Over the years I
have felt sorrow for my double 1st cousin 3 times removed, Emma Bond.
Emma was born 25 Aug 1853 in the Blue Mountains while the family was
on the Oregon Trail traveling from Iowa to Oregon. Her father,
William Bond, was my 2nd great-grandfather Solomon Bond's brother and
her mother, Hannah (Hayes) Bond, was my 2nd great-grandmother
Huldah's sister. That's why she is a double cousin, related on both
the Bond side and the Hayes side.
However, it was
not the circumstances of her birth that caused my sorrow, but the
fact that less than a month later, her mother died on 15 Sep 1853 as
the family was traveling the Barlow Road to cross the Cascade
Mountains to enter the Willamette Valley of Oregon. It is believed
that it was somewhere on Mt. Hood that Hannah died and was buried.
Emma's
father had 3 boys ages 3 to 8 years old to care for, so the family
story is that Emma's grandparents, Seth and Lydia (Jewett) Hayes
cared for her. Probably Emma's aunts and uncles from both sides of
the family helped with her care until the families were settled on
their Donation Land Claims. The Hayes family lived next to each other
in Linn County, Oregon Territory. I showed the locations on my post
of 24 Feb 2017.
It
is fun to speculate that as Emma was growing up she could play with
her first cousin, Celia Hayes, the daughter of Seth Whipple and Polly
(Stillwell) Hayes. Celia was born 22 Sep 1854 after the family was in
Linn County. She would have been a little over a year younger than
Emma. But there is more sorrow for me when I realize that Celia died
when just 8 1/2 years old 13 May 1863. It could be that Emma died
very near the same time since she was said to be 9 years old when she
died. Consider Grandma Hayes. By this time she was a widow and two of
her granddaughters died while still children and Emma had been living
with her. Life in pioneer times could be hard, especially for the
women and children.
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