[9832] Albert was an Iowa farmer.
_____________________
|
_John BROWNE _____________|
| (1628 - 1702) m 1654 |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Thomas BROWNE
| (1670 - 1693)
| _Thomas MAKEPEACE ___+
| | (1595 - 1667) m 1620
|_Esther\Hester MAKEPEACE _|
(1634 - ....) m 1654 |
|_Alice BRASIER ______
(1597 - 1638) m 1620
_____________________
|
_Joseph C. GIFFORD __|
| (1828 - 1908) m 1848|
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Nellie Maria GIFFORD
| (1850 - 1938)
| _Abiah Palmer BALIS _+
| | (1802 - 1857)
|_Julia C. BALIS _____|
(1832 - 1906) m 1848|
|_Maria H. CLOUGH ____+
(1800 - 1881)
_William August Franz Wilhelm KLUESNER KlesenerKleasner____+
| (1824 - 1899) m 1854
_William Rudolph Heinrich Wilhelm KLUESNER _|
| (1862 - 1934) m 1884 |
| |_Maria HenrietteWilhelmine Caroline WINDMULLER Windmueller_+
| (1831 - 1907) m 1854
|
|--Clifton Robert KLUESNER
| (1906 - ....)
| ___________________________________________________________
| |
|_Julia SCHUMAN _____________________________|
(1866 - 1952) m 1884 |
|___________________________________________________________
_John LONG __________
|
_Robert LONG ________|
| (1590 - 1664) m 1614|
| |_Elizabeth __________
|
|
|--Michael LONG
| (1615 - 1689)
| _John TAYLOR ________
| | (1545 - 1623)
|_Sarah TAYLOR _______|
(1595 - 1625) m 1614|
|_Margaret WILLMOTE __
(1565 - 1616)
__
|
_Johann Nicolaus MAURER _|
| (1760 - 1830) m 1791 |
| |__
|
|
|--Maria Margarite MAURER
| (1793 - 1828)
| __
| |
|_Gertrude SCHUT _________|
(1771 - 1836) m 1791 |
|__
_Thomas STEVENS ______+
| (1758 - 1812)
_William STEVENS ____|
| (1785 - 1869) m 1810|
| |_Nancy Agnes ELLIOTT _+
| (1758 - 1838)
|
|--Charles STEVENS
| (1829 - 1917)
| _Philip HIGGINS ______+
| | (1753 - 1845) m 1777
|_Hannah HIGGINS _____|
(1787 - 1869) m 1810|
|_Mary CROWELL ________+
(1756 - 1833) m 1777
[90]
The Charles and Catherine Stevens Story
July 16, 2009
Dear Children
Tonight I want to tell you about your Grandpa's great grandparents on your Stevens side. It starts in Canada and ends up right here in Wisconsin in the county next door to us.
Charles was born July 16, 1829 in Lake Mills, Nova Scotia. According to Gene Jane, a famous researcher in Colchester County, Nova Scotia, Lake Mills probably refers to several small lakes near mills in the northern part of the county. Charles parents, William and Hannah Higgins Stevens, were married about 1806 so his parents had been married over 20 years when Charles was born. He probably had numerous older brothers and sisters, but we only know about two of them, Mary and Robert.
Charles was a farmer and lived near Folly Lake, where his parents had lived, in a part of Colchester County called Upper Londonderry. We know this from the 1871 Canadian Census. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers of this part of Nova Scotia. There is still a road and a mountain in the area that are named after them, Stevens Road along the east side of Folly Lake, and Stevens Mountain to the NW.
