* The image at the right is a business directory and layout of the village of Parma, MI, likely printed during the 1850s. The picture overlay represents grandfather David's role as a frontier doctor. The two names highlighted at the lower left are that of C. Armstrong (Chester), identified as a shoe and leather dealer, and D. W. Armstrong (David), listed as a M.D.
Elliott and Eleanor's seventh son--David W.--is my great-great grandfather. Grandfather David was born 13 August 1807 in Shoreham, Addison County, VT. David is said to have been a graduate in medicine from Middlebury College (VT) (rf --, page 177), and practiced medicine from the early 1830s until his death. I checked with Middlebury College and found that they never actually had a medical college, but were instead affiliated with medical schools at Castleton, VT (1819 -- 1827) and Woodstock, VT (1833 -- 1837) for which they were the degree conferring institution. Their records (which they swear have never been found to be in error) do not show that David ever received a degree from Middlebury. Records at Castleton indicate that David did enter Castleton Medical School in 1827, but that he is listed in the catalogue of their nongraduates (rf --). As he is also not listed as a college graduate in reference -- (pages 149 and 150), there is reason to believe that if he ever did receive a medical degree, it may have been at some other institution.
After his marriage to Sarah M. Treadway in Shoreham in 1830, he lived for a period of time in Peru, Clinton County, NY until at least 1832. It is not know what he did in Peru for a living (perhaps finishing up his medical studies?), as it is said that he did not begin his medical practice until around 1835 in Ausable Forks, Essex Co., NY (rf --, page 177).
About 1839, he returned to Shoreham, VT where he continued his medical practice for a few years before moving to southern Vermont to the town of West Haven, where his brother Ransom, resided. It was also clear that David had inherited his parents prolific commitment to continuing the bloodline, as during this period he fathered an additional five children.
Apparently, I inherited my wanderlust from him, as in 1848 he moved again, this time joining the ever-increasing number of pioneers moving westward. In 1848, he, his wife, and his children took the old Erie canal to Buffalo and proceeded by way of the lakes to Detroit and then by railroad to Parma, Michigan, eighty-six miles from Detroit. This trip by rail consumed an entire day.
A story about their trip has been handed down through the descendants of Rolla Silas Armstrong. The family is said to have traveled by boat until they came to one of the locks where they were required to disembark and travel for a distance down a trail by foot. Apparently they were on the Canadian side of the canal, and while they followed the trail they saw a number of Indians coming in their direction. They quickly hid in the brush, and Grandmother Sarah had to pinch the baby's nose to stop it from crying until the Indians finally passed out of sight. The migration of our frontier doctor and his family must have been an exciting but somewhat daunting adventure.
Initially David and his family settled on his father, Elliott's farm, about four miles north of Parma, MI, and during the winter of 1849 moved his log cabin and family to Parma where he succeeded to a physician's practice there. According to reference --, he was only the second or possibly the third physician to serve Parma and the surrounding area.
Although no written word has survived to describe his life as a frontier doctor, David Armstrong's medical account book has been preserved (see Reference #43. Covering a 13-year span of his medical practice in Parma, it paints an intriguing picture of a country doctor who religiously administered to the medical needs of his community and the surrounding countryside. This was an era during which the practice of medicine bore little resemblance to what it is today. In those days the concept of making a reservation to see the doctor, preventative medicine and long waiting lines in antiseptic waiting rooms filled with magazines and children's toys would have seems odd indeed. Grandfather David carried his office with him in his medical bag and spent much of his time traveling in his horse and buggy at all hours of the night and day to treat the ills and injuries of his far-flung clientele. With a particularly ill patient, he sometimes stayed away from his own home for two or more days at a time. He attended to the births of the townspeople's children and the deaths of their loved ones, normally charging between $.25 and $2.00 per visit.
His account book also provides perhaps one of the only remaining records of the names of the residents of that era. For example, on several occasions he treated other members of his family who resided in the area:
- His older brother, Chester Armstrong
- His younger brother, Elliot Orlando Armstrong
- His brother's children - Solon, George and Charlie
- His own children - Sarah and R.S. (Rolla)
Also listed is Trumbull Gould who later married his daughters Ellen and Olive, Trumbull's father Elihu and several other Gould family members. Also listed are several other surnames such as Derby, Griswold and Wright -- all names that we have seen mentioned in connection with our Armstrong line in earlier generations.
