#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 5 So Far Away: Emily Augusta Scrivener

The Scriveners mostly stayed close to home, settling around the village of Friendship, staying in Anne Arundel County MD, occasionally moving to Baltimore or the District of Columbia.  Emily Scrivener was the exception.

Emily Augusta Scrivener, called Emie, the 11th child of Lt. John Scrivener and Eliza Smith Boswell, was born in Anne Arundel County MD 21 August 1838 with her twin sister, Maria Louisa. Her father died in 1849 and she is shown in the 1850 Census of Anne Arundel County (8th District) at age 12 with her widowed mother, Eliza (46),  her older brothers Francis and James, three of her sisters--Mary Priscilla, Maria Louisa and Rosy, her father's sister, Mary Scrivener Wood (80) and a governess, Sarah Long.

In 1859, at age 21, Emie married Charles Porter Culver at St. Peter's Church in Baltimore MD.  Charles, the son of Henry Porter Culver and Lamira Sigourney Lacy, was born in Monroe County NY in 1828 and at the time of his marriage was a farmer living in Janesville Wisconsin with his parents, his brother Samuel and sister Harriet.  I would love to know how Emie and Charles met, but I have no clue how the man from Wisconsin ended up with a Maryland bride. So far, I  haven't been able to find a Maryland connection with the Culvers or what would have brought Charles to Baltimore.

In any case, Emie moved to Janesville with her husband and most likely never saw her Maryland family again.  She appears there in the 1860 Census with Charles' family.

In July 1861, Emie and Charles' daughter Louise (Lulu) Culver was born in Janesville. She was followed by Harriet Lamira Culver in 1868.  The 1870 Census of Janesville shows Charles, a farmer, age 46, with real estate worth $19,000. Emie (29), Louisa (9), and Lamira (1) are also in the household along with a housekeeper, Frances.

In 1875, a third daughter was born to Emie and Charles--Ruth Sigourney Culver.

The map below shows Charles Culver's property in Janesville in 1873 (at the top of the map).

About the time of Ruth's birth, Charles' health began to fail.  According to his obituary, his health had been poor for several years before his death in 1879 and he had travelled as far as Georgia seeking a better climate.  He died in April 1879 in San Antonio TX where he had gone looking to improve his health.  His obituary speaks of his standing in the community:

Mr. Culver was a man of kindly spirit, and void of all ostentation. To all he was courteous and genial, ever inspired respect and esteem, but it was only his friends who really saw the wealth of character which he possessed, and who truly appreciated his good qualities of mind and heart. He was acquainted with many. He was known by few. He was a man of sterling integrity, a man who had a mind of his own, who was never ashamed to express his opinion, and however it might differ from the opinion of others, they never doubted that he was honest in his views. In all his dealings he was prompt and reliable. In fact there was much true manhood in him.

The 1880 Census of Janesville shows the widowed Emie (43), with her three daughters--Louisa (18), Hattie (11) and Ruth (5), along with a servant, Mary Motsie. Alas, the year ended sadly with Lulu's death in December of consumption.  The Janesville Gazette lamented her passing a few days before Christmas:

She had reached and passed her nineteenth birthday, and while her life was a comparatively brief one, yet it was a life of inestimable value to the widowed mother, to the two younger sisters and other relatives and friends, and a life whose going out causes a loss to the community.  Her character was one worthy of much praise, and loved most by those who knew it best, and the sympathy extended to the mourning family will come from many friends, who feel that the loss is in part their own. 

The following year in 1881, Emie married Marquis de Lafayette (Mark) Ripley, the son of Daniel and Sophia Ripley and a widower himself, who had recently lost his only son. His wife, Elizabeth, died while trying to save a young girl who was drowning.  Mark was born on Grindstone Island in the Thousand Islands area of Jefferson County NY.  Daniel Ripley had played in the band that welcomed Lafayette in New York in 1825 and named his son after the famous general.  Mark was in the Secret Service during the Civil War and later worked as a miller and farmer as well as constructing the railroad between Fond du Lac and Janesville.  When he settled in Janesville, he operated the lime kilns and stone quarry on the Strunk Farm and was later associated with Frank Strunk in a livery stable in Janesville. He was also in the insurance business for many of his later years. The drawing below shows the Ripley house in Janesville (1873).


In January 1893, after completing her education at the Rockford Female Seminary in Illinois, Emie's 24-year-old daughter Hattie married banker Charles Fremont Page, the wedding taking place in the Ripley's home. The couple moved to Minnesota and had two children: Charles Culver Page in 1893 and Jeanette Page in 1896. 

By the 1890's, Mark Ripley's health began to fail, and although he travelled to New Mexico and California seeking a better climate, he succumbed to consumption in 1896, leaving Emie a widow for the second time. 

In 1898 Hattie Culver Page died in Crookston MN. The 1900 Census shows Emie in Riverside CA with her widowed son-in-law, her two grandchildren and her daughter, Ruth.  I am not sure what brought the family to California, perhaps again a search for a more healthful climate.  In any case, Emie died back in Janesville WI in March 1902 at age 63.  According to her obituary, the death was sudden and unexpected, the result of a cold which developed complications. The Janesville Gazette praised her: 

By her death, Janesville loses a noble woman, who has always devoted a portion of her time to the care of others.  Her kindly, loving disposition has made for her a large circle of friends outside of her immediate relatives. 

Back in Maryland, two sisters--Eliza Sullivan and Sarah Jane Somervell--and one brother--Samuel Wesley--survived her. 

Emie's third daughter Ruth did not long survive her mother.  In September 1902, Ruth married Frank Irving Sanner, a hardware salesman.  The wedding was described in the local papers as a very posh event, held at the home of District Attorney William G. Wheeler in Janesville.  The young couple seemed to be very popular in the town:

 The bride who has grown to womanhood in this city, has been an acknowledged leader a favorite in the younger society circles.  By her pleasing personality she has surrounded herself with friends whose sincere affection she holds and who regret her permanent departure from the city. The groom is the son of Adam Sanner and is also popular in Janesville social circles, having made his home here until about a year ago when he removed to El Paso Texas.  He is connected with the firm of Tanner and Pennybaker wholesale hardware merchants , and has so established himself in the esteem and confidence of his employers that he is to become a member of the firm on the first of next January. 


After living in El Paso for a short time, Ruth and Frank moved to California where they hoped the climate would be better for Frank's health.  (Are you noticing a pattern here?) In August 1903, the Sanners had a daughter, Emily Ruth Culver Sanner, but the child was an orphan before her first birthday.  Frank died in Riverside CA in April 1904 and Ruth died there in June 1904.  

Frank's mother, Henrietta Sanner, brought the infant back to Janesville where she died in April 1905.

The picture below shows Emie with her daughter Hattie and her granddaughter Jeanette Page. (Thanks to cousin Tom Wright for sharing this great photo with me. )

 I'm glad to see she got to enjoy a little time with her darling granddaughter, considering all of the tragedies that her life brought to her, far away from her family of birth. 

The Culvers created quite a unique memorial in the Janesville cemetery, a stone tree showing all the family members, even those who weren't actually buried in Janesville.