It was in 2006 when I wrote the following article about my 2nd gt-grandmother for our local (Cottage Grove) Genealogical Society periodical, Trees From the Grove. Since the theme for 52 ancestors this week is "Strong Woman" I felt that Huldah fit that description and previously on my blog I had only given a link to it on my website and not published the story there. Now here it is.
1876
and Huldah (Hayes) Bond
1876
was a year that the United States of America remembered. They
celebrated their centennial, looking back at the country’s history
since the Declaration of Independence in 1776 at the beginning of
their new nation. I can believe that Huldah (Hayes) Bond, my
great-great grandmother, would especially remember 1876 and at least
four of the events from that year for the remainder of her life.
It
was not that forty-eight year old Huldah did not already have many
memories when 1876 began. She probably could remember her childhood
in Burton Township, Geauga County, Ohio, growing up with three older
siblings (Hannah, Lydia and Seth Whipple) and then two younger
siblings (Ebenezer and Sybil). I can imagine she was told the story
more than once that when she was born in 1827, she was named the same
name as her sister Huldah who was born in 1820 and died at age three
in 1823. Probably both of them were named for their grandmother
Huldah (Fenton) Jewett. Huldah Hayes’ parents, Seth and Lydia
(Jewett) Hayes, may also have told her stories of their childhoods in
the early days of our country. Seth had been born about 1785 in New
York State and Lydia was born in 1793 in western New Hampshire.
By
1837 Seth and family had moved to Hambden, Ohio, and then he sold his
land to his mother-in-law, Huldah (Fenton) Jewett, and moved his
family to Indiana where their youngest daughter, Priscilla, was born.
After only a few months the family moved again, into Illinois and by
1840 they located in Jefferson County, Iowa, near the town of
Libertyville.
Iowa
provided the memory for Huldah of meeting the Bond family.
Apparently it was a good introduction, for on January 6th,
1842, Huldah was married to Solomon Bond by the Justice of the Peace,
James Robinson, at Fairfield, the county seat for Jefferson County.
Huldah was not quite fifteen years old when she married Solomon, but
evidently she made a good choice, for many complimentary words have
been written about him. Huldah’s sister Hannah followed in her
footsteps and in March of 1842, she married one of Solomon’s older
brothers, William Bond. In that same year in October, Solomon’s
younger brother, James, married Huldah’s cousin, Laura Jewett.
We
can imagine the two sisters sharing the precious memories of new
babies born into their families. And I believe that Hannah was there
to comfort Huldah when Huldah’s second child, Rebecca, died in
March of 1846, just five days over a month old. It was the next
year, 1847, that Solomon’s younger brother, James, with his family,
traveled over the Oregon Trail to serve as a Baptist missionary
recruit in the Oregon Country. How sad it must have been when the
family received the news that James had been accidentally shot and
killed in February of 1849 way out there in Oregon Territory.
It
was three years later in 1852 that two of Solomon’s sisters, Susan
and Ann, went with their husbands and families over the Oregon Trail
to settle in the Oregon Territory. What kind of letters did they
write back to Huldah and the other family members living there is
Iowa? Whatever they said, it was the next year, 1853, that Solomon
and Huldah, along with both sets of their parents and all of their
remaining siblings and their families decided to travel overland to
Oregon. By this time, Huldah and Solomon had three daughters, Lydia,
Mary and Susan, and one son, William, to join them on their trek.
This
was a once in lifetime event for Huldah to remember. The trip was
long and difficult as they left Iowa in mid-April and had arrived in
the Blue Mountains of the Oregon Territory by August 24th,
when a new baby girl was born to Huldah’s sister Hannah. The wagon
stayed an extra day at that camping place, but continued on the next
day. On August 28th, at the Umatilla Agency, in what is
now eastern Oregon, the clerk there recorded Huldah as “w” [wife]
of S. Bond. The memories of this trip would forever include Hannah’s
death on September 15th, on Summit Prairie as they were
traveling on the Barlow Road over Mt. Hood, on the last stages of
their journey. The next day, September 16th, Hannah was
buried there before they traveled to “Loral Hill” to camp. It
was just one week later that Solomon’s brother George recorded in
his journal that he had arrived at Oregon City. Now they were in the
Willamette Valley.
I
suspect that Huldah felt a great sense of relief a little over a year
later in October 1854, when Solomon finally chose the land in the
mid-Willamette Valley where they would have their 320 acre Donation
Land Claim, next to her siblings and parents claims. For that was
where their second son, John Howard Bond, would be born six months
later in April of 1855. Then Priscilla was born in December of 1857
and Charles in April of 1860. It was at almost the same time in 1860
that Huldah’s father, Seth Hayes, died. It is believed that Seth
was buried in the Rust or Smith Cemetery, now also called the Halsey
Pioneer Cemetery. There was no town of Halsey yet at that time. One
more child was born to Huldah and Solomon, Austin in 1862, before
Huldah’s mother Lydia died in 1864. But also during that time
period Huldah’s oldest daughter, Lydia was married to Owen Clark in
August of 1861. It appears that Huldah‘s first grandchild, Amy
Clark, was born in February 1865.
The
next ten years included many births and marriages in their family.
Huldah and Solomon had two more sons, Harvey born in June 1867 and
Melvin in August 1869. Mary, William and Susan were all married
during this time and by the end of 1875 Huldah was “grandma” to
eight children. But there also had been a death in the family, as
Huldah’s youngest sister, Priscilla, had died in May of 1874.
