Sarah Mulholland: Sister, We Hardly Knew Ya

Despite the many genealogies that have been done for the Superior Township Mulholland families, many with undocumented daughters, the surprise was discovery of Sarah Mulholland. 

Sarah’s story was unknown until close examination of early Washtenaw County deed records in 2020. Like sisters Phebe and Eliza, she married and moved away, and was lost from family stories. It is interesting to note that the speculative relationship to Phebe Mulholland Barber has links to Sarah’s story, as both settled in Mt. Morris, Genesee, Michigan.

A story hinted in land records

Sarah’s story began to unravel with a deed record dating from 1836. Two females, Sarah and Jane Mulholland, purchased a parcel of land in the newly growing village of Dixboro, Washtenaw County. This deed is unusual for several reasons, particularly the fact that the purchasers are female. 

Multiple Mulhollands bought lots in the village, and their father Samuel is known to have lived in Dixboro in his later years as did brothers James and John. James had early dealings with John Dix, the town founder who tried to build the platted subdivision as the future major city in the region, a plan that collapsed when the railroad was routed through nearby Ann Arbor. Dixboro remains a small village today with numerous historic buildings and a cemetery holding several generations of Mulhollands.

Following the deed trail showed this Dixboro lot was sold in 1846 by Jane and her then husband, Horace Stebbins, to Jane’s brother William. Jane is documented as a a daughter of Samuel Mulholland. Also listed as sellers were William and Sarah Sissons of Genesee County. Not a huge leap to think the Sarah Sissons was originally Sarah Mulholland, although she lived rather distant from Superior Township, and other records show her maiden name to be Mulholland.

Sarah Mulholland Sissins of Genesee County, Michigan

As the story emerged, it is likely Sarah arrived with her Irish family in Superior Township in 1833 at age 13 but no records have been found of her there in the 1830s other than the deed from 1836.

Sarah Sissins (or Sissons, as there are multiple spellings in records) was married to William Sissons, an immigrant from England. No records have been found for their early lives. From the records of children and tombstones in the Mt. Morris cemetery, Sarah’s maiden name was Mulholland. Her oldest child, James R. Sissins, was born in 1842. 

When the family settled in Genesee is unknown. William is an original early settler who bought land patents in the county in 1837, and locally registered in 1847. He and his family appear in the 1850 census but he was not on the 1840 one. It is likely he married Sarah in about 1841 at which time they settled into their farming life.

William and Sarah had seven known children, two who died in childhood. William died in 1868 at the age of 58. Sarah appears in deed records after her husband's death, buying land in the village of Mt. Morris and a plot in the countryside and in the 1870 census living with her two youngest children. Sarah briefly remarried John Delbridge in December 1875 at the age of 55 (listed as Sarah Sissins Mulholland in the register), but the marriage was short lived as she died just over a year later in January 1876 at the age of 56. 

She is buried along with William and several children in the Sissins plot in Mount Morris Cemetery, in an area still mostly rural with the farms continuing that were established by the early settlers in the area.

Dowry lands?

At the time of the original purchase in Dixboro, Sarah (age 17) and Jane (age 12) were still girls. Not many young women were land owners, and it seems unlikely they could purchase the Dixboro parcel without funds from a relative. 

What make this purchase interesting is that a similar event occurs two years later, when land was transferred to two of their youngest sisters, Eliza and Mary Ann, at the time ages 12 and 10 respectively. While the reason for these land gifts is unknown, it is possible this was seen as a way to ensure a dowry for the girls and some personal financial stability for the future. All these lands were eventually sold by the husbands after marriage, except for Mary Ann’s share, sold by the husband of Eliza who was her guardian. 

The value of land to the Mulholland family can be seen in the growth of their holdings once they came to the US, and the prosperous farms indicated from agricultural census records. These farms remained in the family throughout the nineteenth century, as did the land of the Sissins in Genesee which passed to oldest son James R. Sissins. James died in 1907, with census and directory listings showing he was a farmer to the end.

Phebe Mulholland Cargill Barber: DNA Helps When a Woman Disappears

Evidence for the various children of Sam Mulholland sr and his wife Jane Bullock has gradually accumulated from multiple sources. Genealogical proof can be a challenge in early Michigan history when few records were kept and even fewer survived. Further, Sam and Jane were illiterate, using an X for signing their names. Many stories and evidence for the extended Washtenaw Mulholland clan are elsewhere on this blog.

This is a tale of how DNA may tell us what missing documents may not. It is as yet hypothesized as a two DNA matches is not enough. The tale is posted here in hopes others may supplement what is now suspected.