Catherine was the 11th of 14 children of John Carpenter and Ann Mattatall Patriquin. She grew up and married a man named John Tattrie. They had a baby, Alice, in February of 1860. John died, so in November of 1864 Catherine married Charles Stevens. They had 6 children in Nova Scotia; Addison, Calvin, Jane, Ina, Edmund and Anna. We believe Jane died in Nova Scotia. The uncertainty is because the 1871 census lists children Addison, Calvin, and Jennie. There is a birth record for a baby Jane born in 1868 and we know Ina lived and was born in 1869. So the Jennie on the census must refer to Ina. Census says Catherine is the mother of 8 children, 7 of whom are still living. Catherine's ancestors include many French Canadians tracing back to Montbeliard and Doubs, France.
In the late 1870's Charles and Catherine moved with their family to Green County near Brodhead. The 1880 census shows them living in Orfordville, a small town near Brodhead. Catherine's brother, John Patriquin, was already living in Orfordville. And a cousin, John Mattatall, was living in nearby Spring Valley. After they came to the USA they had another child, Ella Maud. Charles worked as a farmer all his life. When he got too old to farm he and Catherine lived with Catherine's daughter Alice in Brodhead. We don't have too many other details about Charles life except that he was unable to read or write. In those days many people were illiterate. Catherine, however, was able to read and write. And they saw to it that their children all could. They also both became US citizens.
In the early 1970's your Grandpa's Aunt Kathryn wrote about her grandparents' funerals. Here is what she wrote:
“My grandparents, (Charles and Catherine Stevens) when I was a small girl, lived south of Brodhead east of the bridge across the road from the present school building. Later they came to Brodhead and lived with Aunt Alice Oliver until Grandpa died. Aunt Alice was their oldest child - not a Stevens. (Catherine's firstborn, Alice Tattrie). Harry and Alice Long (Alice Tattrie's daughter) still live in the house. The house is just west of the high school - then High School. After Aunt Alice died Grandma went to live with Aunt Ina Dedrick in the south part of town. She died there. Both grandparents died while I was teaching in Lodi. I came home for Grandpa's funeral but not Grandma's. The snow was deep and I did not drive a car so I had to come on the train to Janesville then out to Footville by car or through Hanover to one station then across to the other - about a mile walk.”
Here is the little bit we know about Charles and Catherine's children:
1) Alice Tattrie, Catherine's child with John Tattrie, was born in 1860. She was 11 years old and living with her mom's parents, John and Ann Patriquin, at the time of the 1871 Nova Scotia census. They were both in their 70's and Alice was helping them out. Alice had three husbands. First she married George West in Nova Scotia and had a son Edmond Elsworth West. She came to Wisconsin soon after her mother did in 1880. She married William Leng in 1892 and they had two sons, Harry and William. Third, she married a Mr. Oliver. Alice took care of Charles and Catherine when they were old.
2) Charles and Catherine's eldest child was Addison Archibald Stevens. Addison was born in Nova Scotia in 1865 and came with his family to Wisconsin as a young teen. We know he always knew how to work because the 1880 census shows him living next door to his family as a hired boy. His nickname was “Archy.” When he and his brother Calvin grew up they took off to work in the gold and silver mines out west. By 1920 he was working in a coal mine in the state of Washington and on the 1930 census he was farming with his son, Wayne, in Ada Co., Idaho. In 1895 he married Zema Ann Graham and he and Zema had 10 children. We know he kept in touch with his Wisconsin family because a news article about his brother Edmund's funeral in 1926 says Addison was a guest. In 1926 it was not easy or usual to go half way across the country when somebody died. Recently I have been in touch with the family of one of his daughter Roxie's descendants.
3) Charles and Catherine's second child was Calvin L. Stevens. Calvin was born in Nova Scotia in 1867 and came with his family to Wisconsin as a young teen. Calvin, also, grew up knowing hard work. The 1880 census shows him living and working on the farm of his mother's cousin, John Patriquen. In those days, kids did not have the opportunity to be carefree teenagers. Many young people, including the three oldest already mentioned in this family, were sent out to work and earn money as soon as they were able. They were expected at the very least to support themselves and, hopefully, help out the family back home as well. When he and his brother Addison grew up they took of f to work in the gold and silver mines out west. The 1900 census shows Calvin living in Montana and lists his occupation as mine owner. By 1910 he is a miner but no longer the owner. The 1920 census shows him employed as a gold miner in Montana. He and his family lived in Helena, Montana. I could not find him nor any of his family in the 1930 census. Calvin married Margaret Spellman, a young woman from Galway, Ireland. He and Margaret had six sons and one daughter.