Although a professional business record, there are occasions where we are permitted a glimpse of an event of personal significance in David's life. For example, on Sunday, 1 February 1853, he writes Sarah Ann attended prayers vocally in the family for the first time may God keep her in his work for life. In that same year on the 28th of August, he makes an entry that by its very brevity seems to express the pain he must have felt - Our baby Lillian died this day at 10 O'clock in morning. Just over three years later while attending his dying wife, he takes a few moments to write in a hand that is barely decipherable - Dreadful bl(ow?) _______ the last date the loss of wife's health ________. Everything seems lost.
During the final three years of his journal, it is clear that he was beginning the process of putting his affairs in order and gradually bringing his medical practice to closure. In the fall/winter of 1863, he writes that he has sent his account of money to his son Rolla. Most of the remaining entries document the sale or purchase of food stuffs such as sugar, flour and potatoes. On 18 June 1864, he documents the sale of his mare to a member of the Griswold family. On 21 December, he writes that his daughter Olive departed the area but makes no mention of where she may have gone (it is believed that she married approximately two years later). The following year, he mentions that his oldest daughter, Sarah, departed on 17 August 1865 (was this after the death of her husband, George Lewis, who died in 1865 due to injuries suffered in the Civil War?).
On June 5, 1859, he was married to a woman by the name of Marietta Brown. It is not known if Marietta had been previously married, but it appears that her family may have been among the earliest Parma settlers. Perhaps she was related to Dr. Brown, who was the first doctor to practice medicine in Parma?
While all weddings are of interest (at least to family members and friends), this ceremony was of particular interest as it was a double wedding and the grooms were related (rf --). Also married on June 5, 1959, at the Presbyterian Church in Parma, was Dr. Charles Truman Armstrong, David's 28-year old nephew, (his brother Chester's youngest son) and his fiancee Lucy LaSeur. Officiating at the ceremony was another nephew, the Reverend Charles Solon Armstrong (his brother Chester's oldest son).
David and Marietta are said to have had one daughter who died soon after birth. Although somewhat unusual, this baby girl was not buried in a separate grave, but in the same grave in the Parma cemetery as David's first wife, Sarah Treadway. It is believed that Marietta died in May 1869 in Parma and two months later, David also passed away at sixty-one years of age. It is interesting to note that David died in Corunna, MI--possibly while on a visit to his eldest son Jerome, daughter-in-law Louisa, and his three granddaughters. David was buried in the same cemetery as his wives Sarah and Marietta, in Parma, MI. Gloria McKie (Ellen Albana (Armstrong) Goold's great- granddaughter) has visited the graves of the Armstrong ancestors in Parma, and found the graves of David, his wives Sarah and Marietta, and other Armstrongs. She also found that the gravestones of both Sarah and Marietta had been damaged and were lying on the ground. In 1994, she arranged to have both stones repaired and reset.
The Armstrong/Treadway Offspring
1. Joseph Bonaparte Armstrong
David and Sarah's oldest son Jerome is an interesting study in what an intelligent, hardworking person can do when opportunities present themselves. Two short biographies were written of his life and accomplishments (one in 1890 and another in 1909), and the following is based on information extracted from these two sources (rfs. -- and --):
In a review of American history, recognizing those who have contributed to the world's progress, it is imperative that mention be made of Jerome B. Armstrong. Perhaps no man has done so much in propagating corn and in this connection has received recognition from the department of agriculture in Washington and from many expositions. He is now the senior partner of the firm of J. B. Armstrong & Son, seedmen of Shenandoah, and is the pioneer in this line of business not only in Iowa but also in this part of the country.
He was born in New York (actually Peru, Clinton County) on the 3d of July, 1831 (one year off, he was born in 1832), and is the son of David W. and Sarah M. (Treadway) Armstrong.
