Peacham Ancestors

WALBRIDGE/BROWN/WATTS/ROGERS

Clara B. Walbridge Rogers

Clara B. Walbridge was born 12 mar 1830 in Wolcott, Vermont to Daniel Walbridge and Roxana Brown.  She was the fourth child, fourth daughter born to Daniel and Roxanne (fourth great grandparents); they had six children in all.

Clara was my third great-grandmother and my last direct line ancestor to live in Peacham.  Although her mother, and some siblings remained in the area, our direct connection left Peacham and picked up in California.  Clara was the connection and the reason we now find ourselves here in Peacham many years after her departure.

But I’ve gone to far … so let’s go back. 

Roxana Brown (mother to Clara) was born 5 May 1802 in Peacham and the daughter of David Brown and Olive Lamb.  She was the fourth child, second daughter born to this family.  Her father David was born in Charlton, Massachusetts, 21 Feb 1732 to David Brown, Sr. and Mindwell Cummins born 11 Dec 1735 in Oxford, Massachusetts.  They married 25 Nov 1755 in Waltham, Massachusetts.  Her mother, Olive was born 26 July 1769 in Charlton, Massachusetts to Abijah David Lamb born 14 September 1739 and Elizabeth Wheelock born 17 July 1743 in Worcester, Massachusetts.  They were married 24 August 1763 in Charlton, Massachusetts.

David and Olive Brown left Massachusetts in 1801 and settled in Peacham.  The Browns purchased a farm of about 10 acres on Mack’s Mountain and here raised their family of four children.  David passed sometime between 1844 -1845 in Dunham, Canada.  Olive lived out her life in Peacham, passing away 22 July 1862.

On November 14, 1821 at the age of 19, Roxana married Daniel Walbridge.  Daniel was born 2 March 1796 in Cabot.  Daniel was the son of Oliver Walbridge and Elizabeth Smith.  He was one of ten children born to Oliver and Elizabeth who were from Warren, Massachusetts, moved for a short time to Cabot but settled in Wolcott.  Oliver Walbridge was one of the first settlers in Wolcott and built the first grist and sawmill in the town.

Roxana and Daniel moved to his farm of one hundred acres in Wolcott and there raised their five children, Martha, Maria Chastina, Sarah, Clara and Dustan.  As Roxana was expecting their sixth child, Daniel Augustus, Daniel passed away on May 1, 1835.  Roxana tried to keep the farm going but without the aid of sons to help her, she sold the farm in 1839.  With her six children in tow, she returned to Peacham to live with her brother Simeon on their parent’s farm.

It what probably was an arranged marriage Roxana married Lyman Watts in 1840 who himself was a widower with two sons.  Lyman’s first wife Esther died in childbirth.  Lyman owned a farm on east hill in Peacham and could provide a good home for Roxana and her children.  Together they had three more children, Isaac, Alice and Ella.  The Watts Farm as it was known then is still standing, the original cape now part of a large estate on east hill.  Roxana lived the typical life of a wife and woman of that period; she passed at the age of 60 in Oct 1862 in Peacham.  She is buried in the Peacham cemetery.

Roxana’s children, whom Clara was one of, all lived different lives, some remained in Peacham, others left.  Of her children born to Daniel Walbridge, her daughter Martha married Hubbell S. Gregory and moved to Michigan, she had two children, Augusta Ann and William Gregory.  Her daughter Maria Chastina, known as Chastina, married Alfred S. Rix and moved to San Francisco, California she had two children; Julian and Edward Rix.  Her daughter Sarah married John S. Way and moved to Minnesota she had four children, Martha, Edgar, Clara and Alice Way.  Her daughter Clara married Russell K. Rogers and moved to San Francisco, California she had four children; Nelly, Lena, Harry and Adelaide.  Her son Dustan married Abby Hardy and remained in Peacham he had one daughter Nellie.  Her son Daniel married Marietta Clark he remained in Peacham and had no children.

Her children born to Lyman Watts, her son Isaac married Lizzie Way and remained in Peacham, he had one daughter Meroe Watts.  Her daughter Alice married Charles A. Choate and remained around the Peacham area and Barnet, she had five children, David, Charles, Lyman and Elsie.  Her daughter Lucy married her sister’s husband, Charles A. Choate after her death and had two sons, Charles Choate Jr. and Isaac W. Choate.

