#52 Ancestors 2024 Week 37 Tombstone: The Culver Family Tree Tombstone

 

At first glance, you might think you are looking at a tree. And, in a way, you are, but not one that grew up from the earth.  This is a man-made tree in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Janesville WI, a stone memorial to my cousins in the Culver family that lays out their family relationships. It is one of the most unusual memorials I have ever seen, but definitely one that, as a family historian, I am very fond of. 

At the foot of the tree is the family patriarch, Henry Porter Culver and his wife Lamira Sigourney Lacy.  Henry was born 20 January 1793 in Hebron CT, the son of Benjamin Culver and Miranda Porter. In 1817, he moved to Monroe County NY where he married Lamira Lacy, the daughter of Major Samuel Lacy and Ruth Chase Sigourney (a descendant of Huguenots), in 1820. 

Henry was engaged in manufacturing in the village of Honeoye and contributed substantially to the growth of that area.  He was among the first to manufacture barrels by machinery instead of by hand. He was a colonel in the 177th NY Militia in 1828. In 1842, Henry and his family moved to Janesville WI where he purchased a large farm.  He died in Janesville in 1869, at the age of 76.  Lamira Culver died in Janesville in 1889 at the age of 86.

Henry and Lamira had four children, each of whom is represented on this family tree: 

Cordelia Sigourney Culver 1820-1842. She was educated at the Albany Female Academy. She married Judge Orville Charles Pratt, the second justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, in 1841, but died the following year. 

Harriet Lamira Culver 1836-1918. She was educated at the Troy Seminary.  She married Railroad Agent Wakefield Lyman Marshall of Connecticut in 1870 in Janesville WI and was later divorced from him. Her obituary describes her as a woman of wide reading with a great interest in public affairs.  She moved to California about 1900 because of her health and died there.  Her ashes were interred in Janesville. 

Samuel Henry Culver 1824-1866.  He worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as an Indian Agent in the Rogue River District of Oregon. He married Delia Hanley about 1864 and had one son with her who died in infancy. Samuel died in Janesville WI. 

Charles Porter Culver 1828- 1879. He married my 2X-great aunt, Emily Augusta Scrivener, at St. Peter's Church in Baltimore MD in 1859.  He was a farmer in Janesville WI.  He went to Texas for his health in 1879 and died there.  Emily married secondly Marquis de Lafayette "Mark" Ripley.  She
died in 1902 in Janesville WI.

 

Charles and Emily Culver had three children: 

Louisa C. "Lulu" Culver 1861-1880.  She died 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. 

Harriet Lamira "Hattie" Culver 1868-1898. She married Charles Fremont Page in Janesville WI in 1893. They had two children: Charles Culver Page and Jeanette Page. She died in Janesville in 1898 at the age of 29.  

Ruth Sigourney Culver 1875-1904. She married hardware merchant Frank Irving Sanner in Janesville in 1902. They had one daughter, Emily Ruth Culver Sanner, in 1903. Both Ruth and Frank died in California in 1904.  Their daughter was brought back to Janesville by her Grandmother Henrietta Sanner but died there in 1905. Ruth and Frank are buried in Riverside CA, but they are included in the Culver memorial in Janesville. 

I don't know who supervised the creation of this detailed family memorial. I'm not sure who in the family was left since so many family members died young. But whoever did it, family historians are very grateful for this unique family record.

#52 Ancestors 2024 Week 49 Handed Down: Big Mama

My great-grandmother, Louise Gwynn Scrivener, was a devoted family historian and collector of family artifacts.  Although I never met her or saw her home in Baltimore, the photo below suggests that she filled the place with family pictures. 

  There was one picture, though, that did get handed down and still remains in the family, a very large portrait of a handsome woman whom the family affectionately called "Big Mama." Throughout my childhood, Big Mama hung in my grandparents' living room, passed on from Louise to her only child, my grandfather.  According to my uncle, there was also a Big Papa, but Grandpa Scrivener did not have room for both of the huge portraits, so sadly, Big Papa is lost. When my grandparents died, Big Mama moved to my parents' home as it was the only one in the family large enough to accommodate her. After my parents' death, my brother took custody of her. 

Of course, we all assumed that Big Mama was a relation of some kind, but we didn't really know who she was.  My grandfather said she was not a direct ancestor, but an aunt or a cousin.  Since my great-grandmother hung on to this portrait, I thought she must be a relation on that branch of the family.  And it must be someone who had money to be able to afford such an elaborate portrait.  The Scriveners did not have that kind of money.  My grandfather also dredged up a recollection that she was an English lady who had married into the family.  

