Loyalist daughter and Patriot son

Eugenia Clapp was born September 27, 1833 in Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada.  Her father was Hiram Clapp and her mother was Rhoda Striker. Eugenia’s grandfather Sampson Striker was a Loyalist who strongly supported the British monarchy during the American Revolution serving as a Sergeant in Delaney’s Corp, he moved to Canada with his family after the war’s end. Eugenia, or Jane as she was commonly known, moved with her parents to Wisconsin sometime before 1854. It was in Wisconsin that Jane married Roswell Graves on August 18, 1857 in Wyocena, Columbia County, Wisconsin, she was 23 and he was 20 years old.

Roswell was born in Pennsylvania to Roswell Graves and Mary Ann Betts, the Graves family were Patriots during the Revolutionary War. Roswell’s paternal great-grandfather (also named Roswell Graves) died in the Old Sugar House British Prison in New York City in 1776, having been taken prisoner in the Battle of Long Island. His maternal great-grandfather Andrew Betts served as a Corporal in the Pennsylvania Militia. Two families who stood on opposite sides of the War of Independence melding with the marriage of Jane and Roswell. It must have made for interesting discussions around their family table.

Two years after they were married, Roswell was ordained a Methodist Preacher and served in local churches in Wisconsin and Iowa. In 1864 Jane and Roswell moved with their three young children to California. We don’t know what prompted this move from Iowa to wild, unsettled, wide-open California. They settled first in Solano County and it was here their 4^th child was born in 1865. Two years later they moved from Solano County to Walnut Grove in Sacramento County where their 5^th child was born in 1867, at this time Roswell changed from Methodism to Congregationalism. A year later they were in Contra Costa County where their 6^th child was born in 1868, and in 1872 they were in Battle Creek in Tehama County where their 7^th and final child was born.

Tehama County was sparsely populated, ranching country at this time. An article in the Sacramento Daily Union in November 1872 mentioned the north winds in Tehama County saying, “Those winds are the curse of this country. They make war against all living things. They blow the life out of the weak and the evil spirit into the strong”. It was in this country that Jane would make a home for her family on the South side of Battle Creek.

There were a few other families and ranches nearby, but the area in and around Battle Creek had experienced some troubles with the local Indians and was still a very wild and unsettled area. In 1866 Marie Dersch was killed by Indians a few miles north of Battle Creek on the Nobles Immigrant Trail and not long after that, the home of Simon and Arzilla Darrah was burned down at what is now the Darrah Springs Fish Hatchery. Jane’s knowledge of this recent history must have added to her discomfort of living in a small shack along the creek.

Just a short time after Jane’s daughter Bertha May was born in Battle Creek on August 24, 1872, the entire family came down with ague, pronounced āʹgyo͞o, it is an illness related to malaria with chills and fevers. The isolation and illness proved to be too much for Jane and their time in Tehama County was short-lived, within six months Jane and Roswell moved their family to Redding in Shasta County.

During this time in Redding, Roswell Graves performed the first wedding ceremony in Shasta County in June 1873 for a couple who traveled down from Weaverville (near the area mentioned in Cemetery Addict). Jane and Roswell spent the remainder of their time in Shasta County, serving at The Little Shasta Church near present-day Yreka. After Roswell’s death in 1883 Jane moved with her daughter Ella to Washington State where she died in 1912 at the age of 78.

Eugenia is one of the forgotten pioneers of California, moving with her husband and children across Northern California, she supported her husband as he brought the Gospel to the miners, loggers, and ranchers in the wilderness areas. Jane lived in Solano, Sacramento, Alameda, San Francisco, Tehama, Shasta, and Siskiyou Counties. She lived in areas where there were floods, earthquakes, Indian attacks, and disease. She lived at a time when women had very little resources to fall back on and in places where she had very little support from friends and no family to lean against. Through it all she kept her family together and provided for her children in the best way she could. Roswell was my 1st cousin 4x removed.

Roswell and Eugenia Graves
Photo and some information from the website of Faye West
http://www.fayewest.ca

Alford Abner Sisley

Have you ever thought about being that person who invents a catch-phrase? One of those phrases you hear people say like, “later, dude” or “Cowabunga”? Or maybe when you were younger you wanted to start a new dance craze? Well, my mother and grandmother have the great distinction of inventing Alford Abner Sisley out of thin air.

Alford Abner Sisley was born on February 11, 1848 in Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania to Lewis William Sisley and Catherine Betts and died on February 11, 1948 in Clinton, Rock County, Wisconsin. Look him up, he’s all over the internet, on family trees dotted throughout the United States. Like Forrest Gump, Alford probably fought in wars and met presidents. After all, he lived to be 100 years old. And like Forrest Gump, Alford is a purely fictional character. Made up out of thin air.

Alford Abner Sisley
Birth 11 Feb 1848 in Meadville, Crawford, Pennsylvania, United States
Death 11 Feb 1948 in Clinton, Rock, Wisconsin, United States
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• Birth
1848 11 Feb
Meadville, Crawford, Pennsylvania, United States
• Death
1948 11 Feb Age: 100
Clinton, Rock, Wisconsin, United States

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Parents
• Lewis William Sisley
1803 – 1880

Catherine Betts
1807 – 1880

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• No Spouse

You might ask yourself why my mother and grandmother would have done such a thing. The answer is simple. It was the early 1950’s and they were transcribing a family Bible. The actual reading should have been Absalom Sisley but they had difficulty making out the faded ink and read it as Alford. From that moment on, Alford took on a life of his own. He made it onto family trees in the 1950’s and 1960’s and then came the invention of the internet. Alford loved the internet! Alford has soared through the internet with the ease of no one double-checking their facts. He soared through the internet with the ease of absolutely not one piece of documentation supporting his birth, life, or death.

Since his creation Alford has spread his wings so wide that he can never be recalled. Sending emails and adding notes to trees is useless because he just sprouts up on a new tree. Poor Alford, a man without a document or a burial place. Sentenced to roam across the World Wide Web forever. When you come across poor Alford, do him a favor, don’t add him to your tree. Alford has had a miserable life and deserves to pass away into the thin air from whence he came.