52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
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Temperance Wilcox Lord & Lucinda Hall Lord
I never met my maternal great-grandfather, Irvin O. Lord, he died in 1946, several years before I was born. I always wondered about him, as my maternal grandfather, Clarence, and my great-grandmother, Elsie never spoke about him. What I did finally learn about him, but not his immediate family, was from my uncle, and later from my own genealogical research.
His family was always a mystery to me.
As I became more acquainted with them through my research I learned about his mother, Temperance, or “Tempy” as she was commonly called. This blog post is about her as she is one of my direct line ancestors of whom I have the least information. But it is also about Lucinda Hall Lord, David C. Lord’s, my 2X maternal great-grandfather, first wife. After researching the ancestry of David and Tempy, I felt that Lucinda also needed to be recognized.
Unfortunately, and commonly, the information about women who lived more than 100 years ago is so difficult to research, little has been recorded about them, yet they were extremely critical to their family’s survival. Their presence was the glue that held their families together. This blog post and the information that I uncovered can certainly attest to that statement.
But first, some history as to why it may be so difficult to research female ancestors who lived more than 100 years ago. Finding genealogical information about those women may be due to the unfortunate fact that women held a secondary status to men. Their identity was so often intertwined with the men in their lives. In addition, the traditions and laws of their societies limited their access to such things as education, employment, and public roles. They are also not equally represented in research records.
In order to rise to the challenge of researching female ancestors we, as family tree researchers, must brainstorm, strategize, seek out, and study relevant records. It is also especially important to put women into their historical context.
Ask these questions of yourself during your female ancestor's research:
1. What was happening when and where they lived?
2. What laws impacted their rights to marry, divorce, maintain custody of their children, vote, speak publicly, own property, own a business, or receive an education?
3. Did your ancestor live during Abolition, Temperance, or Suffrage?
4. What responsibilities did she take on during war?
5. How did her community support or treat her if she were orphaned, widowed, single, or, heaven forbid, rebellious?
Using this framework may help us to understand their circumstances, why our female ancestors may have made certain choices ( if there was a choice at all), and what their records have left behind.
I used all of those considerations yet came up lacking when I researched Tempy and Lucinda. Only through their children was I able to find some credible and useful records. Many genealogical records are found online at the present time but, if able, my suggestion is to check with and go to the historical societies in the areas in which they lived.
Through my online sources and some family stories here is what I uncovered about Tempy and Lucinda:
My 2X maternal grandmother, Temperance (Tempy) Wilcox was, according to my latest research, born in Pennsylvania around the year 1844, the fifth child of Jacob Wilcox (b.1790 - d.1874) and Catharine Decker Wilcox (b.1806 - d.1887), Jacob’s third wife. If it were not for my maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Olive Harris Lord, I would not have known about Tempy, or later, about Lucinda. Elizabeth wrote and gave my mother, Lorraine Lord, a short list of some of the women in the Lord family. Mom passed it on to me.
I was fascinated by the given name of Temperance or Tempy. The name of Temperance surely would make the research easier, right? As there could not be many woman with the given name of Temperance I was certain that I would find more information about her in my family tree research. I was wrong, it seems that the name Temperance was fairly common as a given name in the early 1800s and late 1700s. It took many years until I became adept enough at family tree research to learn more about Great-Great Grandma Tempy.
According to the U.S. Federal Censuses of 1860, 1870, and 1880 she lived in Franklin Township and in Jackson Township, Lehman, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania for her entire life, first as the daughter of a farmer and later as the wife of another farmer.
Tempy was the wife of my 2X great-grandfather, David C. Lord, a man that was almost twice her age. I was curious and interested as to how she married such an older man.
Here’s what I found:
Temperance Wilcox was David Lord’s second wife. He was born in circa 1817-1820 in Pennsylvania, and Tempy was born in 1844. She bore him eight children, six boys and two girls during their union. Her first child, William Alexander Lord, was born in 1867 when Tempy was approximately 23 years old. Her sixth child, my maternal great-grandfather Irvin O. Lord, was born in 1875, and her last child, a daughter, according to my original research, Katherine, or Kate, as she was more commonly known, was born in 1879. Or so I thought! More on that later in this post. It really is amazing what family genealogists can discover about their ancestors if we continue to probe and revisit the many records that are now available to us online.
