The life story of Daniel S. Babcock’s family, overall, is a bit sad. Daniel was a shoemaker at the start of the Industrial Revolution. It doesn’t appear that he ever owned land and the family moved several times, given the dearth of census records and the fact that the two in which they appear show them as all born in New York or all born in New Jersey. If either is true, I tend to believe they were born in New York, since the 1855 census record is the earliest I can find for them and that is the record that states New York births.

It is likely that Daniel and Eliza buried two of their youngest children, Helen and Elizabeth, when both were pre-teens.

Daughters Caroline and Jane have been lost to time.

Sons Charles and George both married and had families.

That leaves youngest daughter Lucy. What became of her is heartbreaking.

Lucy is enumerated as a 3 year old child, born c1857, in the 1860 census of Hohokus, Bergen, New Jersey.

I hadn’t had much luck tracking her down until I tried MyHeritage’s Old News (separate subscription from MyHeritage itself). The local Paterson newspaper [The Paterson Evening Press] had printed some depositions taken from children who lived in the Paterson Orphan Asylum in the late 1860s. Conditions at the orphanage were being investigated.

One of the children deposed was Lucy Babcock:

From the date of the deposition – 22 April 1872 – and Lucy’s statement that she would be 14 years old on the following 9 May puts her date of birth as 9 May 1858. This is a year younger than the 1860 census record stating that she was 3 years old in 1860. Which date is accurate is unknown. I would think Lucy knew how old she was, but given her life circumstances, perhaps she was off by a year.

The deposition is about a little boy, Henry Bent, who died in the “care” of Mrs. Nichols, a matron at the asylum. The conditions which surrounded Lucy for much of her life were horrendous.

Lucy stated that she lived at the orphanage for “six or seven years until 1871” and that she was currently, in April 1872, living with her brother Charles at 20 Jay Street in Paterson.

Fortunately, many city directories survive for Paterson and a couple of entries were of interest.

First, when Charles and George each married, their parents’ names were recorded as “Daniel and Eliza” with no surname, and no maiden name for their mother. However, this fits with the 1855 and 1860 censuses.

Although Daniel hasn’t been found in the 1870 census, he does appear once in the 1871 Paterson city directory:

There is little doubt that this is “my” Daniel, as he is a shoemaker and living with him at 48 Prospect Street is his son, Charles. George, the machinist, might be his brother, who would have been only about 17, but it’s possible that George isn’t the man in this entry and perhaps wasn’t considered old enough to have his own directory listing.

However, Daniel completely disappears from all records after 1871. It appears he died around this time. Was his appearance in Paterson in that directory the reason Lucy was released from the orphanage? I don’t know.

So, we have Lucy’s statement that she lived in the asylum for six or seven years, which would place her living there about 1865-1866.

My theory is that her mother, Eliza, died about 1865. Lucy was the youngest child left at home, but given the lack of detail about her brother George’s teen years, I have to wonder if both Lucy and George were sent to the orphanage by a father who, for whatever reasons – economic or health – was unable to care for them.

Charles married in 1866, but apparently that didn’t change Lucy’s circumstances. Is that perhaps why Lucy lived with George in 1872? George would have been 18 years old in 1872 – might he have been released from the orphanage at that time and was allowed to take Lucy with him?

George eventually married and moved his family to Fairfield County, Connecticut – not a short trip in the 1880s. Even today, with traffic, it’s easily a couple of hours’ drive. Was he not close to brother Charles because of their childhoods?

More questions with no answers.

Lucy, happily, was living with George in 1872, but she was approaching the end of her life by that time. There is an undated death record of one Lucy Babcock of Paterson dying at the age of 19 years.

The Babcock story will conclude with family sketches of Charles and George Babcock.