Jerome B. Armstrong was reared at home, acquiring his education in the public schools of the Green Mountain state. He was a youth of sixteen years when his parents removed to Michigan. Prior to this time, however, he had worked as a farm hand, thus contributing to his own support as early as his tenth year, when his remuneration was only three dollars per month. At the time of the removal to Michigan he secured a clerkship in a dry-goods store at Parma, where he was employed for about five or six years. His father had intended that he become a physician and with that end in view Jerome B. Armstrong began his studies under his father's direction, but destiny willed otherwise and one morning, after a talk with his father, he took the train for Galesburg, Illinois, where he secured employment in a grocery store as a laborer. After a week's work, however, he was placed behind the counter in the absence of one of the clerks and immediately demonstrated his ability to sell goods. He had hired to work at a salary of thirty-five dollars per month but when placed behind the counter his wages were increased to sixty dollars per month and two or three weeks later he was again promoted to a position in the wholesale department at a salary of sixty-five dollars per month. There he remained for four or five months when Galesburg received its city charter, and on the establishment of the police court he was recommended by his employers--due to his unusually dexterous penmanship--to serve as clerk of the court. Judge A. C. Wiley was the presiding officer and in him and the attorney of the court, J. P. Frost, he found warm supporters. He attended the duties of the court for nearly four years, and during this time he was also appointed Deputy United States Marshal for the southern district of Illinois and in that capacity, through Captain R. N. Pollock, who was Chief of Police and United States Marshal, he came frequently in touch with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, acting as private detective and special policeman. Having opportunities to become familiar with legal proceedings he was urged by his friends to enter the profession of law, but he was deterred by what he considered a limited education.
In 1858 Mr. Armstrong came to Iowa as a representative of the Ellwanger & Barry Nurseries of Rochester, New York. Three years later, on account of his health, he returned to Illinois, rented a tract of land, bought horses and farm machinery and began farming, but in July following he suffered a sunstroke, which terminated his efforts along agricultural lines. In the fall of that year he returned to Michigan to consult his father relative to his eyes, having almost entirely lost his sight. His father gave him no encouragement and he then went to Detroit and consulted a specialist, who treated him with but little benefit. For two years he was nearly blind. However, in June 1862, he went to Corunna, Michigan where he engaged in the harness business with an experienced workman named Norman Philips (while he lived there, two of his daughters--Grace B. and Orah A--were born). Soon Mr. Armstrong acquired the entire business and became an expert harnessmaker. He then quit that line of business on account of his health and settled near New Windsor, Illinois in 1870, where he opened a shop. The following spring he started westward for Emporia, Kansas, and on a visit to his brother- in-law in southwestern Iowa (Sidney Heath and his sister Olive), but became attracted by the opportunities and advantages offered in Page County. The beauties of the valley of the Nishma made such an impression upon him that he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of school land near what is now Shenandoah and began to improve his farm. The following spring he removed to his new home, erecting a dwelling and breaking the sod. When he came to Shenandoah the first two buildings were being erected, these including the old depot which Mr. Armstrong now owns. He then decided to return to Illinois where he once again engaged in the harness business before returning to Shenandoah to settle for good. Shortly after his return, he opened a harnessmaking shop, but lost everything he possessed in the most disastrous fire in the history of the town. His spirit was not daunted, however, and in thirty six hours he had another building erected and seven workmen at the bench. He subsequently opened another shop in Coin. For thirty-four years he continued in the harness business, successfully conducting his trade along well defined lines of labor, his energy and ability bringing to him well merited success.
Mr. Armstrong early began to secure Page County real estate, and devoted much of his time to improving several farms. He had one farm where he bred and feeds large numbers of cattle and hogs each year; he also has a farm of 210 acres in Hamilton County, Nebraska, and another valuable tract in Box Butte County. He also had one of the most desirable residences in Shenandoah.