Even though I diligently searched I found no marriage record for David C. Lord and Temperance Wilcox anywhere in my extended research, but that does not mean that were never married. It seems they had no recorded religious influence in their lives. Church records of Franklin Township, Pennsylvania, indeed of the Lords and Wilcoxes, yielded no results.
The back story of David is that his first wife, Lucinda Hall, was born presumably in New Jersey in 1824 and may have died by the year 1860 leaving David as the single father of three children. His own mother had died in 1835 when David was just 15 years old. Lucinda was the daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Hall. Lucinda and David lived in Franklin Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, where David was a farmer, as were almost all the male residents in that township. The Halls originally came to Pennsylvania from Connecticut during the time that Charles II deeded property to Connecticut residents while at the same time deeding the exact same land to Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania residents leading to the three bloody Yankee-Pennamite Wars of 1769 to 1774. The Halls seemed to have survived those conflicts.
The Halls were a prolific family, populating the agricultural area of Franklin Township before and after 1770. Lucinda was the granddaughter of Abel Hall, Jr. apparently the original Hall family settler, migrating to Pennsylvania from Connecticut and living for a brief time in New Jersey where Lucinda was born to Daniel, one of Abel Hall, Jr.’s sons, and his wife, Elizabeth.
Lucinda and David had their first child, Mary Elizabeth Lord, in 1844, then their son Lewis Lord was born in1849, and lastly a daughter, Huldah, born in 1853. During this era in American history the anti-slavery movement was growing in the United States and the small farming community of Franklin Township did not escape the division of the nation and the impending U.S. Civil War over the specter of slavery.
I found information about Lucinda in the U.S. Federal Census of 1850, she was 26 years old, the mother of Mary, age six years and Lewis, age one year. David was 30 years old. They lived and worked on a farm in Franklin Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, most probably next to the property of Lucinda’s brother, Hiram Hall, his wife Emily, and their six children situated between the farms of Alexander Lord, David’s father and Ida, his stepmother, and his brother, George Calhoun Lord, age 30, with his wife Minerva, and their five children. Did I say the Halls were prolific? So were the Lords!
David and George are both recorded as being 30 years old, causing me to wonder if they had been born as twins, as both their dates of birth were in recorded in various documents as 1820. Upon later research I found some evidence that David was most probably born in 1817 or 1818, and George Calhoun Lord was born in 1819.
David and Lucinda’s third child, a daughter, Huldah, was apparently born in 1853 according to my research. But by the 1860 U.S. Federal Census I found no trace of Lucinda. The name D.C. Lord (a.k.a. David), age 43 (placing his birthdate at approximately 1817-1818) was found in the 1860 census residing in Franklin Township with Ida, his stepmother, age 79, a housekeeper, Sarah Herman, age 39, and a five-year-old child, John Dorte. Ida, Sarah, and John were born in New Jersey. David seemed to own a farm with a real estate value of $3000 and personal property of $500. Alexander, David’s father had died in 1859, leaving a larger estate to David than his other brothers, most notably control of the farm on which his stepmother lived.
Regarding David’s presumed role in the U.S. Civil War, upon some exhaustive research, I found more than one David Lord who served in the U.S. Union Army. In fact, one of the David Lords had been a prisoner in the infamous Andersonville prison during the war. However, that is not clear if this was my ancestor David Lord, as the middle initials varied at times from D. or C. or no middle initial in some U.S. Civil War records.
It does make sense that David had enlisted or was conscripted as a soldier in the Union Army, probably in 1861, as most men during that era had experienced that fate. More extensive research needs to be performed on my part, possibly at the Fold3.org website.
David’s and Lucinda’s three children, Mary, Lewis, and Huldah were sent to live with neighbors and distant relatives after 1859 presumably the year that Lucinda may have died. In the 1860 U.S. Census if found Mary Elizabeth and Lewis living with the John Lord family in Franklin Township, undoubtedly extended family members. Huldah, age 17, was found on the census residing with the Simon family in 1860 and later, in the 1870 census, living with the Casterline family along with her brother Lewis, age 21. Later, Mary, age 26, was found in the records as residing with the Wilcox family, in Lehman Township, Pennsylvania, a township close to Franklin, her occupation was recorded as “housekeeper.” She was married to George Wilcox, age 30, and living with their child, Olive V. Wilcox, age 2, thereby possibly creating an endogamy situation in the Wilcox family (more research to be done on this fact). Mary Elizabeth died sometime around 1910, and then George married another woman, a widow, named Mary J. Lord Keithline. You can’t make this stuff up, folks! In fact, I had to make a table to follow the marriages of George, Mary Elizabeth, and Mary J!
