutant & Inspector General of the State of Vermont, 1863-1866

Pension index card for Uriah S. Woodward

Uriah was a farmer, first in Holland, Orleans County, Vermont,⁸ and later in Dummer, Coös County, New Hampshire.⁹ He married Mary A. (Washburn) Yates in Morgan, Orleans, Vermont, on 12 Apr 1867.¹⁰ (Although the date on the card appears to be 1869, the bride index card clearly says 1867 – and given the birth dates of the two oldest children, below, we will hope that 1867 is correct.)

Groom index card for marriage of Uriah S. Woodward and Mary Yates, 1867

They had six children:

1. Edward S. Woodward, b. ca 1868
2. Flora A. Woodward, b. 13 Apr 1869
3. Eva May "Evie" Woodward, b. 27 Jan 1871
4. George W. Woodward, b. 21 Apr 1873
5. Charles W. Woodward, b. 2 Nov 1874
6. Fred Uriah Woodward, b. 9 Oct 1876

1870 U.S. Census, Holland, Orleans, Vermont, Uriah Woodard household

1880 U.S. Census, Dummer, Coös, New Hampshire, Uriah Woodward household

Application for disinterment
of Uriah S. Woodward, 1908

Although still residing in Dummer in 1880, Uriah died in Holland, Vermont, on 7 Mar 1881. Nevertheless, he was buried in New Hampshire – twice. He was originally interred in the Willis Cemetery in Dummer, but in 1908, his youngest son, Fred, had his father exhumed¹¹ and reburied in a Woodward-Yates family plot in Hillcrest Cemetery in Milan.¹²

The cause of death on the disinterment record is hard to make out (due to both poor handwriting and, apparently, worse spelling), but appears to be "Earsiplas on the [Bone? Face?]" – at a guess, this might be erysipelas.

My descent from Uriah S. Woodward:

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

  

Uriah S. Woodward grave marker

  

Woodward side of Woodward-Yates monument,
Hillside Cemetery, Milan, New Hampshire

(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. This is based on his given age in the 1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses, and on his marriage record; the 1859 census places his birth year at 1846, and the other three sources at 1847. I find it hard to credit the implied birth in 1842 (from 1880 census) or 1843 (from his disinterment record and grave marker), when his age was given so consistently in the early censuses. See footnotes below for details of these sources.  
2. “Vermont, Vital Records, 1760-1954,” index and digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 1 Apr 2012), groom index card for Uriah S Woodward-Mary Yates marriage, 1867; citing Secretary of State, Vermont vital records, State Capitol Building, Montpelier, Vermont.
3. Ibid.
4. 1850 U.S. Census, Caledonia County, Vermont, Walden, p. 579 (penned), p. 289 (stamped), dwelling 457, family 453, Royal Woodward household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2012).
5. 1860 U.S. Census, Caledonia County, Vermont, Walden, p. 65, dwelling 1, family 1, Royal Woodward household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2012).
6. Report of the Adjutant & Inspector General of the State of Vermont, From Oct. 1, 1864, to Oct. 1, 1865 (Montpelier, Vt.: Walton's Steam Printing Establishment, 1865), Appendix D, Roster of Vermont Volunteers, p. 393; "Report of the Adjutant & Inspector General of the State of Vermont, 1863-1866," database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Mar 2014), image 841.
7. “Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Feb 2014), Uriah S. Woodward, filed 1 May 1886; citing NARA publication T288.
8. 1870 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, Holland, p. 8, dwelling 57, family 62, Uriah "Woodard" household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2012).
9. 1880 U.S. Census, Coos County, New Hampshire, Dummer, ED 38, p. 4 (penned) D (printed), dwelling 32, family 33, Uriah Woodward household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2012).
10. “Vermont, Vital Records, 1760-1954”, groom index card for Uriah S Woodward-Mary Yates marriage, 1867.
11. “New Hampshire, Death and Disinterment Records, 1754-1947,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Feb 2014), application for disinterment of Uriah S. Woodward, 1908 (death 1881).
12. Hillcrest Cemetery, Milan, Coos County, New Hampshire, Uriah S. Woodward marker and Woodward-Yates monument, read and photographed by the author, 11 Oct 2013.