While Mr. Armstrong became locally well known in mercantile lines, he gained a world-wide reputation in connection with the propagation of corn. While in Michigan he began studying and experimenting along that line and after coming to Iowa and seeing one crop of corn matured which was the best he had ever seen up to that time, he took up the study of further improvement and has delved deeper and deeper into the work, studying and reading everything to be found upon the subject and putting forth many new, original and valuable ideas. The president of Ames College recently made a statement that the methods now taught in the college in the propagation of corn were the methods advocated and developed by Mr. Armstrong years ago, who at that time was fifteen years ahead of the times. It has been said by those who are competent to speak on the subject that there is not an acre of corn now grown in Iowa that does not have the Armstrong strain in it (interestingly, corn is about the only vegetable that I really like--thank goodness it wasn't carrots that the Armstrongs were known for)! From this beginning Mr. Armstrong gradually drifted to the seed business (interesting choice of words). As he became master in the work of propagating corn, in 1888 he began advertising his seed corn and thus started, he has since developed his present extensive business until today Shenandoah is recognized as the greatest seed corn center in the world. This is due entirely to the energy of Mr. Armstrong and his success along this line and his work of developing corn. Today Shenandoah ships seed corn all over the world and the name of Armstrong is known wherever corn is successfully produced. In 1898 he received a gold medal, the only one awarded to a grower of corn in Iowa, and a silver medal and all the other honors awarded at the Omaha Exposition for the best exhibit of corn. In 1905, when the National Breeders Association was formed, Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, who was then and is still president of the association, in his appointment of three official members from Iowa named C. F. Curtis, president of Ames College, as the first, and Mr. Armstrong as the second. In 1908 Mr. Armstrong made a further experiment. He had planted one hundred and sixty acres of corn which was drowned out and on the 10th of July, simply as an experiment, he planted his second crop of corn, which developed and matured perfectly. There is no one more competent to speak in authority on the production of this great American cereal than is he. The value and worth of his work are inestimable for the production of corn is one of the greatest sources of the country's wealth and from America its use has been introduced into other lands, where it is becoming more and more popular.
Mr. Armstrong was married in Peoria, Illinois, on the 25th of July 1860, to Miss Louise Hoag, the daughter of James and Levissa Hoag, of Galesburg, Illinois, who was a graduate of Knox College of that city in 1858. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have been born two sons and five daughters: Sarah (Carrie), the wife of Richard De Rouse, of Shenandoah; Grace, the deceased wife of William H. West; Orah, who resides at home; Mary, deceased; Jerome B., Jr., a member of the firm of J. B. Armstrong & Son; Carl, of Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Louise, the wife of Calvin Sturtzbach, of Tampa, Florida. Grace was a graduate of Western Normal College, and was a teacher at Emerson, Iowa; Orah also graduated from Western Normal, and, after demonstrating an unusual talent, she subsequently studied music at the Conservatory in Chicago. She later taught at San Saba College, Texas, where she won an enviable reputation as a teacher.
In early life Mr. Armstrong gave his political allegiance to the Whig party and was one of the organizers of the Republican party, with which he has since been identified. He has never sought, however, the reward of office for party fealty. He is a member of the Shenandoah Lodge, I. O. O. F. (Independent Order of Odd Fellows), and has assisted in instituting numerous lodges, being much interested in the work of the Order. He has now passed the seventy-eighth milestone on life's journey but seems a man of much younger years, being keenly interested in matters relative to the world's progress and especially in what is being done in agricultural lines. His own contribution to the world's advancement has been a notable and commendable one and will make his name honored for years to come.
Jerome Bonaparte Armstrong died several years later on July 17, 1921, at Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan at the age of 89 (possibly on a visit to his younger brother Rolla), and was returned to his home of Shenandoah, Iowa for burial.
It is interesting that in Jerome's biography of 1909, I located the only reference in writing that I have ever found of my great- grandfather (outside government records):
Jerome B. Armstrong had one brother, A. D. Armstrong, who served through the Civil War in the Fifteenth and the Thirteenth Michigan Regiments. He was shot through the body at Pittsburg Landing but recovered and reenlisted in the Thirteenth in time for the battle of Corinth. Later he was with Sherman on the march to the sea and was captured and confined in Libby prison from the time of Johnston's capture until the close of the war. He died in Shenandoah, Iowa, when but forty-five years of age (actually he was only 41 when he died; further, he had two brothers, not one).
2. Sarah Ann (Armstrong) Lewis
Named after her mother, Sarah is the oldest daughter and the second of David and Sarah's children. Three sources alternately cite her birth as Peru, NY; Ausable Forks, NY; and Shoreham, VT. Either of the first two is possible, but as her father is said to have begun his medical practice in Ausable Forks, NY in 1835, it is probable that this is where she was born. Little is known of her early life, but she married George M. Lewis (of Parma, MI?) in November of 1854. She and her husband had two daughters, Cora and Ema.
George was a 1st. Sgt. in Company B, 88th. Regiment, Illinois Volunteers and was wounded in action on July 20, 1864, and died the following January at age 37. He is buried in Parma cemetery. Sarah's obituary provides a brief (if somewhat inaccurate) summary of her life:
The Chelsea Standard, 12 Sept. 1912, page 1, column 3.