Lewis went on to prosper and lived until 1927. Unfortunately, I lost the trail of Huldah after the 1870 U. S. Census.
But, alas, I also lost the trail of my 2x great-grandmother, Tempy, after 1880. No evidence was found of a burial site in the Jackson or Franklin Townships, nor in locales near to where she spent her entire life. Her life somehow abruptly ended around 1880. Or so I thought! The seven, and later eight children she shared with David went on to lead lives of varying existences.
Sadly, her first son, William Alexander Lord, a single man, died in the Ransom Poor-House, in 1933, an almshouse not far from where he spent his entire life as a laborer working and residing at various relatives’ farms in the immediate area. Every U.S. Census in which his name appears records him as a "single" man. His obituary records his age as 70 years. On the 1870 U.S. Census for Franklin Township, Pennsylvania William's age was recorded as three years yet his death certificate cites his date of birth as 24 February 1863. However, several U.S. Censuses have varying ages for William leading me to believe that some are incorrect. By correlating the information from various documents I believe his date of birth
was 24 February 1867. The correlation also considers his mother's, his father's, and his siblings ages at the given time. Given that he was an "inmate" in an almshouse in 1930 along with many other men, his actual birth date may have been a falsehood or a mistake. He was interred at the Huntsville Cemetery in Jackson Township, Pennsylvania.
Tempy's son, James David Lord, born in 1868 was last traced to the 1880 U.S. Census living with his father, David, his mother Tempy, and six siblings. I later discovered information about him from the 1900 census. He and his wife Edith, along with a son, Ralph, age 14, lived in Kingston Township, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the name James Lord was quite a common one. No further details were found.
Francis E. Lord, or Frank as he was commonly known, Tempy and David’s third child, born in 1869 in Franklin Township, Pennsylvania, was found living with his parents and siblings recorded on the 1880 census, he was six years old. Later Frank, a laborer, was recorded as living on East Main Street in Plymouth, Pennsylvania at some time in his early life and then in 1905 on Main Street in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I discovered a marriage license from 1907 and found that he was married to Pearl Spencer, working as a “teamster”. However, for most of his life Francis had been employed as a “laborer.” Frank died at the Ransom Poor House in 1921 when he was approximately 51 years old from a form of cancer.
Jason Lord, Tempy’s fourth child, born in February 1870, seemed to have lived a slightly better life than his brothers, marrying his wife Ada (Adeline) Bastian and working as a farmer in nearby Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Jason and Ada had five children during their marriage, only two of them were still living in 1900. By 1910 one of their children, Adelbert Lord died from injuries sustained in an accident in February of that year when he was just 14 years old. Later they had two more children. Jason worked for the J.J. Becker Co. in 1918 as a “barn man,” residing on North River Street in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately,
Jason died when he was just 52 years old in 1922.
Harry Wilcox Lord, born in March 1873, was the fifth child of Tempy and David’s union. I found a newspaper article in The Dallas Weekly Post of Dallas, Pennsylvania that recorded him as a one-year subscriber to that newspaper. It seems he could read and write, despite having little schooling and liked to keep up with local events.
When he was 27 years, I found Harry’s name recorded on the 1900 U.S. Federal Census as living Lehman Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the home of Ethan C. Allen, a general merchant, and his wife Albertus D. Allen. His relationship to them was recorded as “servant” and his occupation was listed as “farm laborer.” In 1910 he was working as “machinist” residing on Union Street in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. By 1918 Harry had gained the skills of a carpenter and was still residing on Union Street in Wilkes-Barre. But, by 1920 Harry was back living as a boarder in the home of the Spencer family in on their farm in Lehman, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. His occupation was “laborer” and the industry in which he worked was recorded as “odd jobs.” Throughout these years Harry’s marital status had been “single.” The 1920 U.S. census was the last recorded documentation of Harry’s life.
