Jane Angeline Dunham 1823-1906, parents William F Dunham & Sarah Metcalf

Green Bay Press-Gazette. 10 August 1893. Newspapers.com

William F Dunham and Sarah Metcalf have been connected as the parents of Jane Angeline Dunham 1823-1906. WE now have a paper trail and DNA trail. The reason I choose “WE” is because it has taken many years and many “cousins.” This hunt started in about 1990 with several photos from a 1900 Christmas album gift to my grandmother, Nettie Couch, 1884-1965. The hunt never ends. Now, I am looking for more cousins and more information on Jane’s parents. Along the way, I have found the names of DNA matches with every one of the siblings, several other Dunham families and several Metcalf families.

Special thanks to:

• Dunham’s of Rome including Ann Eldred (1935-2003), Phyllis KItson, P.C. Alger, and Bill Wood, these people put my original question, “Dunham by birth or by marriage?” to rest with many photos and family group sheets
• Beth for sharing a family group sheet from her research, especially on the Hickok line
• Rich for all his DNA hours and for answering my basic DNA questions
• Christina for this wonderful newspaper clipping that finally joins OUR family, for meeting me in Wisconsin several years ago, for introducing me to her sister, for sharing their family stories
• Jane Wilcox, Forget-MeNot Ancestry, for guiding me in my searches
• MyHeritage and Ancestry for DNA match suggestions
• NGS research trips, especially a full packed week in Madison, Wisconsin
• Gratia for sharing her vast knowledge of the Dunham family and her hours of research
• Many, many friends and family who have listened to me whine for 20+ years because I could not find Jane’s parents 

Jane A Dunham Couch

Jane Angeline DUNHAM (1823 - 1906)
2nd great-grandmother

Eugene Deloss COUCH (1851 - 1925)
Son of Jane Angeline DUNHAM

Nettie Ethel COUCH (1884 - 1965)
Daughter of Eugene Deloss COUCH

Mildred Louise SCHULER (1919 - 2008)
Daughter of Nettie Ethel COUCH

Selma Ethel KAMPE
You are the daughter of Mildred Louise SCHULER

Now, more questions:

• How come family Bible and all censuses except 1900 census list New York or Rome, New York as birth?
• How come the 43 year lack of family contact?
• How come migrated to LaSalle County, Illinois instead of Wisconsin?
• Who are Jane’s grandparents?

View my Roots_Digger tree on Ancestry and Roots_Digger Related on MyHeritage. Join me in our search for more family members, stories, photos. Contact me a sbgenealogy@gmail.com

Lindsey William Dunham (1820-1899) what and how do I know it?

Name: Lindsey William Dunham, most records provide either Lindsey W or L. W.; his death certificate reads “Lindsey Wm Dunham.” The microfilm record may be found in the Wisconsin Pre-1907 Records Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library, Madison, Wisconsin. Specific information: Oconto County, Volume 1, page 327, microfilm reel 101, index volume 1 and sequence number 90131.

Birth date and place: 26 March 1820, Pomfret, Windsor County, Vermont, see name record.

Father: William F Dunham, my main connecting record is testimony at Lindsey’s divorce case. “. . . the plaintiff is my son. . .”  Wisconsin, Manitowoc County. Court Records. CF16 #2189. "Lindsey W. Dunham plaintiff vs Esther A. Dunham defendant" 26 October 1858 granted 23 April 1861. 23 pages. Archives and Area Research Center #2401, Cofrin Library, UW Green Bay, 2420 Nicout Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311-7001.

Mother: Sarah Metcalf, this information is derived from her marriage to William F on 21 January 1819 in Pomfret, Windsor County, Vermont. "Vermont, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1732-2005," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F8R8-8Z8 : 6 April 2016), William F Dunham and Sarah Metcalf, 21 Jan 1819; citing Marriage, Pomfret, Windsor, Vermont, United States, town clerk offices from various counties; FHL microfilm 28,665. Accessed on Ancestry.com.