Calvin's oldest son, Charley, was a very interesting character. There are dozens of stories about the exploits of Charles in the "Helena Independent" newspaper of Helena, Montana between 1928 and 1940. Here are summaries of some of his escapades:
About 1920 Charles robbed a bank, was tried and found guilty, was sentenced to 10 to 40 years but paroled after four. At the time of the robbery Charles was employed as a bank messenger. After he had collected $40,000 for the bank from the post office he was found tied up in the back of a cigar store. It was later determined he had hidden the money in an empty building and tied himself up so it could appear he had been robbed.
In 1931 Charley and family members purchased a place called the Parchen Mansion and bought a lot of insurance on it. Soon after it burned to the ground and the site showed evidence of arson. Charles, afraid of arrest, faked his own suicide and departed leaving seven tenderly written suicide letters behind. Several months later he wrote a letter to the sheriff with a postmark of Wellsburg, Iowa. But this too, was thought to be a fake as several years earlier he had claimed he was going to England to collect his share of a large estate. Friends received letters from cities along the route telling of the sights. They were very impressed until Charles was discovered at a farm not far away. He had sent the letters enclosed in envelopes addressed to the postmasters of the various towns, with instructions to remail them.
In 1940 he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. He had entered the office of an acquaintance and tried to sell him 2 tombstones. When the man said he wasn't interested Charles said he'd lend the man the money to buy them. When that didn't work, Charles said he'd give the man the tombstones. When they were still refused Charles pulled a gun and forced the man to a back room. An accomplice brought in a large number of boxes and packages. When Charles tried to force the victim to the basement, the victim made a dash for freedom, jumping through a glass door. The packages were found to include a vial labeled, “cyanide of potassium,” another containing porcupine quills, which was labeled “poisonous darts, do not touch”. The packages also contained electric wiring, dynamite with caps with fuses attached, bottles of a liquid believed to be nitroglycerin, dyes similar to those used by notaries in legalizing papers, and a sawed-off shotgun. Also found were carelessly scribbled bizarre notes. One suggested someone scare “him” with snakes; another, scare “him” by saying “he” would be dropped down a deep shaft; another, another said, “put a bomb at the door and lock him in, where he can see the bomb all the time, and have the bomb wired to go off at any minute”; another,”put him in a sack and tie the top of the sack and throw him in the river.” The person meant by “him” was not known.
I've not yet been able to find out what became of Charley. Besides Charley, Calvin had William who died at 35, possibly from an accident; Edward, who was sometimes called Edmund like his father's brother; Lester O; Alice M.; Calvin H., who was in WWII in the Navy; and Robert.
4) Charles and Catherine's third child was Jane. She probably died as a baby.
5) Charles and Catherine's fourth child was Ina. Ina married Leonard Dedrick in 1898 and they lived around Brodhead all their lives. Your Grandpa, Paul Stevens, remembers visiting Aunt Ina and Uncle Lennie in Brodhead. They never had children. When we first moved to Reetz Road a very friendly Dedrick family from Brodhead, probably a nephew of Uncle Lennie's, lived several houses down the street. Unfortunately we never made the connection until after they had moved away. At the end of her life Catherine Patriquin Stevens lived with Ina.
6) Charles and Catherine's fifth child was Edmund. Edmund is our ancestor so he has his own story.
7) Charles and Catherine's sixth child was Anna, born in 1873. Anna was the last child of the family to be born in Nova Scotia. Anna married Eli Hutzel in 1892. They had four children in Wisconsin; Lulu, Glen, Robert, and Harriett. Then they moved to Iowa.