Her stepchildren, Charles married Lodoska Spencer and moved to Illinois, he had five children, Dustan, William, Charles, Lena and Harry.  And Lyman married Sarah Chamberlain remaining in Peacham he had one daughter Jennie.

Clara like some of her siblings left Peacham for a different life, one outside of the small Vermont town she grew up in.  So when her sister, Chastina was planning on joining her husband Alfred in San Francisco Clara made up her mind to go with her.  So in 1852, Clara, Chastina, her nephew Julian and Chastina’s brother-in-law Ira left on their journey to California.

In some ways, Clara was no different than any other girl in todays time frame, she liked clothes and going out.  But I believe that Clara was a young woman yearning for adventure, an independent woman who traveled far from home to teach in the late 1840’s.  Clara attended the district school as a child but at the age of sixteen was registered at the Peacham Academy, showing that she had an aptitude for learning and education.  A year later in the fall of 1847, she was teaching in a one-room schoolhouse off Penny Street on Cow Hill.  Her teaching career continued for 10 years and took her as far as Batavia, New York and San Francisco, California.  She also taught in Littleton, New Hampshire and Cabot, Vermont for a time.

But it was the journey to California with her sister where you see the adventurous spirit of this young woman.  Their journey took them over a long distance, part of which was crossing the Isthmus of Panama.  Her sister Chastina was what would have been considered a “proper” woman of her time, so she rode a sidesaddle in her long skirts while Clara wore bloomers and rode like a man on mules.  This story, gives me a smile as I think of the time that my grandparents, Ken and Loretta came to visit us in Texas.  My grandfather Ken was the great grandson of Clara.  Ken and Loretta came to see me ride my horses one afternoon, my grandmother made a comment that wasn’t it rather unladylike to ride a horse astride like that?  This was in the 1980’s … Clara must have been a sight in 1852 wearing bloomers riding a mule astride.

Clara settled into life in San Francisco, soon finding a job teaching at a public school at the Mission Delores.  She also enjoyed the city life that San Francisco provided to her, not to mention a long line of suitors.  Many of her suitors were young men from Peacham that had come west in search of fortune and always made it a point to stop and stay at the Rix home.

But in August of 1856, Clara married Russell Kimball Rogers (Rodgers).  Like Clara, Russell came from Vermont and was well known to the family as he worked as a clerk in Isaac Watts store for many years.  He was only fourteen when he began working for Mr. Watts and remained there for four years, after which he moved to Boston where he continued as a clerk until such time as he left for California in 1851, arriving early in 1852.  Russell was not an educated man like Clara and although they struggled at times he in the end proved to be a good businessman.

Clara and Russell had four children, Nelly, Lena, Harry and Adelaide.  Three of their children lived to adulthood, Lena passing away at the age of two.  Clara lived a long life, passing away at the age eighty-seven.  She was born a Vermonter, but died a Californian.

Our line continues with Clara and Russell’s son Harry, he was born in February 1865 in San Francisco, California.  In the 1880 census, he was listed as a farmer, by the 1900 census listed as a bookkeeper and farmer.  He married Minnie Dujardin a local girl from San Francisco.  It appears from letters that Harry’s mother Clara did not approve of Minnie.  She wrote in a letter, “his wife does not really know that she ought to economize … and she is not at all domestic buys most of their food at the bakers and takes life easy as possible … I never saw a woman who was so little interested in home … and I don’t know what the children would do were it not for us to help them.”

Harry and Minnie lived their lives in California and had four children, Edwin, Lucille, Russell Jr. and Harry.  Our family line continues in California for a total of 5 generations after Clara first arrived. 

In 1995, Lynn Bonfield and Mary C. Morrison co-wrote the book, Roxana’s Children The Biography of a Nineteenth-Century Vermont Family from which much of what I have written was taken.  In the last chapter of their book, last paragraph they state that no descendant of Roxana Brown Walbridge Watts now lives in Peacham.

I was the child not born in California, but I am the fourth great granddaughter of Roxana who after 160 years retuned to Peacham.  Now three generations of Roxana’s descendants live in Peacham once again.

Edwin, Beatrice, Clara (Walbridge) and Harry D. Rogers