I found a clue from my great aunt Effie Gwynn Bowie, who was as devoted a family historian as her sister Louise and had written that history down in her monumental work--Across the Years in Prince George's County. Aunt Effie recounted that her great-uncle, John McMullan, had married a woman from Cornwall, England--Mary Kette/Kilte Newton, the daughter of Edward Newton and Mary Kette or Kilte.  Aunt Effie said that Mary was born in 1826 and died in Baltimore in 1886.  Unfortunately, she did not offer evidence for this, but she could have gotten the information directly from Uncle John McMullan who lived in Baltimore until his death in 1903 or from one of his children. 

So, I went to work to see what I could find out about Mary and if she was indeed Big Mama. 

John McMullan was the fourth of five children of John McMullan Sr. (about whom I have previously written) and Susan Tubman. His sister, Susan Tubman McMullan, was my 3x-great-grandmother. John was born on Kent Island on the Eastern Shore of Maryland 4 July 1819.  On the 17th of June 1842, the Sun reported that John McMullan of Baltimore had married Mary Ann Elizabeth Nuton, also of Baltimore. 

The 1850 Census shows John McMullen, 29, a cabinet maker, living in the 10th ward of Baltimore with his wife Mary, 25, born in England, son John, 7, daughter Mary V., 5, sister Ann, 30, and six apprentices in his cabinet making business. 

On the first of September 1857, the Sun reported the sad death of Lawrence Warren McMullan, age 4, son of John and Mary. 

The 1860 Census shows John McMullan, 38, cabinet maker, still living in the 10th ward of Baltimore, with his wife Mary, 28, son John, 17, daughter Virginia, 15, daughter Alice, 6, and son Charles, 2. His sister Ann was still living with him as well as three domestic servants. John had real estate valued at $15,000 and personal property valued at $5,000.  So, he was fairly well-off. The ad below from 1859, shows the kind of stock he carried in his business.

On January 30, 1868, the Sun reported the death of Anna M. McMullan at the home of her brother, John, identifying her as the daughter of the late John McMullan. 

The 1870 Census shows John McMullan, 45, as the owner of furniture stores, his wife Mary, 40, daughter Alice, 12, and sons Charles, 10, and William, 9, attending school, along with two domestic servants. 

By 1880, the Census shows John McMullan, 60, as a retired merchant, living with his wife, Mary, 50, daughter Alice, 22, and son Charles, 20 in a home on North Calvert Street. 

Mary Newton McMullan died in Baltimore May 6, 1886, suddenly of paralysis of the heart according to the Sun. She was buried in the McMullan vault at Green Mount Cemetery. 

John McMullen married for a second time in 1896 to Laura Powles.  He died at his home in Baltimore on July 12, 1903 and was buried at Green Mount.

Children of John and Mary Newton McMullan:

1. John McMullan III born in Baltimore MD 15 May 1843. In John McMullan's household in 1850 and 1860.  May be the widower John McMullan, age 67, working as a hotel butler in Baltimore in 1910. 

2. Mary Virginia McMullan 17 February 1845. Married Robert Brooks at St. Paul's Church in July 1865 and had seven children with him. Died in Baltimore 25 April 1895.

3. Warren McMullan 1852-1857.

4. Alice Mary McMullan 1 June 1857. She married Joseph Enderlin Willig in Baltimore 25 December 1882. She died of accidental gas poisoning 27 May 1924 and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery. She had no children and left her estate to various charities in Baltimore including the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Baltimore Cathedral. 

5. Charles Lewis Oscar McMullan 18 August 1859. Christened at Christ Church Parish in 1863. Died in Baltimore 12 August 1889. His death certificate indicates that he was a widower, and his occupation was a clerk. 

6. William Albert McMullan 1 October 1861.  Died in Baltimore 8 October 1879. His death certificate indicates that he was single and that he was a merchant in Baltimore. 

In the end, I still do not have definitive evidence that Big Mama is Mary Kilte Newton McMullan.  But it is probable that she is.  She is a relative by marriage to Louise Gwynn, and Louise would have wanted to keep that handsome portrait in the family.  She is of the right age to be the woman in the portrait. She is of English birth according to the Census records, and so is the woman in the portrait if my grandfather's recollection is correct. And the McMullans had enough money to afford an elaborate portrait. 

Nor do I know how my great-grandmother ended up with the McMullan portraits.  But she was a formidable lady, so she was certainly capable of persuading her cousins that she was the appropriate guardian for the family heirlooms.

So, Big Mama now resides at my brother's house where we celebrate her at our family gatherings. 

I only wish we had Big Papa as well.