Mrs. Sarah A. Lewis died, Monday, September 9, 1912, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. H. S. Frost, of Lansing. The deceased was born in Shoran, VT (spelled wrong and possibly incorrect), February 3, 1835, and was united in marriage at the age of 18 years (actually 19) to George A. (actually M.) Lewis, who died about 40 years ago. Mrs. Lewis was a sister of Dr. R. S. Armstrong and for a number of years was a resident of Chelsea. She is survived by two daughters. The funeral was held from the home of her daughter in Lansing, Tuesday, and remains were taken to Chapel Cemetery near Parma, for burial. Dr. and Mrs. R. S. Armstrong and Mr. & Mrs. E. R. Dancer of this place attended the funeral.
Actually she lived with her younger brother Rolla and his family for several years after her husband's death, as did Alva's children nearly 20 years later.
3. Ellen Albina (Armstrong) Goold (see Family Photo Theatre)
Ellen was born in Ausable Forks (Whiting), Essex Co., NY in 1838. In 1848, at age 10, she and the rest of her family moved to Parma, MI. Just after her 17th. birthday on 13 June 1855 she married Trumbull Goold (see Family Photo Theatre) in Parma. Trumbull was the son of Elihu Marvin Goold, the first permanent resident of the town of Parma. She and her husband moved to Galesburg, IL around 1860. Her husband bought a flour mill at Oneida, IL in 1867, and then moved to New Windsor, IL where he ran a mill until an invasion of wheat rust made milling unprofitable in 1884. After my great-grandmother Mary died in 1878, her and Alva's two youngest children George Francis (Frank) and Mary went to live with their Aunt Ellen and Uncle Trumbull in New Windsor until Ellen fell ill and died of cancer in November 1880, just one month after giving birth to her seventh child. Ellen was 42 years old when she died, and her husband Trumbull was left with six children between the ages of one month and seventeen years. One year later he married Ellen's younger sister Olive, the widow of Sidney F. Heath who had also died in 1878.
4. Alva David Armstrong
See Chapter 6.
5. Rolla Silas Armstrong
The youngest of the Armstrong brothers of this generation is Rolla. Rolla's obituary provides an interesting summary of his life:
The Chelsea Standard, 17 July 1924, page 1, column 5.
Pioneer Washtenaw Citizen claimed by death Thursday. Dr. R. S. Armstrong...Resident of Michigan for more than seventy-five years. In the person of Dr. Rolla Silas Armstrong, death early Thursday morning, July 10, 1924, claimed one of Washtenaw county's oldest and best known citizens at his summer home at Cavanaugh Lake. Dr. Armstrong was the son of David and Sarah (Treadway) Armstrong, and was born in West Haven, VT, July 24, 1844. He would have celebrated his eightieth birthday anniversary in two weeks. He came to Michigan with his parents in the fall of 1848. His parents settled on the farm owned by his paternal grandfather four files north of the present site of Parma. In the winter of 1849 Dr. Armstrong's father went to Parma to succeed to a physician's practice there. The following summer he moved his log cabin, with his family, to Parma. Dr. Armstrong was a graduate of the University of Michigan, class of 1868, and a former resident of Ann Arbor, where he resided for about two years. He was united in marriage with Miss Eliza M. Goodell of Corunna Dec. 13, 1869. Mrs. Armstrong died in 1918 and since then Dr. Armstrong has made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Ernest R. Dancer of Chelsea. Dr. Armstrong came to Chelsea after his graduation and entered the drug business with N. J. Noyues and George P. Glasier. After retiring from the partnership in the Glazier store, Dr. Armstrong engaged in the drug (store) business for himself and in the fall of 1898 he sold to Fenn & Vogel (and retired from active business). He was a member of Olive Lodge No. 156, F. & A.m. of Chelsea, of the Chelsea R.A.R. of Commandery No. 16, Knights Templar, Ann Arbor and the Mystic Shrine. Besides the daughter, Mrs. Dancer, Dr. Armstrong is survived by three sons, Ransom of Chelsea, Howard of Milwaukee, Wisc, and Arthur of Roy, Mo. The funeral was held from the home of Mr. & Mrs. E. R. Dancer, Saturday afternoon. Mrs. Dorothy Bacon Fletcher sang and Rev. E. L. Sutherland, pastor of the Chelsea Congregational Church, conducted the service. Burial at Oak Grove cemetery. The Masonic services were conducted at the grave. Those who attended the services from out-of-town were R. M. Heath of Wahosha, Wic (probably Wakosha, Wisconsin), Mr. & Mrs. A. E. Fletcher of Jackson, Mrs. C. J. Depew of Parelton, PA, Mr. & Mrs. Paul Taylor of Pontiac, Dr. & Mrs. J. H. Frost of Ann Arbor, MI and Mrs. Seymour Godfrey of Parma and a number of the members of the Cavanaugh Lake Association.
