Le Montage de Famille
1880-1889
The decade beginning 1880 finds two known vector families living
in Europe, i.e., Lindstrom and Westurlund. By mid-decade
Charles Albert Lindstrom had immigrated to the USA.
In USA:
- Castner: The Edward and Franky Castner family was
in Ovid, Clinton County, Michigan, at the beginning of the decade but had
moved to a farm outside of St. Johns, Clinton County, by the time daughter
Maud Annabel Castner was born. She would be the future first wife of
Charles Orlando Page, son of Riley Preston and Sarah M. (Keyes) Page. Yula—Ed
and Franky’s last of three children—was born toward the end of the decade,
shortly after which the family moved to Lansing in Ingham County.
- Bliss: Calvin Bliss, Sr. was living in Farmville, Prince
Edward County, Virginia and would serve the last three-and-a-half of his
five terms in the Virginia State Legislature representing the Thirtieth
District (Amelia, Cumberland and Prince Edward counties). An article in
the New York Times newspaper published early in the decade started
with the following: “The Hon. C. A. Bliss [s/b C. H. Bliss], of
Farmville, a member of the Virginia Senate, one of the most influential
Republicans in Dr. Jorgensen's district….” In his early senate years Calvin
along with one other man voted against the rest of the Virginia Senate,
who wanted to take to the US Supreme Court what the state’s governor and
attorney general deemed to be a judicial incursion by a federal district
judge trying to protect the rights of two young Black men in an
interracial murder case. The men had been tried and found guilty by Virginia’s
judiciary system after the jury hearing their case had been packed
exclusively with white men. The case, which ultimately was submitted
to the US Supreme Court, became known as Virginia Exparte and was
one of the five Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883), used to
legally justify the Southern states’ rights to mistreat Black people until
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Sidney Bliss’s family started the
decade living on their farm three miles south of Albion. Mid-decade Sidney built
a house on West Elm Street in Albion, where he took his family yet kept the
farm. Sidney’s widower half-brother Calvin H. Bliss, Jr. would continue to live
in Virginia the remainder of his life. He married Harriet E. Hoeman in Virginia
early this decade, she having been born in England. They would later adopt and
raise one child, Knighton Calvin Bliss, whose actual parents were Brooks Mason
and Sarah (Langslow) Bliss of Farmville—Calvin, Jr.’s half-nephew and wife. (Presumably
the adoption occurred after the death of the mother Sarah, which happened just before
the end of the 19th century. Sarah left seven young children.)
- Hubbart/Hubbard:
Adam married the widow Maria (McCarty) Kimball at the beginning of the
decade. They were united by James M. Gifford, Justice of the Peace, at
Clarence, Calhoun County, Michigan. Maria had formerly been married to
William Kimball, by whom she had had ten children, one of them being Montraville
“Lamont” Kimball.
- Shaw: The James Ransler and Elizabeth (Watts) Shaw
family was in Ithaca, Richland County, Wisconsin, at decade’s beginning. At
that time James Watts Shaw was a laborer living at Belle Fourche, Mandan
(Lawrence) County, Dakota Territory (South Dakota), but by mid-decade he married
Carrie May Dow at Richland Center, Richland County She was a daughter of
the late Henry Smith and Harriet Melissa (Bush) Dow, formerly of Ithaca.
Both of Carrie’s parents had passed away, her father during the Civil War
and her mother just a few years before the marriage to James. Vernon Henry
Shaw was born at decade’s end. Vernon would be the future first husband of
Pearl (Van)Dyke in Wisconsin; of Anita in Indiana; and of Laura “Grace”
Rice in Michigan.
- Rice: The Benjamin and Mary (Knight) Rice family
was living in Comings, Alcona County, Michigan, at the beginning of the
decade, though Silas was not living with them. Silas B. Rice married
Ella A. Carpenter at Flint, Genesee County, Michigan, within a couple
of years. She was a daughter of Stephen and Eliza A. Carpenter of
Marathon, Lapeer County, Michigan. (Stephen was born in Canada of parents
who were born in Vermont, and Eliza was born in New York of parents born
in Canada.) Silas and Ella would have their first three children in Oakland
County, Michigan, during this decade: daughters Lulu M., Ora and
Emma T. Just a couple of months before their marriage, Silas B. Rice
and “Allie” Carpenter were witnesses to the marriage of Silas’s older brother
Elmer Justin Rice at Commerce, Oakland County. Elmer and Silas were said
to be from Pontiac [Oakland County] and Allie from Lapeer. The bride, Eudora L.
“Dora” Smith, was from Commerce. Other known marriages of Silas and
Elmer’s siblings were: Benjamin P. married Blanche Cox this decade,
and Sabrina C. “Rina” would marry William C. Hookwith.
- Barnes: The David and Mary (Hood) Barnes family
was living on its 200-acre farm in Hanover Township, Jackson County,
Michigan. In the last month of the decade’s last year, David and Mary
purchased their retirement home at 130 Baldwin Street in Horton, not far
from the family farm.
- Tuttle: The Moses and Rebecca Tuttle family was
living in Dexter Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, at least until
mid-decade, when their last child, Bert E., was born. Jackson,
Jackson County, Michigan, would ultimately be their home.
- Page: Riley and Sarah (Keys) Page were divorced by
decade’s end, and Riley would temporarily move to Coldwater, Branch County,
Michigan, where some members of his brother William’s family worked in
the shoemaking industry. It may be during his time in Coldwater that Riley
picked up the shoemaking trade.
- Garrett: Hugh, Jr. and Mary Elizabeth (Thurlow) Garrett’s
family was in Tittabawassee, Saginaw County, Michigan. Mary died near the beginning
of the decade, and a year later Hugh, Jr. married Mary Cordelia (Chamberlain)
Barnes, widow of Howard Barnes of Midland County. Hugh and Mary were
married by J. H. Lewis, Minister. Witnesses were Miss. Cynthia
Chamberlain and James A. Chamberlain, both of Midland County. Hugh
purchased 80 acres of swampy farmland in Ingersoll Township, Midland County,
mid-decade, and then sold 40 of the acres to his son Hugh III and 40 to
son Samuel. Samuel’s portion later was folded into the 480-acre Garrett
Farm Corporation and was listed in the book “Michigan’s Centennial Family
Farm Heritage,” by Mary L Wermuth, 369 pages, c 1986.
- Lindstrom: Charles Albert Lindstrom, son of John and
Margaret Johnna (Johnson) Lindstrom, arrived in America in 1885. He
settled in Duluth, St. Louis County, Minnesota, and became a fireman.
Charles was born in Slattakra, Halland, Sweden, and at first claimed his
parents were born in Germany, later changing it to Sweden for both. He
would soon move to Michigan’s Arenac County on the north side of Saginaw Bay.
© 2014 Charles W. Paige.
Last updated: Tuesday August 12, 2014
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