Early Oregon Cousins -- Seth Stephen Hayes

Seth Stephen Hayes was the son of Seth Whipple Hayes and the grandson of Seth Hayes. Seth Stephen's mother was Polly Bond Stillwell, his grandmother was Selia (Bond) Stillwell and his great-grandfather was Solomon Bond. So he was a 1st cousin of John Howard Bond on the Hayes side and a 2nd cousin on the Bond side. Therefore he was my 1st cousin 3 times removed and my 2nd cousin 3 times removed, another one of those double cousins, which keep popping up.

Seth was one of the cousins born in Jefferson County Iowa before his family moved to Oregon in 1853. As he was born 28 Oct 1852, he wasn't quite 6 months old when they started their journey and got to celebrate his 1st birthday in Oregon. He was 2 1/2 years older than John, but they lived near each other, so probably did do things together, including school, since the 1870 census indicated they both had attended school that year.

Seth's mother died in August of 1863, when he was 10 1/2 years old. His father remarried 2 years later to Sarah (Finley) Vawter, so she became his step-mother. It was in November of 1876 when Seth's father was murdered.

Sometime in the first part of June 1880, Seth married Almira Stevenson. On 22 Jun 1880 they were enumerated as a couple on the census. They were shown as boarders in a house with a number of others in Halsey, Linn County Oregon.

Apparently Almira died within the next few years because Seth married Ella Porter 22 Oct 1884. Seth and Ella had 3 children, Dean, Beulah and Seth, before the 1900 census since they are listed together in the city of Moro, Sherman County Oregon, which was in the eastern part of the state. Seth's occupation was general merchant. By 1910 the family had moved back to the Willamette Valley, to Portland, and the two younger children were still at home.

Ella died in 1918 in Los Angeles County, California. On the 1920 census Seth, now a widower, was still in Portland at the same address, 375 East 15 St N, with his youngest son and daughter-in-law. When the 1930 census was taken, Seth was still there but now it was his daughter and son-in-law and grandson who were living with him. The home was marked as owned, valued at $12,000 and they did have a radio. I wonder how much the 5 year old grandson got to listen to it. In 1940 Seth was still living with his daughter's family, but it is in a different house and it stated that they were also there in 1935.

It must have not been too long after this that Seth moved into the Restwell Sanitarium in Briarwood in Clackamas County Oregon. The death certificate stated he had been there a year before he died 19 Apr 1942 at age 89. It noted that he was buried at Lincoln Memorial Park.