There
were historical events which Huldah had in her memory bank also.
Even though they lived across the country, they would have known
about the fighting of the Civil War in the 1860s. Eventually the
word about the assassination of President Lincoln reached their part
of Oregon. The History of Halsey relates that one of Huldah’s
nieces at age six “saw her uncle, Ebenezer Hayes, running down the
road towards their home. With tears streaming from his eyes, he told
them of the president’s death.”
The
area where Huldah and Solomon lived saw a big change in 1871 when the
Oregon and California Railroad was built at the edge of their
property. A new town was established on her brothers’ land. This
was Halsey. The Halsey book relates a number of facts about Halsey
in 1875. With a population of about 250 people there were two
churches, a school, five warehouses, a hotel, three dry goods houses
and at least six more businesses.
The
first event of 1876 surely was a happy one, when John, the first of
the children born in Oregon, was married to Mary Ann O’Neal on June
18th. The wedding took place to Mary Ann’s home, about
four miles west of Creswell. Creswell was established in 1873 after
the railroad was built there in 1872. It was 38 miles from Halsey to
Creswell by rail, so it’s possible they could have traveled by
train to attend the wedding.
The
second event for 1876 that Huldah would remember was not so happy.
Huldah’s youngest daughter, Priscilla, died on August 4th,
at age 18. She was buried at the “Halsey Pioneer Cemetery” about
two miles southwest of Halsey, where her grandparents had been
buried. No record has been found for the cause of death, but perhaps
she was one of the victims of the “widespread diphtheria epidemic
of 1876.” It was written in the Halsey history that pioneer
doctors S. A. Smith of Halsey and Waltz of Brownsville had battled
the disease.
The
third event not only affected Huldah, but it affected the entire
community of Halsey as well. Huldah’s brother, Seth Whipple Hayes,
a prominent citizen in Halsey, was murdered on November 1st.
Accounts of this event were written in various newspapers. The
Albany Register for Friday, November 3 wrote: A PROMINENT CITIZEN
KILLED:--On Wednesday afternoon Mr. S. W. Hayes, an old and prominent
citizen of Halsey, in this county, was killed by a man named Neal, a
saloon Keeper of Halsey. The facts of the case, as we get them, are
these: Mr. Hayes…was boring a well in the vicinity of the saloon
kept by Neal. A few words passed between the parties when Neal
stepped up to where the deceased was at work, and inquired: ‘Did
you say I kept a low down Doggery?’ and upon receiving an
affirmative answer, Neal drew a knife and stabbed the deceased three
times, the wounds causing death in five or six hours afterward. Neal
then secured a horse owned by his barkeeper and fled, but was
overtaken, brought back to Halsey and Sheriff Herren sent for. The
citizens of Halsey were greatly exasperated, and it was with
difficulty they were restrained from lynching him…..Deceased was
one of the leading men in Halsey, a man of considerable property,
quiet, law abiding and peaceable, and was universally respected in
the community.
The
Willamette Register had an article the next week, Friday, November
10, telling about his funeral. It said: Mr. Seth W. Hayes…was
buried last Friday at the cemetery about two miles above that place
on the Harrisburg Road. The deceased was buried by the patrons of
Husbandry of which order he was an exemplary member. The procession
was the largest ever seen in that part of the country and numbered
over forty wagons and hacks all well filled, besides a great number
of people on horseback. Mr. Hayes was one of the wealthiest and most
upright and honorable citizens of that part of the country, and
general feeling of sorrow pervades the entire community in which he
lived.
This
should have been enough tragic events for Huldah that year, but there
was still one more to come in December. Huldah’s daughter, Mary
Louisa (Bond) Cummings, died on December 6th, 1876, at age
27, leaving a husband and three children. Apparently her death was
related to childbirth since family records show unnamed twins who
died as infants as her last children. Mary was buried at Pine Grove
Cemetery, located about five miles west of Halsey. The records there
show four infants also buried in her plot.
Huldah
had over twenty-five years to remember these events of 1876 before
her own death in 1903. We don’t know if having experienced them
helped her cope with another daughter’s death in 1886 or her
husband’s death in 1900 or not. But I am confident that the
experiences and memories, especially from 1876, shaped Huldah’s
life and helped to make her who she was.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
California
State Railroad Museum and Pacific Coast Chapter Railway &
Locomotive Historical Society. Shasta Route. North Highland,
CA: History West, 1981.
Carey,
Margaret Standish and Patricia Hoy Hainline. Halsey Linn
County’s Centennial City. Brownsville, OR: Calapooia
Publications, 1977.
Knofler,
Pamela L. and Richard R. Milligan, compilers. Pine Grove Cemetery
T-13S R-4W Section 32 Linn County, Oregon. Albany, OR:
Linn-Benton Business & Genealogical Services, no date.
Miles,
John and Richard R. Milligan, compilers. Linn County, Oregon
Pioneer Settlers to 1855, Volume 13. Albany, OR: Linn-Benton
Genealogical Services, 1991.
Miles,
John and Richard R. Milligan, compilers. Linn County, Oregon
Pioneer Settlers to 1855,
Volume
14. Albany, OR: Linn-Benton Genealogical Services, 1991.
Unknown
author. George Hayes of Simsbury and Westfield. His Family and
Their Descendants. No publication information, after 1982.