First marriage: Esther Ann Baldwin and Lindsey were married about 1 April 1847. This estimate comes from Lindsey’s divorce testimony. It is written that he stated the year as 1857, but one son had been born and the divorce was already in process. This is probably a misunderstanding. The divorce testimony states they were married by Pastor Lewis. Research by a hired certified APG person has identified a Pastor Lewis as the pastor of the Seventh Day Baptist church of Verona, Oneida County, New York about 1844-1848. After a trip to the church archives in Janesville, Wisconsin, at this time, no records are available verifying this marriage date. Several land deeds from New York for purchase of land by Lindsey and his wife, Esther, from Norman Baldwin are dated 1844 and 1847.

First marriage ended in divorce: In 1856, Lindsey published a notice for non-payment of others debts in the Manitowoc Herald newspaper. See Roots Digger tree on Ancestry for digital image with source. For divorce filings see the source for relationship of father above.

Second marriage: Esther James’ marriage to Lindsey date unknown at this time. The 1870 US census reads that Rebecca James “lives with daughter.” Rebecca and Esther are enumerated in the household with Lindsey Dunham.  Year 1870, Howard, Brown County, Wisconsin. Roll M593_1703. Page 274A. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. 

Child: Jay Forrester Dunham was born 1 December 1852. In 1852, Jay’s biological mother would be Esther Baldwin and NOT Esther James.

There is no evidence that Lindsey William Dunham had any other biological children.

Death: 20 February 1899 see the death certificate source above with Name. Look at the Find a Grave Site, there are other Dunham family members buried in the Mill Centre cemetery, Howard, Brown County, Wisconsin.

My connection to Lindsey, at this time I have DNA matches to his siblings. Lindsey and Jane A, my maternal second great grandmother, worked together in 1844 in Rome, Oneida County, New York. Help me! I want to find this family connection!

As of this writing, I have recently found a DNA match for Metcalf, possibly Lindsey’s mother's line. 

Currently I do not know the parents of William F. Dunham.

Please send any comments or questions to sbgenealogy@gmail.com. Thank you.

William DUNHAM lived in Wisconsin during the mid-1800s, who is MY William?

There are at least eight William DUNHAM's living in Wisconsin in the mid-1800s. I am related to at least one of them, but, which one? This will be a series of articles attempting to separate the families.

The first identified William Henry Dunham was born 1833 in New York. In 1860, he married Olive Briggs. Olive was born 1843 in New York. Harry Melvin (1861-1944), their son, was born in Wisconsin. Also in the family is Clinton Alpheus (1867-1944), Edwin Barzalla (1870-?), Pearl Eulalia (1874-?), Effie (1878-). William Henry Dunham died 21 August 1907 in Delton, Sauk County, Wisconsin.

The above information is just dates, but establishes a family. The dates were abstracted from the U.S. population schedule census records for 1900, 1880, 1870; the 1890 Veterans Schedule; 1905 Wisconsin, State Census; and the Wisconsin Deaths 1820-1907.

Now my goal is to add pictures, family stories, and meet my cousins. My reason for choosing this William for the first article is because of the other names in the family. In the mid to late 1800s in LaSalle County, Illinois, the Couch family has some of the same given names such as Harry and Melvin. Also, Edwin Brazalla has children named Ethel Mildred (1904-1997), Henry (1910-?), Milton (1912-?). My maternal grandmother is Nettie Ethel Couch Schuler. Nettie's sister is Mildred. Nettie's daughter is Mildred. Nettie's granddaughter is Ethel. Recycling these names so much must mean a connection, but where and how? Photos show family resemblance. How do we document connection?

Please contact me with your family information Selma Blackmon.

George H. Couch (1860-1928) marries Mrs. Mary E. Fish in Eaul Claire, Wisconsin 29 November 1883

George H. Couch the son of Elisha Tomkins Couch and Jane Angeline Dunham marries Mrs. Mary E. Fish in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
George gives his occupation as a laborer. His residence is the City of Eau Claire, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin.
With his birthplace being Illinois and his parents Elisha and Jane, I know this is the uncle of my grandmother.
His bride is Mrs. Mary E. Fish. Her parents are Joseph Z. Black and Betsy C. Cartwright. Mary was born in the state of Wisconsin.
They were married on 29 November 1883 by the Justice of the Peace.  Their witnesses are L.V. Graham and Mrs. Louisa Graham.

As with all documents, this bring on more questions than answers.