The Documentary Evidence for a Connection

The single documentary source suggesting that Sam and Jane Mulholland had another daughter is a marriage record from 1833. The nuptials of Pheba Mulholand and William Cargill are recorded in the first county marriage register:

Territory of Michigan, Washtenaw County. Be it remembered that on the second day of September Eighteen hundred & third three that the marriage of William Cargill and Pheba Mulholand was solemnized before me, one of the Justices of the Peace in and for the said county of Washtenaw, E. Munday.

Except for this entry, not one solid piece of documentary evidence showing a clear link to the Sam Mulholland family. Only conjecture suggested she is related, given that the extended family arrived in 1833 and they seem to be the only Mulhollands in Washtenaw County at the time. Further, a daughter old enough to marry in 1833 would be just the right age to fill the gap between James and Sam jr, a rather long period for there to have been no children. Earlier genealogists made this assumption, and it remains a reasonable one, though until now very hypothetical even if reasonable.

Marriage register for Washtenaw County, 1833

Desperately Seeking Phebe

As any genealogist will tell you, finding females is far more difficult in times past than finding males. Most official records only recorded the names of white men who owned property, were able to vote, headed the family, and gave their names to a spouse so female maiden names were lost. Until 1850, census records for Michigan had no names except male heads-of-household. Official birth and death records were not required in Michigan until 1867 and even then were less than complete until the 20th century. No regular church records were kept in most early Michigan communities, with many rural churches sharing a traveling clergyman.

In the case of Phebe Mulholland, the first line of search is to follow her husband. William Cargill seems to have left little trace. Like her Mulholland brothers, a William Cargill appears as a petitioner to Congress for road improvements in Michigan in 1833 suggesting this is the man Phebe married. A deed in Oakland county on the same date as the marriage records a land transfer from William Cargill to Phebe Mulholland (witnessed by her brother John Mulholland), possibly from her soon-to-be father-in-law for their nuptials. But beyond the petition, marriage register, and deed, William of the right age cannot be found after 1833.  Later records suggest older and younger William Cargills in Oakland County. Searches for varied spellings did not reveal the couple in later years, even beyond the boundaries of the state.

So what happened to the Cargills? One might just assume bad record keeping has kept them hidden. But other directions are possible which have been noted by genealogists seeking women who were invisible from official record keeping. 

One option is that both William and Phebe died young in one of the many epidemics that swept the countryside in those days. With no formal recordings of deaths, and no formal cemeteries in Superior Township, they were quietly buried and lost to history.

But another option when women disappear is a quite different story. Because of early deaths, both men and women found new spouses and many families show multiple marriages because of the demands for labor to raise families and manage the many chores of farming. Daily life did not favor singles. Widows or widowers remarried soon after the death of a spouse or had to find lodging with their siblings. A widow who remarries can be hard to find when there are no records of marriages, and those that exist do not show other family members. 

Could Phebe have remarried after a tragic early death of William?

OMG, another Phebe?

With online records, it has become easier to look more broadly at possible family connections. One of the reasons for a more extensive search for Phebe was finding other lost sisters who had been uncertain because early records from Washtenaw County had been misleading. Names were misspelled and dates uncertain for this early period, and in one case only deed records were the needed link. 

With so few Mulhollands (and other similar spellings) in Michigan in the early 1800s, there are few individuals to trace in depth. With my retirement in the mid 2010s, I had the opportunity to spend more time on research and actually found a Phebe Mulholland of the right age and in the right places. At the time, I posted her story online in hopes others could supplement what was known, but after years of no further revelations, I removed the extended story as too speculative. Yes, it appeared possible that Phebe had remarried to Henry Barber and was living only a short distance from her sister Sarah Mulhollland Sissins, wife of William B. Sissins, in Genesee County, Michigan. But no, records just did not provide the needed support. At best a single deed in 1858 includes William as a witness to a sale by Henry and Phebe Mulholland Barber, indicating the families were known to each other.

DNA to the Rescue

Retirement has provided the time to learn more about DNA genealogy, at the same time online databases for DNA have expanded to include more people. For the first time, I found a link that was more than speculation based on age and place. A match to a descendant of Phebe, and no other known links to my family! Yes, I did a happy dance although I realize that one link for such an early ancestor is still weak. And on another DNA site, I located a second match to a Phebe descendant, but closely related to the first so still could be another connection. I have since found a third link. All are distant enough cousins to my family to be related in some other way.

