Early Oregon Cousins – Sarah (Tong) Wise

On April 30, 2017 I wrote about John Tong, the son of James J. and Ann (Bond) Tong and the 1st cousin of John Howard Bond, my great-grandfather which made John Tong my 1st cousin 3 times removed. Today, November 1, is his sister's turn. Sarah was 4 years older than John, as she was born 4 Feb 1842. She was born in Mahaska County Iowa and by 1850 was living in Marion County Iowa next to her Uncle Solomon Bond's family. I can imagine that she played with Lydia Bond who was almost 2 years younger than Sarah. It was in 1852 that Sarah traveled over the Oregon Trail to go to the Oregon Territory. As the older sister, age 10, I wonder if she helped look after her 6 year old brother.

Her parents settled a Donation Land Claim in Clackamas County not far from the community of Clackamas. There 2 younger sisters were born, Rachel and Rebecca. Again I suspect she helped her mother with their care.

The year that Oregon became a state, in 1859 on the 1^st of September was when Sarah, age 17, married a nearby neighbor, George Wise, age 38.

They were living in Milwaukie Precinct of Clackamas County for the 1860 census which was taken in July. It was in December of 1860 when their first child, William Alexander Wise, was born. By the 1870 census, 5 more children had been born: Mary Elinor in 1862, John the last day of 1863, Martha Vilinda in 1865, George Bond in 1867 and Sarah Elizabeth in 1868. I hope that Mary Elinor was able to help her mother. George and Sarah and family were living next to her brother John's family on the 1870 census in Marshfield Precinct of Clackamas County.

It appears that they were in the same location for the 1880 census, but now there were 4 more children, James born in 1871, Robert in 1874, Rebecca in 1877 and Ruth in the first part of 1880. It was a little over 6 months later when Sarah died on 28 Jan 1881. She was buried at the Multnomah Park Cemetery in Portland Oregon. It must have been hard for that large family to cope with the death of their mother. It was a little over 5 years later when their father George died 11 Sep 1886 and was also buried at Multnomah Park Cemetery.

Who Were John Howard Bond's 1st Cousins?

Why should I care who they were? Because all of his 1^st cousins were my relatives also. From my research I found 49 1^st cousins on his father's side and 44 on his mother's side. There were 5 who were double cousins that showed on each side so the total number of 1^st cousins was 88.

First cousins share grandparents. John Howard Bond was my gt-grandfather, so his grandparents were my 3^rd gt-grandparents. The gt-grandchildren of any of John's 1^st cousins are my 4^th cousins, since we would share 3^rd gt-grandparents.

On Ancestry DNA there are over 1000 matches to me that Ancestry has classified as 4^th cousins. These designations certainly aren't precise, but it gives a range. So it is likely that some of John's 1^st cousins are ancestors of a portion of these matches.

Ancestry DNA has a feature called DNA Circles. There is a DNA Circle for John Howard's grandfather, John Bond, which includes me. Because the circles require the members to have a tree on Ancestry's site I can see who they are descended from. Among the 17 members of the Circle, 10 are descendants of John Howard's 1^st cousins. There are 5 different cousins represented: Sarah (Tong) Wise, Martha (Davis) Gustin, Albert Daniel Davis, James Nelson Davis, and Martha (Davis) Alkire. So my plan is to write about these 5 cousins over the next week or so.

Early Oregon Cousins - John Tong

John Tong was the son of James J. and Ann (Bond) Tong and the grandson of John and Sarah (Chastain) Bond, so was a 1st cousin of John Howard Bond, my great-grandfather which makes John Tong my 1st cousin 3 times removed.

John was the only son in the family, having 3 sisters: Sarah, Rachel and Rebecca. He was born 5 Feb 1846, probably in Marion County, Iowa, since they were there in 1850. Some researchers show the Tongs coming to Oregon on the Nelson Davis wagon train in 1853 with many of Ann's family. However, I believe the Tongs came a year earlier in 1852 because: on his Donation Land Claim application James stated they had arrived in Oregon Sep 1852 and settled their claim 30 Sep 1852; the family is not on the 1853 Umatilla listing; and in his 1853 journal George Bond (Ann's brother) wrote on 22 Sep "to Fosters a Cros a deep creek to James Tongs." So the Tongs were already settled when the Nelson Davis train arrived.

The 1850 census showed the James Tong family next door to the Solomon Bond family, both in Marion County Iowa. John was listed as John N, age 5. By 1860 the family had settled in Clackamas County Oregon in Rock Creek Precinct and John was age 14. The name Tong is sometimes difficult to research because the handwritten capital T is misread as an L, so it is indexed incorrectly. But in the BLM General Land Office records of the James and Ann Tong Donation Land Claim, their name is misread as Toug so required a little more work to find. His claim appears to be near what is now (2017) the unincorporated community of Clackamas.

It was near the end of 1868, 10 Dec, when John married Nancy Ann Heater in Marion County Oregon. But they were living in Marshfield precinct Clackamas County in 1870 next to his sister Sarah who was married to George Wise. It must have been soon that John settled his homestead because he received the patent 11 Nov 1875. His father James received a patent for a homestead the same day and his land joined John's on the north, 160 acres each. It seems likely that James had sold his Donation Land Claim and filed for the homestead to be next to his son. They are on the same page in the 1880 census for Clackamas County, still in Marshfield precinct. John's sister, Rachel Emma who was married to Jacob Scott, was also living there.

By the 1880 census John and Nancy had 4 children: Stephen, Nettie, Earl and Mary. They had 3 more children in the next 10 years: Fletcher, Marion and Rachel. The 1900 census shows the family living in Damascus precinct of Clackamas County, but this is probably the same location as before. It was between the 1880 and 1900 census when John's mother died in 1884, then John's father was committed to the Hawthorne Asylum in July of 1887. James died there in that October.

Sometime after 1900 John's family moved to Portland, Multnomah County Oregon, where his wife Nancy died 31 Jan 1909 and was buried in Multnomah Park Cemetery. John had 4 of his children still living at home in the 1910 census and his daughter Mary and her husband Edwin Plasket were living with him in 1920. John died 6 May 1922 in the Oregon City Hospital and was buried next to Nancy. His obituary states that John was survived by all 7 of his children.