Children of Samuel and Anna Maria Comfort

Samuel Comfort and Anna Maria Youngblood married in Montgomery, Orange, New York in 1784. They had the following known 9 children.

Samuel, Martha and Catherine remained in Orange County.  Only Moses went to NYC. Elsje, Hiram and Joel moved to nearby Catskill in Greene County.

1785-1862  Elsje + Ebgert Bogardus, 7 children, Catskill

1786-1839  Moses + Anna Pache, 10 children, NYC

1788-1846  Samuel Jr + Fanny Low, 10 children

1791-1839  Hiram + Julia Ludington, 5 children, Catskill

1792-1881  Mary + Isaac Douglass/Philip Mould, 3 children

1795-1844  James + Jane Smith, 8 children, Kentucky

1797-1874  Martha + Moses Rogers, 4 children

1800-1871  Joel D + Emeline Ludington, 5 children, Catskill

1802-1892  Catherine + Peter Clearwater, 1 child

Samuel died in 1802 when several of the children were very young. Anna Maria outlived him by 45 years.

Children of Benjamin and Elizabeth Comfort

Benjamin Comfort and Elizabeth Youngblood married in Montgomery, Orange, New York in 1780. Their 9 known children are listed below. Given the 4 year span between their marriage and first recorded child, they may have had others not yet identified. Three of their sons moved to Mississippi: Daniel, William and Joseph.  Two other sons, David and Jacob, have not been found as adults; unsure if they survived and if so, if they left NY.  If you happen to know, please pass along their info.

1784 – 1855 [71]     Daniel married Martha A Cruser, 9 children, MS

1786 – 1867 [81]     Benjamin Jr married Eliza Kierstad, 10 children, Catskill

1788 – 1832 [43]     Catherine + John D Fulton, 7 children, Montg.

1790 - ??                    David  NO FURTHER INFO

1792 – 1836 [44]     William + Eleanor Whitsett, 6 children, MS

1794 - ??                    Jacob  NO FURTHER INFO

1797 – 1870 [77]     Samuel G. + Mary S Chollet, 6 children, Catskill

1799 – 1858 [58]     Abasalom + Sarah Oliver, 8 children, Catskill

1802 – 1870 [68]     Joseph W + Nancy Williams, 7 children, MS

Elizabeth died in 1805 when their youngest son was only 3.  Benjamin outlived her by only 9 years.

Comfort - Youngblood Marriages 1780s

In Montgomery, Orange County, NY brothers Benjamin and Samuel Comfort married sisters Elizabeth and Anna Maria Youngblood.  The four remained in Montgomery where they raised their families, died and were buried in the local church cemetery.

The grooms were sons of New York natives John Comfort (1725-1795) and his wife Annatje Maul (1726-1805). Their brides were daughters of Revolutionary Soldier Johannes Wilhelm Youngblood and his wife Caterina Buchstaber (1744-1807) who were also born in New York. All four had parents born in Germany.

Benjamin (1757-1814) and Elizabeth (1763-1805) married in 1780 and had 9 known children (8 sons and 1 daughter) and at least 53 grandchildren. Two of their sons (David b 1790 and Jacob b 1794) have not been found as adults. Only their daughter remained within the same county after marrying. Three sons moved to Catskill in Greene County and 3 sons moved south to Mississippi.  Benjamin outlived his wife by 9 years. 

Samuel (1760-1802) and Anna Maria (1762-1847) married in 1784 and also had 9 known children and 53 grandchildren!  All but one of them stayed in New York State – 1 in NYC, 3 in Catskill and the others in Montgomery. Their son James ventured south to Kentucky. Anna Maria outlived her husband by 45 years.

RI Watson Sisters: Mary and Mercy

Mary Perry Watson (1808-1891) was born in Rhode Island to Capt John and Mary Watson (who, by the way were first cousins, their fathers being brothers).  In 1830 she married George Williams Peckham, also a Rhode Island native born 1796. George was a lawyer who moved his family to Albany, New York. Of their 7 children, only 3 lived to adulthood. Sometime prior to 1856 they moved westward to Milwaukee where George purchased 82 acres of land and had a lucrative law practice. 

Both surviving sons, George Jr and William, served with Wisconsin Regiments in the Civil War. After the war George studied law and medicine and became an educational leader in Wisconsin. Daughter Isabella married lawyer Benjamin K Miller. William also practiced law, but in Texas. Other than William, the family members remained in Milwaukee for the rest of their lives.