• How did the couple meet?
• What caused him to go to Eau Clair, Wisconsin from Crotty [Seneca], LaSalle County, Illinois?
• What happened to their marriage, as far as I know, no children, and he is enumerated in the 1900 U.S. Census in Crotty with his mother and sister as a widower. 
• What happened to her first husband?

The marriage record was obtained from the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Wisconsin. Pre-1907 Wisconsin Birth, Marriage, Death Record. Marriage volume 2; page 59, George H. Couch & Mrs. Mary E. Fish.

Please contact me if you would like to exchange information. Thank you, Selma

DUNHAM who traveled from Wisconsin to Georgia commits suicide (1874)

 My Dunham family research in Wisconsin produced this interesting news article. It is posted on the Oconto County WiGenWeb Project by Rita as News FLASH from the Past. My WI Dunham connection is Lindsey William Dunham (1820-1899).

LAUDANUM AND CHLOROFORM

An Ocontoite Commits Suicide down in Georgia

Camp Sycamore Grove, Great Southern R. R. near Jeffersonton, Camden Co., Georgia

Monday, July 21st, 1874
 Mr. Editor; With the sounding of the Church Bell for the early morning prayers, this quiet Sabbath morn, came the announcement that there was a “death in Israel.” A stranger who had came to the village the day before had committed suicide, curiosity was on tip toe to know who it was that had disturbed the quietude of this peaceful hamlet, and the whisper ran from one to another of the villagers with eyes askance and a thousand inquiries as to who the stranger could be, who it was that was weary of life’s burdens, and would seek this secluded corner away from all strife, stir commotion and jostling of a crowded world, who it was that tired of treading the paths of life alone perhaps, would shorten his road and seek the company and companionship of these gone before, who it was that would “Lay him down to sleep, And pray the Lord his soul to keep.”

Following the guide we are ushered into a lonely grove of evergreens, magnolias, live oaks, Sweet bays, and scattered here and there the familiar old sycamore, a crowd of southerners holding an inquest over the stranger the Foreman Col. Duncan L. Clinch, of confederate fame.

From examination it was ascertained that the suicide was Samuel Dunham, of Oconto, Wisconsin, that he had gone to the village store and bought the day before two one ounce bottles of laudanum, and drunk the contents of both. An empty chloroform bottle was found near; it is supposed that he had inhaled it to make smooth the path of death, as the body lay in perfect composure with arms fold across the breast seemingly to have died without a struggle.

I was told that he was perfectly rational to all knowledge of those with whom he conversed, and spoke not a word of his intentions when buying the laudanum other to say he was getting it for another, and inquired what quantity one should take for a dose, and if a certain quantity would kill a person, was polite and genteel in his deportment and conversation and talked intelligently on several topics, machinery saw mills & c., he seemed to be without money as none was found upon his person, he had a pocketbook and some papers that identified him. So secluded was the place where he choose to die that non disturbed him until the coroner’s jury examined him, after they had got through a good coffin was made, he placed in it and carried forth through shade and sun, followed to the grave by the villagers sad, and wondering at the vicissitudes of life, that a stranger would have left his home, the home of his friends, and go to a land of strangers and die.

Lowered into the bossom of the warm South, the prayers of strangers went up to God to graciously remember this man of his own image and forgave his waywardness and make him one of the fold of the happy, in that promised land where the weary cease from trouble. After the burial service were gotten, through with, not the cold clods rolled in upon the coffin, but the warm earth of a Southern soil, and the sympathetic tear of strangers watered his grave, and now under the genial rays of a warm southern people the stranger rests from earthly ills. Death unto all is given so cheap. There is nothing to pay for falling to sleep. Save closing the eyes and ceasing to weep. I. I. Thompson

If Samuel Dunham has any friends they can correspond with Col. Clinch, post office Waynesville, Georgia, who has his pocket book and papers.

 

The Oconto Lumberman
July 4, 1874
 

Passing Away
An Ocontoite Commits Suicide down in Georgia

Camp Sycamore Grove, Great Southern R. R. near Jeffersonton, Camden Co., Georgia: Another soul has passed into the spirit land, that of Samuel Dunham, who was well known by many of our citizens. He died by his own hand, in a strange Clime. That his remains have been respectably taken care of there is little doubt.