So once again, I am posting the documentary story for what happened to the missing Phebe, and hoping that future DNA evidence will emerge to strengthen the connection. At present, the DNA evidence was found in the Ancestry DNA database for two linkages between my father and a descendant of Phebe with the third on MyHeritage. Limited evidence but a start that remains worth further examination.

Below is the posting I removed earlier based on the documentary records, but now can argue more strongly as correct based on DNA evidence.

How many Mulhollands are there in Michigan?

A tantalizing possibility is that the Pheba Mulholland Cargill from the marriage register was not lost, but remarried. From surviving records, Mulhollands in Michigan before about 1840 seem to come only from three families: the Superior Mulhollands related to Sam sr, the Monroe Mulhollands in the Daniel Mulholand family, and by about 1840, Steele Mulholland who settled in Ann Arbor.

So when a Phebe Mulholland appears about 1835, there is at least a possibility that she is the same one from the marriage record. What if her husband died not long after the marriage and she found another husband? And what if this newly identified Phebe is the right age, although admittedly her name is hardly unique so a leap of faith is required for this to be the true story. Even more tantalizing is the fact her sister Sarah settled in Genesee County with her husband, William Sissins. How convenient to find Phebe Mulholland just at the right time in Michigan records! And if she followed in the footsteps of her sisters, it is no surprise that her family moved away from Washtenaw County where only the Mulholland sons settled for the long term.

The following story is accurate in terms of a Phebe Mulholland who lived in Michigan and is the right age. While there is documentation of her name and age, as yet there is no documentary evidence that clearly links her to the Washtenaw family.

Phebe Mulholland Barber of Genesee County

Henry Barber, born about 1808 in Ireland, was married to Phebe Mulholland, also born in Ireland about the same year. With their oldest son born in 1836 in Michigan, a good guess is they married about 1835 in the state. The family first appears in 1850, when the census shows them living in Genesee County with son Robert, age 15, and six daughters ages one to twelve. Based on census records, the family added one additional daughter in 1853. A 1916 history of Genesee County indicates Henry Barber had settled in the eastern part of Mount Morris Township by 1839 not long after the initial settlers about 1833-34 (although the formal organization of the township did not happen until 1850). A Henry Barlow appears in Genesee County in the 1840 census with household members of the right age to be the Barber family, possibly name misspelled. 

Henry Barber grist mill in Mt. Morris, 1873

Henry was a very prosperous farmer and enterpreneur, paying taxes on land in sections 2 and 3 in 1844 and section 1, 2 and 3 in 1855. He accumulated lands and businesses estimated at $35,000 by 1870, including the local steam-powered grain mill in Mount Morris. According to the 1873 Bradstreet report, Henry's mill business was rated "superior business credit and ability, and in excellent credit." Henry served as township treasurer in 1860, 1867, and 1871.

Henry and Phebe lived out their lives in the Mt. Morris area of Genesee County, and son Robert remained there throughout his life as well. By contrast, the daughters married and some moved West, with daughters Emeline Barber Warner, Melissa Sarah Barber Ingersoll, and Eliza Barber Woodin all ending in California. The others settled in nearby Flint.

Where the family lived before 1839 is uncertain, as is their arrival from Ireland other than the fact all their children were born in Michigan from at least 1836 onward. Intriguing but inconclusive is an older Henry Barber in Superior Township in 1840, and a Henry Barber from the same county who was an original land patent purchaser in Handy Township, Livingston County in the same section as James and John Mulholland. Could this be Henry's family? Given inaccuracies in the early census records and lack of names for family members other than the head-of-household, the connection is unclear.

Phebe’s maiden name is known from death records for her children. Robert’s death record shows his parents as Henry Barber and Phebe Mulholland. Daughter Lucy Barber Milner is shown as the child of Henry Barber and Phebe McHolland (a common misspelling of Mulholland). Census records from 1850, 1860, and 1870 consistently show Phebe’s birth date of about 1808 or 1809 in Ireland, at least potentially possible for the person who was married in 1833, and fits neatly in the gap between Sam sr.’s sons. It might also be noted that William B. Sissons, the husband of known daughter of Samuel, Sarah Mulholland Sissins, appears as a witness of an 1858 deed of sale by Henry and Phebe Barber of Genesee County, providing at least as possible connection between the families.

Phebe Mulholland Barber’s death and burial are unknown, but her husband appears alone in the 1880 census at age 71 and is likely died about 1882. Court records suggest that Henry was charged with intoxication in his later years, with one report that he was suffering from a malady known as "softening of the brain." In 1880 Sarah is living with her oldest son, separately from her husband.  