Rolla is a prominent figure in the Armstrong family as it was he who took in his older sister, Sarah, and her two daughters some years after her husband was killed in the Civil War. It was also Rolla who became the guardian of Alva's four children when he died. Rolla was a compassionate, highly educated and well-respected man and clearly held in high esteem as evidenced by the number of friends and relatives who traveled from as far away as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to attend his funeral.
According to Kaye Powell and her father, John Rolla Armstrong, Rolla served for a time as the mayor of Chelsea, and his picture still hangs in the Chelsea City Hall.
His son, Ransom Sidney, was also a graduate of the University of Michigan, receiving his degree from the college of Pharmacy in 1894. Kaye's father, John Rolla, was close to his Uncle Ransom, and recalls several conversations with him. For example, Ransom once told him that the Armstrong's originally came from Ireland to New Jersey (which is a new source to explore), and then migrated to the Green Mountains of Vermont. Apparently Ransom had gone to visit the old home place in Vermont and had told John of the tunnel that went from the barn to the family house, that allowed for passage in some comfort during the snow and cold of winter. Ransom Sidney Armstrong served with the Medical Corps in WWII, and was killed in an automobile accident in Chelsea in 1939.
Rolla Silas' daughter, Effa (Mrs. Ernest Dancer) also attended the University during the 1896-1897 time frame and was later a teacher in Chelsea, MI. Jerome Bernard Armstrong (son of Rolla's oldest brother Jerome Bonaparte) also stayed with Rolla for a time and attended the University of Michigan at the same time as Effa. However, he did not graduate, as his father was getting old and he had to return to Iowa to run his father's seed business.
6. Olive Melissa (Armstrong) (Heath) Goold
Of Olive Melissa, I have discovered very little. We know that she was born in West Haven, VT on May 12, 1847, and was only about a year old when her parents and siblings moved to Parma, MI. She does not appear in the 1860 Census with her father and second wife Marieta, so she may have lived for a time with one or more of her older sisters. Per one source, she married Sidney M. Heath on 25 May 1866, and they had two sons and two daughters. It was Sidney and Olive that first lived in Iowa, and who were visited by Jerome when he first viewed the area. The 1870 census, showed that Sidney, Olive and their one-year-old daughter, Nora, resided at that time in Washington Township, Page County, IA.
In the 1870s her husband, Sidney, died leaving her to care for her four small children. In November 1880, her older sister, Ellen, also died and a year later she married her sister's widow, Trumbull Cary Goold. After their marriage, they resided in New Windsor, IL where her husband operated a flour mill, until 1884 when they moved to Howard, SD. Except for a couple of years in Iowa in the middle 1890s, they resided here until his death in 1903. In addition to their children from previous marriages, they had two sons of their own (the oldest of whom - Howard - was an avid genealogist who published an extensive history of the Goold family).
Howard, SD, is a bit south of Watertown, SD, where I am first able to place my grandfather, Frank, in 1904/1905. Trumbull and Olive are the only known relatives to have resided in South Dakota, and it is possible that he may have resided with or near them for a time (as we will mention later, my grandfather, Frank, and his younger sister, Mary, lived with Trumbull in Illinois until his first wife, Ellen, died in 1880).
Olive died 30 November 1914 in Hollywood, CA. She chose to be buried near her first husband, Sidney Heath, in Iowa.
7. Lillian Carrie Armstrong
Various sources differ as to whether Lillian was a newborn at the time her parents and brothers and sisters moved from Vermont to Michigan, or born shortly after their arrival. According to her father's medical account book, Lillian died in 1853 from an unknown illness. There is an unmarked grave in the Parma Cemetery that is said to contain her remains.
