Tag: Sand Lake

Mary Jane Wakefield Stiles (1831 – before 1888)

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Mary Jane Wakefield was born 10 April 1831 in Randolph, Orange County, Vermont, the daughter of James Wakefield and Lucy L. Wellington.¹ She grew up in a Vermont family that was later divided by westward migration and by the Civil War, in which two of her brothers, Levay and Dana Wakefield, died in Union service.²

She married Wilbur F. Stiles on 15 June 1850 in Roxbury, Washington County, Vermont.³ By about 1851 their first child, Edward Eugene Stiles, was born in Michigan, marking the beginning of the family’s move west, although their daughter Emma Mae Stiles was born in Braintree, Vermont, in 1854.⁴ By 1858 they were again in Michigan, and in 1861 they were living in Albee Township, Saginaw County, where two of their young sons, Ervin and David, died.⁵

In 1864 Mary Jane’s mother purchased land near Sand Lake in Iosco County and established a household there.⁶ By 1870 Mary Jane and her children were living in Grant Township, Iosco County.

On 21 May 1870 her husband died there by suicide, having swallowed poison.⁷ He was recorded in the 1870 mortality schedule, and a notice in the Jackson Citizen reported the death of “William Stiles” near Sand Lake, ten miles west of Tawas City — a location that corresponds to the family’s residence.⁸ The mortality schedule and the Iosco County death record identify him as Wilbur (or Wilber), confirming the identity.⁹

When the 1870 census was taken, Mary Jane appeared as head of household in Grant Township. She was forty years old, born in Vermont, and keeping house. In the home were three of her children: Edward Eugene, working on the farm; Emma; and six-year-old William. Also living with them was George Lawhead, a twenty-five-year-old farm laborer born in New York. The family held real estate valued at $200, and the post office was listed as Tawas.¹⁰

By 1880 Mary Jane had returned to Albee Township, Saginaw County, where she was enumerated as head of household, a widow born in Vermont with both parents also born in Vermont.¹¹ In the previous year she had lost both of her parents.¹²

Her daughter Emma Mae died in Saginaw County on 6 April 1886.¹³ Mary Jane herself died sometime before 1888, when she no longer appears in the records.

Sources

  1. Vermont Vital Records, 1720–1908, birth of Mary Jane Wakefield, Randolph, Orange County, Vermont.
  2. U.S. Civil War service and death records for Levay Wakefield and Dana A. Wakefield.
  3. Vermont marriage record, Roxbury, Washington County, 15 June 1850, Wilbur F. Stiles and Mary Jane Wakefield.
  4. Birth records and later census records for Edward Eugene Stiles; Vermont vital record for Emma Mae Stiles, Braintree, 11 May 1854.
  5. Michigan death and burial records for Ervin Stiles (1861); David F. Stiles deceased before the 1870 census; residence in Albee Township, Saginaw County.
  6. Iosco County land purchase by Lucy L. Wellington, 1864.
  7. 1870 U.S. mortality schedule, Iosco County, Michigan, entry for Wilbur (Wilber) Stiles; Michigan death record, Iosco County.
  8. Jackson Citizen, 31 May 1870, notice of the suicide of “William Stiles” near Sand Lake.
  9. Correlation of mortality schedule and county death record identifying the deceased as Wilbur Stiles.
  10. 1870 U.S. census, Grant Township, Iosco County, Michigan, household of Mary Stiles.
  11. 1880 U.S. census, Albee Township, Saginaw County, Michigan, Mary J. Stiles.
  12. Death records for James Wakefield and Lucy L. Wellington, 1879.
  13. Michigan death record, Emma Mae Stiles, 6 April 1886, Saginaw County.

Wilbur Stiles

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Wilbur Stiles was born 16 March 1827 in Brookfield, Orange County, Vermont. He married Mary Jane Wakefield on 15 June 1850. By 1863, he had moved to Michigan – specifically to Albee Township in Saginaw County. Just a year later, he enlisted in the 29th Michigan Infantry and served for 1 year. In 1864, his mother-in-law bought land in Iosco County building the Sand Lake house. The 1870 census shows that Wilbur’s family was living in that area. Wilbur was listed in the mortality schedule of the 1870 census. because on May 21, 1870, he committed suicide by swallowing some poison. He left his wife and 4 children (1 girl and 3 boys – 2 other boys had died before 1870) behind.

Those are the facts of his life that have been discovered in various records. It will be noted that those records do conflict on his middle name – it was either Irish or Fisk. Most commonly it was just referenced as the letter F. I tend to believe it was Fisk as one of his children was named Wilbur Fisk. Where the Fisk name comes from, I have yet to completely discover – although it may have come from a neighbor that he had in Vermont.

For that matter, the records conflict on his first name – it’s either Wilbur or William in the records. However, his birth record and every record that I can find where he gave the information personally show his name as Wilbur. The instances where his first name is listed as William can simply be explained by a clerical error of the person doing the reporting (not Wilbur) after the fact and not remembering his first name properly (after all, William is much more common than Wilbur).

So, how can I be sure that the William Stiles in a certain record is really Wilbur Stiles? It’s because of some of the little details that also appear. For example, on May 31, 1870 the Jackson Citizen newspaper had the following blurb:

Jackson_Citizen_1870-05-31_2-2

Here, it clearly states that it was William Stiles who committed suicide. How do I know that this William is in reality Wilbur? Well, it gives the location of where William was living – near Sand Lake, 10 miles west of Tawas City. That just so happens to line up perfectly with the land that his mother-in-law bought in 1864 and the 1870 census where his family is found. Also, the 1870 mortality schedule only has Wilber listed as dying of suicide.

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Also in the Michigan Death records for Iosco County there is this entry:

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So, I think I can safely say that the William in the newspaper article who committed suicide on May 21, 1870 near Sand Lake is in reality Wilbur Stiles.  Additionally, the only William Stiles living in that area at the time was Wilbur’s son, William who was born about 1868. The 2 year old is obviously not the William in the newspaper article as it states that the William who committed suicide lived unhappily with his wife. I have a theory about the “unhappily living” part, but that will be a different blog post.