Mary's younger sister, Mercy (1810-1880) followed the path established by their parents and also married a 1st cousin -- "Colonel" John Watson, son of Wheeler Watson and Sarah Taylor Peckham. (Sarah was 2nd cousin to George Williams Peckham noted above -- their fathers were 1st cousins).

"Colonel" John was a very successful leather tanner who had partnered with Zadock Pratt, his brother-in-law and later was involved in leather sales in NYC. He and Mercy had two daughters and no grandchildren. They lived on 5th Avenue and had a home in New Jersey. John's very substantial wealth passed to his daughters who were generous philanthropists .. and to many cousins. The will of younger daughter Emily who died in 1924 created lots of squabbling among relatives including some she'd never met from the deep south branches of the Watson family.  The Milwaukee branch of the family was included in the will directly -- seems the sisters had maintained contact despite their geographic distance.

Asa and Rufus Watson: from Rhode Island to Mississippi

Not until I was examining the will of another Watson cousin did I ever imagine that members of this long-time Rhode Island family might have moved to Mississippi and taken up the local life style.

Asa (1812-1886) and Rufus W. (1814-1865) were two of the youngest children born to Capt John and MaryWatson of Rhode Island. Both parents died in 1829 when the boys were still young. Initially their Uncle Elisha Watson served as their guardian.

By 1842 Asa was married to Ede Tennessee Taylor, a Mississippi native. In 1850 they appeared to have a residence in the state of Tennessee and a plantation in Mississippi.  They had 5 children, 3 girls and 2 boys including son Wheeler Rufus Watson who served as a Confederate soldier in the Mississippi 10th Cavalry.

Rufus was two years younger than Asa, whom he likely followed or accompanied southward. In 1850 Rufus was a planter and slave holder in Mississippi, marrying Fannie Burnitt there the following year.  They had 6 children, 2 boys and 4 girls, the youngest of whom was born after her father's death.

I can't quite imagine how this choice of a completely different lifestyle might have seemed to the older siblings of Asa and Rufus who lived in the north, like sister Mary Perry Watson Peckham whose son George Williams Peckham fought with the Wisconsin Heavy Artillery.

Communication and travel were not so easy in the mid-1800s, so perhaps they had no further contact after they moved away.

George Williams Peckham, MD, LL.D

George was born 168 years ago on March 23, 1845 in Albany to Geo W Senior and Mary Perry Watson, Rhode Islanders who moved to Albany and then further west to the territory of Wisconsin. There George Jr joined the Wisconsin Heavy Artillery during the Civil War after which he joined his sister Lila at Antioch College in Ohio. He pursued a law degree in Albany and later an MD at University of Michigan. He did not pursue either of these professions.

George was very interested in education and returned to Milwaukee to teach high school, later becoming an educational administrator, librarian and Library Director. He met and married Elizabeth "Bessie" Gifford, a Vassar science graduate who completed her masters there. They introduced Darwinian concepts into secondary eduction would jointly pursue a scientific fascination with wasps & spiders -- becoming world experts on the behavior of jumping spiders. The salticid genus Peckhamia is named in their honor, along with at least 20 species and one subspecie.

A very interesting fellow who clearly met the right mate with whom to share his intellectual endeavors. Bessie was also active in the women's suffragist movement as was George's beloved sister Lila. An interesting couple, married for 33 years until his 1914 death at age 68. Bessie outlived him by 26 years.

RI Watson Cousins: Mary and “ Capt” John

These titles of Judge, Capt, Col, etc seemingly were used to help differentiate among the many John Watsons in Newport, Rhode Island.

Just a few of the many Watsons I have found who married their cousins:

 

Mary Ann Watson married “Capt” John Wheeler Watson in 1794.

She was born in 1775 to Elisha Watson and Miriam Babcock 

John was born in 1768 to Elisha’s brother “Judge” John Wheeler Watson

They were both grandchildren of :

            John Watson 1709-1791 and Isabella Sherman 171-1753

 Mary Ann and John had 12 known children. 

One of their daughters, Mercy L. born 1810, also married a 1^st cousin,“Col” John Watson, son of “Capt” John’s brother Wheeler and his wife Sarah Taylor Peckham.