It is probable they are buried on the farm where they spent their lives in Mt. Morris Township in graves no longer remembered (the Mt. Morris cemetery was not established until 1878).  But perhaps Phebe Mulholland Barber will yet reveal the secret of her family connections to other Mulhollands and our family tree in some yet unfound cache of records.

Note: this posting has been revised multiple times as different evidence has come to light to suggest new directions. With three weak DNA links it remains a hypothesis, even if a good one. Documentation for the Barber-Mulholland family is in my family tree on Ancestry. Would love to hear from you if you have suggestions!

updated 20 April 2026

Caroline Knodler: Young Woman finds Trouble in Paradise

The exact circumstances of Caroline Knodler's early life are clouded by the family's long reluctance to discuss the scandals involving her marriage to and later divorce from Sam J. Mulholland, and the birth before the marriage of her son, William (Bill) Mulholland, all very improper in the nineteenth century.

Carolyn (Carrie) Knödler Mulholland

Caroline (Carrie) Knödler was born in 1865. She grew up in Cottenweiler, Württemberg, Germany in the region where her ancestors had been since at least the sixteenth century. She followed her brother Gottlieb (George) Knodler to New York, then settled in Michigan. 

Exactly when she arrived in the U.S. is uncertain as she gave multiple dates ranging from arriving with her brother who immigrated around 1880, to coming when she was 12 in 1877. In 1894, she claimed in the state census to have been in Michigan for 11 years, after arriving in the U.S. the year before that which would have been 1882. According to one family story, Carrie left Germany when her father remarried after her mother's death, and she did not get along with her new step-mother, a marriage known from records to be in 1884.

While many immigrants reported inconsistent arrival dates in various documents, Carrie's changing story is at least in part related to the birth of her son born from an unknown father in 1886, four years before her official marriage to Samuel Mulholland in 1890. For years, she claimed she and Sam were married in 1885 before William (Willy or Bill) Mulholland's birth to protect the family from public scandal. Bill was consistently claimed to be Sam's son, at least in all social settings. Even Carrie's obituary in the Ann Arbor newspapers used the incorrect date of 1885 for her marriage to maintain this fiction. But the state holds a marriage record for the couple documenting the 1890 date.

First America, then the Poor House

In Carrie's story as reported years later by her youngest daughter Ada, after arriving in the U.S., Carrie decided not to return to Germany. Ada wrote:

As [Carrie] liked this country, she decided to stay and earn her own way through life. Many were the times when the pangs of homesickness overtook her, but she would not recross the treacherous seas. For a few months she kept house for her brother, who soon married. Then she worked in a summer resort on a mountain near by.

Brother Gottlieb (George) and second
wife Nellie (back); Carrie and
George's daughter Helen (front)

According to the next stage in the story as reported by daughter Ada, while working at the mountain resort after George married, her brother and wife invited Carrie to join them on a visit to an aunt in Michigan. Carrie liked the area better than New York so she did not go back with her brother. Michigan at the time had many families from Württemberg, was more rural than the busy city of New York, and shared a similar climate to their German home. George, by contrast, liked the big city and did return to New York.

Somewhere in there may be the story, but the dates don't work. In fact, marriage records for Gottlieb and his first wife, Frieda indicate they married in 1889. And Carrie was already in Michigan by early 1886 living at the Washtenaw county poor house where her first son was born.

Poor House from Evert & Steward, 1874 Combination Map Atlas of Washtenaw County

Hiding the Stigma of an Illegitimate Child

What we now know from official documents is that Carrie had a child out of wedlock, and all of the shifting stories and dates were intended to obscure it. Based on Willy's birth record, he was born in February 1886 while Carrie was living in the Washtenaw County Poor House and Insane Asylum, with the infant listed as illegitimate and father unknown. According to records from the Poor House, Carrie was sent there from January 26 to March 3, 1886, leaving a month after her son's birth. 

Carrie and son Bill Mulholland, 1940s

There are more hints about her son's parentage in the 1894 Michigan census after Carrie's 1890 marriage to Sam. Willy is correctly reported to have been born in Michigan with a father and mother born in Württemberg, Germany. By contrast both of the children born after Carrie's marriage to Sam, Minnie and Everett, have a father born in Michigan and mother in Württemberg as would be expected. More confusion is added when Carrie indicated she had only two children not the three listed. Later confirmation of the birth before marriage can be found in the divorce papers from 1905, as Willy is absent from the list of children shared by Samuel and Carrie.