My maternal great-grandfather, Irvin O. Lord, was Tempy’s sixth child and last son, born when she was approximately 31 years old on 17 September 1875 in Huntsville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. From what I have been able to discern Irvin lived with his parents and siblings until their mother’s death sometime after 1880. Irvin became a machinist and a blacksmith working for the Vulcan Iron Works in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He married Elsie Goble, my maternal great-grandmother in 1898 at the Presbyterian Church in Binghamton, New York. Irvin and Elsie lived in several residences in Wilkes-Barre and Kingston, Pennsylvania during their lives. A son, Clarence Lord, my maternal grandfather, was born to them in 1901 in addition to welcoming an adoptive daughter, Glennora, in the late 1920s. I have much information that I have gleaned during my family research journey regarding Irvin, however, truly little about his parents, Tempy and David Lord.
Irvin lived until he was 70 years old, working until two weeks before his death succumbing to myocarditis and common artery disease on 18 January 1946 . Elsie remained in the Kingston, Pennsylvania home she and Irvin had purchased sometime around 1920 along with her grandson, James F. Lord, my uncle, as he lived there until he completed high school. Irvin is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in the Lord family plot.
Katherine or Kate Lord, whom I had first surmised was the last of Tempy’s children was born on 19 February 1879 in Huntsville, Jackson Township, Lehman, Pennsylvania. Since I thought I had found no further information about her mother after 1880 it is possible that Kate grew up without a mother. Kate never married, began working as a nurse and then as a “maid” for several distant family members during her life span of 60 years. She died from a form of cancer while living and working for the distant and marriage-related Rummage family in Milton, Pennsylvania. Not once did I ever hear my Great-Grandma Elsie speak of her on behalf of her husband Irvin’s family.
And finally, a surprise in my genealogical research! Recently, as I was rechecking my documents related to Tempy and David’s children I took another look at my maternal great-grandfather, Irvin O. Lord’s obituary and noticed that all of the above-mentioned siblings were deceased, but there was another sibling, a sister who was alive in 1946!
Her name was Minnie Stella Lord, b. 7 January 1882, d. 9 March 1954. With the discovery of her existence, I was able to change Tempy’s possible date of death to 1882 or later. Once I began to research Minnie Stella’s life, I found much more information than I had ever uncovered about her six brothers and one sister.
It seems that Minnie, or Stella, as she was sometimes known, was the most prolific of Tempy and David’s children, having given birth to ten children with her husband, Fred Price. Sadly, life was not easy for Minnie and her husband. He was a coal miner, an exceedingly difficult job in the Wyoming Valley area of northeastern Pennsylvania. They lived in Larksville, Pennsylvania, at the top of Larksville Mountain, an extremely poor area in the region.
I vividly remember one of their children, Mary, although I did not know her relationship to the Lord family (it turns out that she was my 1st cousin two times removed). My Great-Grandmother Elsie, her great-aunt, often took food and provisions to help feed her large family. Mary became a widow in 1930 and still had several young children to feed. In addition to her own children, Mary also cared for several of her grandchildren at her home on the mountain. At times, as a young child of four years, I would ride along with my mother and great-grandmother when they delivered the food to them, or at times, Mary and one of her daughters came to my great-grandmother’s home in Kingston, Pennsylvania.
Minnie Stella Lord Price lived to be one of the oldest of Tempy and David’s children, expiring at the age of 72 in 1954 at one of her children’s homes in Courtdale, Pennsylvania.
In conclusion, it seems that my 2X great-grandmother, Tempy Wilcox Lord, David Lord’s second wife, and David’s first wife, Lucinda Hall were indeed the proverbial glue that kept their families together through early agricultural beginnings in a rustic land, during the U.S. Civil War and beyond. They persevered until their own lives ended too early. Life stories of their children were difficult sagas common in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Thankfully I was able to piece together enough small bits of their lives through their children’s lives enabling the memories of their own lives to continue on in my family tree.
Note: I have never come across the burial sites of Tempy Wilcox Lord and David C. Lord, likewise I have as yet to find the final resting place of Lucinda Hall Lord.
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