Interwoven Peckham and Watson Families of RI

In 1799 Sarah Taylor Peckham b.1777 married Wheeler Watson b.1772.

She was the daughter of George Hazard Peckham b.1739 and Sarah Taylor b.1747. Wheeler was the son of “Judge” John Watson b.1709 and Isabella Sherman b. 1717.

George Hazard Peckham was a son of Benjamin Peckham b.1714 and Mary Hazard b 1722. Their youngest son, Peleg b.1762, married Desire Watson b.1767 who was the oldest sister of Wheeler mentioned above.

So the relationship of Sarah and Desire changed over time:

Before here marriage, Sarah was Desire’s niece.             

Sarah’s father George Hazard Peckham was a brother of Peleg hence making Peleg Sarah’s uncle and his wife Desire was her aunt.

Then after Sarah’s marriage to Wheeler, the brother of Desire Watson Peckham, they were sister-in-laws.

1855 Catskill NY Census: BOGARDUS

The census was abstracted/alphabetized by Frank Q. Bowman and published in 1988 by Kinship. This book format is easy to access and provides great information, but also raises some questions about the data it contains and the relationships listed (as do all census records).  It also provided direct information about daughter Martha.

Elsje Comfort married Egbert Bogardus and had 7 children in Catskill: Maria, Samuel, Emeline, Hiram, Edgar, Abraham and Martha. All lived into adulthood but Abraham. Egbert died in 1852 and his widow was head of household in the 1855 state census, as shown below:

BOGARDUS, Else [wid] 70/52 ORA

Children: Maria C 51,Eveline 46, Hiram 44, Julia 34/15 DEL, Martha A Clark 36/6 GRE
Sarah Clark (gr ch) 15/6 GRE, Julia Clark (gr ch) 10/6 KIN, Charles Clark (gr ch) 17/6 GRE
Hannah Bogardus (sis) 67/67/ GRE

The numbers indicate age/yrs in the county followed by the county of birth. Marital status seems to only be indicated for the head of household.

Counties are: ORA Orange DEL Delwaware GRE Greene KIN Kings (Bklyn)

Eveline is actually EMELINE

Julia (nee Bennett) is Hiram’s wife / Elsje’s daughter-in-law

Martha A is actually Elsje’s daughter, who married Z.M. Clark

Charles, Sarah and Julia are assumed to be Martha’s children with Z.M. Clark

Hannah Bogardus is Elsje’s SISTER-IN-LAW, unmarried sister of Egbert

Sons Samuel and Edgar had left Catskill prior to this census and never returned.

Martha's marriage had not been known. She has not yet been found in the 1850 federal census. She is buried in the Catskill Village Cemetery with her gravestone stating that she is the widow of Z.M. Clark.  A marriage certificate for her daughter Julia listed her father's name as Zeba M. Clark. An apparently matching 5 Dec 1891 death record was found in Manhattan for Zeba M Clark -- burial in Catskill per the NY Herald.

Family Snippets: Comfort Siblings in Catskill NY

I started researching Hiram Comfort (1791-1839) who was born in Montgomery, Orange County and then relocated to Catskill where he married Julia Ludington in 1822. Hiram was the 4^th of 9 children born to Samuel Comfort and Anna Maria Youngblood. I also found that his youngest brother Joel was in Catskill and he too married a Ludington, Emeline 1776-1856.I have been searching for proof of her parentage, thus far without luck – but feel that she and Julia were cousins, daughters of brothers Tertullus 1737-1821 and Archibald 1767-1820. My search for proof continues. Interestingly both couples married in Catskill in the spring of 1822.

Only later did I realize that their oldest sister Elsje Comfort (1785-1862) had preceded them to Catskill where she married Egbert Bogardus about 1803.

When Hiram died unexpectedly in 1839 leaving Julia with 5 daughters aged 6 to 15, it was probably helpful that she had close family nearby in Catskill. On the Comfort side there was Joel and Emeline with 5 children plus the 6 surviving Bogardus offspring and their families. On the Ludington side, 2 of Julia’s siblings (Amelia and Robert) had moved to Texas but her sisters Eliza Austen, Harriet Lusk and brothers Henry and Tertullus were nearby with a total of 16 children.