8) Charles and Catherine's seventh and last child was Ella Maud, born about 1880 in Wisconsin. Ella married Robert Balis in 1900. Robert was a brother of Flora Balis who married Edmund Stevens, our ancestor. Two Stevens siblings married two Balis siblings. Ella Maud became very ill and died quite suddenly in 1902.
So this is the story of your great-great-great grandfather and mother Charles and Catherine Stevens. Charles was always a farmer, Catherine a farmer's wife. They started their family in Nova Scotia, and pioneered to Wisconsin in their middle years, having their last child here. Charles could never read nor write. But his wife and all his children could. Together they left many interesting descendants, including . . . Us!
Here is how you're related to Charles and Catherine Stevens: Charles and Catherine had Edmund Stevens, Edmund had Harold Stevens, Harold had Paul Stevens, Paul had Dawne Stevens, and Dawne had you, my wonderful grandchildren!
So Hooray for Charles and Catherine Stevens!
Love,
Granny
[11283] Per Gene Jane 11Apr 2009 - "Lake Road is referring to the road the runs between Tatamagouche and Mattatall Lake - look at the old Colchester Map on my site and locate MILLBURN in the top part of the map - Lake Road runs through it. This is the area that Charles wife Catherine was from ..."
Dwelling # 82 Household # 82
Minard, Amos age 69 Farmer VT VT VT
Abigail 60 wife NH NH NH
Stevens, Chas 48 Farm Laborer cannot read or write Nova Scotia NS NS
Catherine 44 wife NS NS NS
Ina 11 dau attends school NS NS NS
Edmond 9 son attends school NS NS NS
Annie 7 dau attends school NS NS NS
Charles and Catherine's son Addison, 14, is living on the nextdoor farm of B F Gifford as a "hired boy"
Line 12 Dwelling # 201 Family # 209
Stevens, Charles b. JUL 1831 age 68 m 37 yrs Can/Eng Can/Eng Can/Eng imm: 1878 inUS 22yrs Na Farmer Own
Catherine Mar 1837 63 all same as above 8 ch b./ 7 living
Maud E. Jul 1880 19 S WI Can/Eng can/Eng
Line 2 Dwelling # 146 Family # 146
Stevens, Charles head age 78 m1 for 58 yrs Can/Eng Can/Eng Can/Eng imm: 1880 na occ: farmer cannot read or write
Catherine wife 72 m2 58 Can/Fr Can/Fr Can/Fr 6/89 8 ch b/6 living can read & write
Line 36 Smith St. Dwelling # 214 Family # 214
Lange, Alice head owns free age 60 wd NS/Eng NS/Eng NS/Eng occ: none
Stevens, Katherine mother 84 wd NS/Eng NS/Eng NS/Eng none
[95] This "Katherine" is Charles' widow
Upper Londonderry Family # 25
Stevens, Mary age 58
Charles 39 - Farmer
Addison 5
Catherine 34
Jennie 2
Calvin 4
Lake Road is referring to the road the runs between Tatamagouche and Mattatall Lake - look at the old Colchester Map on my site and locate MILLBURN in the top part of the map - Lake Road runs through it. This is the area that Charles wife Catherine was from so it is possible she was staying with her parents when Edmund was born.
Lake Mills is most likely the western end of Lake Road - there were a number of mills operating on Lake Stream that runs just north of Millburn - this can also been seen on the map. There are a number of "J. Patriquins" living there and one of these would be Catherines father John Patriquin... there are also a couple of "J.Tattrie" and one of these could be Catherine's first husband John Tattrie. These maps were printed in the early 1870's, but the data would have been gathered in the years before this.
I searched the map but could not locate a house for Charles Stevens, however in the 1871 census his name appears as a near neighbor of folks living at Folly River... this is an area just north of Folly (Fawleigh) Village.