Jane E. Mulholland Stebbins: So Young

Jane E. Mulholland is one of the well documented children of Samuel Mulholland and Jane Bullock Mulholland. Her story is a short one, as she married at 17 and died at 22. But even in her short life, she left a legacy that makes an interesting tale, including a son who is one of the few of my ancestors who fought in the Civil War.

Following Irish naming patterns in which children were named after parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, Jane Mulholland carried on the given name of her mother. She was born in Ireland in 1825, presumably in County Monaghan where her brother Sam jr. originated. Jane and her family followed Sam jr to Superior Township, Washtenaw, Michigan when she was about 8 in 1833.

She lived on a farm with her family until her marriage to Horace Stebbins in 1842 at the age of 17. For Horace, it was a second marriage after his first wife, Susannah Vedder, died in 1840.

Because the Michigan marriage record for Horace and Jane incorrectly recorded his surname as "Selkins," Jane was lost for a long time to family genealogists, only resurfacing when a Horace Stebbins was found in the 1840 census in Superior Township, where they married in 1842. Additional evidence came from the FindAGrave record showing Jane's maiden name and correct birth date, making it possible to link her to Samuel's family.

A further link to Jane is from deed records, when she and sister Sarah Mulholland purchased land in Dixboro in 1836. This land was sold to brother William in 1846 by Horace Stebbins and wife Jane, along with William and Sarah Sissons of Genesee County.

Jane and Horace moved to Van Buren County at some time before her death in 1847, and she is buried in Prospect Cemetery in Lawrence, Van Buren County.

After the early deaths of his first two wives, Horace Stebbins went on to marry a third time to 33-year-old Lydia Skinner. Horace had two children with Jane, and two more with Lydia, although one of the latter died young. The children lived with Horace and Lydia until his death at age 70 in 1874. Neither of Jane's children married nor had children.

M. Eliza Stebbins: The Missing Daughter

Jane's only daughter, Eliza Stebbins, was born in 1843, just a year after her parents marriage when Jane  Mulholland Stebbins was only 18. Eliza is recorded in census records living with the Stebbins family until 1870, the last census before Horace died. In 1880, she is living single as a boarder in Paw Paw working as a booking agent. She died 1901 at age 58 in Paw Paw, Van Buren, Michigan. Her death certificate indicated she never married nor had children. Her brother-in-law, Barnabas Odell, husband of half-sister Maria Stebbins, was appointed the administrator of her estate after her death.

Lewis J. Stebbins: Civil War Casualty

Private L. J. Stebbens tombstone #377
Chattanooga National Cemetery, TN

Lewis J. Stebbins (often misspelled Louis) lost his mother when he was less than one, and was raised by his father Horace and third wife Lydia. 

At 16, Lewis enlisted in the Union Army, lying about his birth date to appear older. He joined Company E, Michigan 13^th Infantry Division as a private on 11 Feb 1862. The division left Kalamazoo on 12 Feb for the war in the south.

The division was part of the battle of Stones River, Tennessee in late December 1862 and early January 1863, considered only second to Gettysburg in loss of lives. At Stones River, the Michigan Thirteenth:

distinguished itself by its desperate valor and was most warmly commended for the heroic work that checked the onward rush of the confederate forces…. The Union forces were steadily pressed back by the enemy, but the Thirteenth held its position until nearly surrounded, when it fell back a short distance and reformed, continually showing a bold front to the enemy. Colonel Shoemaker ordered a bayonet charge and the Thirteenth sprang forward with a yell, driving the enemy from the field in confusion and capturing a large number of prisoners. The regiment lost nearly one third of its strength in killed and wounded in the action on this part of the field.1 

While Lewis survived the Stones River carnage, he was not so fortunate at the next major battle at Chickamauga, Georgia in September 1863. Lewis was wounded in that battle on September 19, and sent to the field hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee where he died of his wounds on November 8. He is buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery with other veterans of the war. Of the 217 soldiers in his company who fought those two September days in Chickamauga, 107 were wounded, killed or missing, suggesting the intensity of the battle in which Lewis died.


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1. State of Michigan & George Turner, 1900, Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865, v. 13,
p. 2. Kalamazoo, MI: Ihling Bros. & Everard; Stationers, Printers, and Publishers, available online from SeekingMichigan