Hiram’s brother Moses lived in Brooklyn and also died in 1839 leaving wife Ann with 10 children. Their siblings Samuel, Mary (Douglass), Martha (Rogers) and Catherine (Clearwater) remained in Montgomery with their combined 14 children. Only their brother James 1795-1844 left New York, settling in Kentucky where he married in 1820 and had 4 sons.

Dr John H Cunningham Collected Duck Decoys

Is that interesting? Maybe, maybe not. However, I found a great article about the decoy maker, Elmer Crowell, with interesting facts about Dr Cunningham (1877-1860) who married Theresa Ingersoll in 1914.  It’s these little tidbits that can make our ancestors come alive.

John studied at Harvard with his friend (and later, Best Man) Dr John Phillips. They spent many weekends studying, hunting and fishing in the “crystal clear waters” of Lake Wenham in Beverly where the Phillips family had 275 acres.  It is said that Wenham Lake ice was renowned for its purity … demanded by Queen Victoria and written about by Rudyard Kipling. (That’s another historic bygone … shipping naturally formed ice across oceans).

A. Elmer Crowell (1862-1951) was a master decoy carver from East Harwich, Massachusetts. Crowell specialized in shorebirds, waterfowl, and miniatures. Crowell's decoys are consistently regarded as the finest and most desirable decoys ever made.  Some of his decoys have sold for over a million dollars.

1918: She Wore Skunk Fur for her Wedding !

I found this great write-up on the 1918 marriage of Colin M Ingersoll and Marie Louise Harrison in the New York Times:

The marriage was solemnized at noon yesterday in the Church of the Resurrection on East 74^th Street …. The bride wore a brown cloth costume embroidered in gold and trimmed with skunk fur, a brown velvet hat embroidered in gold and trimmed with an ostrich plume, and carried a skunk muff and violets.

Sounds strange, but was likely very lovely.Check out this fashion forum with some photos.

Given the increase in skunks in my neighborhood over the last two years, I almost wish it would come back into fashion.

Colin M Ingersoll, Jr (1858-1848) was the son of Julia Pratt and Colin Ingersoll, grandson of Zadock Pratt and Abigail Watson. His first wife, Theresa, died in 1910. 

Rhode Island Cemetery Transcriptions

Since many of my ancestors in the extended and interwoven Watson, Peckham, Hazard, Coggeshall, Easton, Taylor families lived and died in Rhode Island, I wanted to thank all those involved in the extensive Rhode Island Cemeteries Database project begun in 1990.  The result of their work is published on Rootsweb and will be of great assistance to anyone searching for early burials in Rhode Island.  They currently have 458,000 records from 3400 cemeteries in this database. The project's home page provides a history of the database as well as cemetery description data. 

Checking on one branch of the Taylors, I found these records with the final code identifying the cemetery.
 
TAYLOR    Patience    [Arnold]    b~1685   d   9 Dec 1739    NT 011
                    Robert                         b~1689   d 26 Nov 1762    NT 001
                    Rebecca                      b~1720    d 15 Apr 1782     NT 001


Patience was Robert's first wife and her maiden name was included in the listing. 
She is buried in the Arnold burial ground, denoted by code NT 011 and described as:
 

    NEWPORT HISTORICAL CEMETERY #: NT011     GOV. BENEDICT ARNOLD GRAVEYARD          
       Location: 40 ft north of PELHAM ST at TEL pole # 7     
       71 burials with 57    inscriptions from 1677 to 1834
       60  ft x 60   ft in good condition enclosed with a metal fence

       sign in good condition

Years later when Robert and third wife Rebecca died, they were buried in the Island
Cemetery, denoted as NT 001 and described as:
   

    NEWPORT HISTORICAL CEMETERY #: NT001     ISLAND CEMETERY  

       Location: 20 ft north of WARNER ST at TEL pole # 8     
       10000 burials

Rebecca's parents, Benjamin Coggeshall and Sarah Easton, are buried in the
Coggeshall burial ground in Newport (NT 016).

    NEWPORT HISTORICAL CEMETERY #: NT016     COGGESHALL CEMETERY   
     Location: 15 ft east of COGGESHALL AVE at TEL pole # 14    
     50 burials with 39    inscriptions from 1647 to 1958
     80  ft x 80   ft in excellent condition enclosed with a stone wall

Information on the location, number of graves and the condition of the cemetery 

can be very helpful for planning and a cemetery visit. 

Thank you, thank you to all who worked on this project !!