Category Archives: Blyther

Blyther, Calais, Coleman, Crouse

Reviewing the Blyther Family History

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Here’s a quick recap of Rebecca Jones Crouse Blyther‘s children:

Elias Crouse/Blyther – married, but died soon after and left no children.

Dean Crouse/Blyther – no record found after 1860 unmarried and with no children.

Samuel Crouse/Blyther – married twice. One daughter with Matilda Jane Carlow, also named Matilda Jane. Matilda married Luther Fickett. They had one daughter, Nettie, who married, but had no children. Samuel married (2) Eliza Smith. Sam and Eliza both died as young adults, but had daughter Sarah Maria and son Dean Samuel. Both married and left descendants.

Sarah Moriah Crouse Coleman – Sarah married William Coleman, lived to be 97 years old and had six children, Mary Adelaide, Alvin, William Edgar, Samuel Jones, Hartwell Thomas and Ethel. Alvin and Ethel died as children, but the others married and left descendants.

Mary Crouse/Blyther – not found after the 1850 census when she was 14. May have married by 1860 or died during that decade.

Martha Blyther – married Joseph S. Smith, but they had no children.

Helen Marr Blyther – married Charles H. Wright and had two daughters, Inez and Helen. Inez married Will Rogers Parker and left descendants. Helen married Harold Morgan Marriet, but it appears they had no children.

Ruth Blyther –  married Robert Colin Campbell and had three children, Gertrude, Robert Colin and William Wallace. William died in childhood. Gertrude married David Shoemaker and had two children, David and Ruth. David died young. Ruth married Everitt Hendrickson and left descendants. Robert died in adulthood, but no marriage or children has been found for him.

Henrietta L. Blyther – married Philip Roemmele and Edward S. Rusing. Philip died soon and they had no children. Edward and Henrietta had two daughters, Grace and Helen. Grace died soon after marriage leaving no children and Helen did not marry so Henrietta has no living descendants.

Not only did I learn a lot about the Crouse and Blyther families with this renewed search, I discovered that Rebecca traveled at least from Calais, ME to Nevada and California in 1879 and then back to Massachusetts by the time she died in 1897.

I’ve also talked to some new cousins in this family and shared family history information with them.

The lesson learned here is to take a second and even a third look at old research as new records are becoming available on line at a rapid rate. Some brick walls open by themselves!

 

Blyther, Calais

New Blyther Cousins

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I’ve been madly working on Blyther leads for the last few days. Another new update – Marjorie Franklin, daughter of Will and Inez Wright Parker, born in 1911 and  died in 1933, unmarried. That creates another closed line.

The last Blyther daughter is Henrietta L., born 1 Apr 1847, Calais, ME and died 22 Jan 1944, Sonoma County, CA. Henrietta married (1) Philip Roemmele, born about 1878  in Germany, on 29 July 1875 in Sacramento, CA. No further records have been found after the marriage for Philip and Henrietta married (2) Edward S. Rusing, 7 Aug 1878, also in Sacramento. Philip likely died, but they may have divorced. In either case, there appear to have been no children from that short marriage.

Henrietta and Edward had two daughters. Grace M. was born in October 1879, Nevada and married Charles W. Tozer on 12 Sept 1905 in Alameda County, CA. However, Grace died nine months later on 7 June 1906 in San Francisco, CA. It is easy to speculate that she died giving birth, but she died only about six weeks after the earthquake and it is possible she died from injuries or sickness.  Charles died sometime after 1920 and no second marriage record has been found for him. Henrietta’s second daughter was Helen O., born 3 Aug 1883 in California. She died 18 July 1941, unmarried, in Placer County, CA, leaving Henrietta with no descendants.

Tomorrow, I will summarize the information on the Crouse/Blyther descendants and provide a short explanation of how I traced the 21st century family.

Blyther, Calais, Crouse

Blythers of Calais, ME

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One update from yesterday’s post – Helen Ford, daughter of Elmer, passed away unmarried on 3 June 2008 in Jaffrey, NH, leaving her sister, Dorothy, who may have married Francis T. Prendergast, as the only possibility for descendants in that line, along with the children of Dean Samuel Blyther,- Royal, Walter and Mary Ella.

However, although that branch of the family adopted the Blyther surname, they were actually Crouses. There are no descendants of Peter Crouse living today who carry his name.

Remember, after Rebecca Jones Crouse married Benjamin Blyther, they had four daughters together – Martha, Helen, Ruth and Henrietta. What became of them?

First, I went to the americanancestors.org (subscription) website of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and searched for any data on “Blyther” and “Blither.”  The surname isn’t terribly common and only 76 hits came up, so I started scrolling through them. I had a surprise!

There was an entry for a Rebecca (Jones) Blyther who died in 1897. My Rebecca Jones Crouse Blyther died in 1897 and, with an uncommon name, there couldn’t be very many of them with the same maiden and married name dying in the same year. My Rebecca died in Calais, or so I thought. This Rebecca died in Hubbardston, Worcester, MA and my family had no known ties to that town. I eagerly checked out the actual image and, yes, it is my Rebecca. Her parents were Richard Jones and Mary Boone, same as the parents named on the Hubbardston death certificate.

Now my interest was piqued – Rebecca died far from Calais, ME. Where else might she have lived besides New Brunswick in the 19 years between Benjamin’s death and her own passing? I searched for Rebecca in the 1880, but didn’t find her in Maine or Massachusetts. One interesting possibility came up for R. Blither, 65, born ME living in Cisco, Placer County, California. She was living with the family of R.A. and Ruth Campbell (family number 3) and was enumerated as the mother. R. Blither’s age was close to my Rebecca’s.

One of the four Blyther girls was named Ruth and her age matched the age of this Ruth Campbell. This might well be “my” Ruth Blyther and I couldn’t find her before because I hadn’t been looking in California!

I also found an 1867 marriage for Ruth Blyther in Charlestown, MA  to Robert A. Campbell.

This Ruth was born in Calais, ME and her parents were listed as Benjamin and Rebecca. That was the proof that R. Blither in Placer County, CA in 1880 is my 3x great grandmother, Rebecca Blyther.

So, my Rebecca, who I thought was born in New Brunswick, married there, began her family there and then remarried and spent the rest of her life in Red Beach (today part of Calais) actually must have had quite an adventure traveling to California to live with her daughter and son-in-law.

Gold mining was big business in that area in the 1880’s. I have to wonder if the family had the same hopes as many – striking it rich with gold.  Robert and Ruth Campbell ae last found in Oakland, CA in 1910 so I wonder how Rebecca made the journey back east. Did she travel alone? Did the family make a trip together and she remained on the East Coast?

Finding Rebecca also answered one question about the Blyther daughters. Ruth and Robert Campbell had one son, Robert Colin, and one daughter, Gertrude M., who married and may have descendants living today.

We already know that Martha Blyther Smith who married Joseph S. Smith and took in Dean Samuel and Sarah Maria Blyther had no children of her own.

That leaves Helen and Henrietta for tomorrow.