Neither the official records, nor Carrie's multiple versions of her own story provide explanations for her early history and the circumstances surrounding William's birth and her eventual change from the poor house to Sam's wife. In all family records, Willy shares the Mulholland name which he used throughout his life.

Whatever had happened to put her in the county poor house must have been tragic. It is hard to believe her brother George who was doing well in New York would not have helped her out but maybe she was too embarrassed to tell him. There were the usual rumors later of an affair with a wandering carnival worker who fathered her son Bill, but no real information is known about Bill's father or how Carrie ended up pregnant and penniless in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

Just seeing these records of her hard life made me want to cry for her and all the women back then who were treated so poorly if they were single mothers. I don't think we will ever know the whole story, and even more interesting how she went from being a resident in the poor house to getting married to Sam four years later. While the sanctioned family story claimed she was a recent arrival to Michigan when she met Sam, the birth certificate shows she had already been in the state for several years.

Carrie and Sam Mulholland, about 1890,
possibly a wedding picture

From Poor House to Sam's Wife

According to the story Carrie told in later years, she met her future husband, Sam Mulholland (the third of that name), while living with her aunt in Michigan. Carrie at 25 was an unwed mother who needed a husband. If family or friends helped make the arrangement possible, we do not know.

On the other side of the marriage equation, the much older Sam probably looked like a good catch, having inherited a sizable farm in Superior Township in 1888 when his father died. While the Mulholland family was relatively respected, Sam was the black sheep because of his alcoholism and unsettled ways. Locals likely knew of his problems, making finding a spouse difficult. Supposedly the Mulholland family decided to get rid of their problem by marrying the 37-year-old Sam to the much younger Carrie, still in her mid-20's. 

The couple married in July 1890 and had three children on the farm near Dixboro that Sam had been given by his father. In 1896, Sam and Carrie moved into Ann Arbor where the last three of their daughters were born. After living north of the city (in what was then called North Ann Arbor but today is part of the city) with Sam’s sister, Sarah Mulholland, they lived briefly in a house at Main and Felch in Ann Arbor, then moved in 1900 to a rental house at 204 Chapin Street. 

Carrie on the back steps at the Chapin
house, about 1909

The Not-to-be-Mentioned Divorce

It is not clear that the arranged marriage was ever a happy one, and it ended in an official divorce in 1905, a socially unacceptable practice in the early 20th century. Sam was an alcoholic and periodically absented himself from the family, leaving Caroline to raise the family and earn their keep. 

While the community believed that Sam was a cordial drunk, the testimony his wife filed in the divorce papers indicated that he was verbally abusive and failed to support his family. In the two years before the divorce complaint, Sam had been jailed for drunkenness multiple times, to the "disgrace" of his wife and children. 

Carrie filed her complaint requesting the divorce after a particularly threatening event in June 1905, when 

he came home intoxicated, he rolled up his sleeves and said he would kill his [wife] and the whole damn family and paint the house with blood. (from the complaint filed with the court requesting the divorce, 27 June 1905) 

Carrie, about 1915

While Sam denied the part of the complaint describing his drunken rages and non-support, the divorce order indicated the court found the charges "satisfactorily" true and Sam Mulholland "guilty of several acts of extreme cruelty." The court not only granted the divorce and gave Carrie custody of the children in late 1905, but also issued an injunction against Sam coming to her Chapin Street house. 

From the Mulholland family point of view, Carrie was beneath them socially when she first married Sam as well as tainted by her illegitimate child. With the divorce official, many of that family distanced themselves from her. Bill's daughter Mae Mulholland claimed that only the Parkers, cousins on the Mulholland side, were friendly to Carrie in later years and no other Mulholland relatives attended Carrie's funeral. 

Despite Carrie's careful attempts to hide the truth of the divorce, according to Dorothy Williams Burpo who grew up in town and was a niece of Minnie's by marriage, everyone in Ann Arbor knew something of this story even though the family refused to acknowledge it. With city directories showing Sam often living only blocks away from the Chapin Street house, Carrie's claim to be his widow in the same directories was probably recognized as less than accurate but a social nicety given the attitudes of the time.

Carrie, about 1919

While Carrie's children hinted that something was funny in later years, they refused to acknowledge Willy's too-early birth or the divorce, and records kept by the family preserve the sanitized version. It was still so unacceptable that even when family genealogist Phyllis Hoffman tried to talk about this seventy years later and after Carrie's death, with evidence in hand as part of her genealogical research, the now aging children simply wouldn't hear of it or discuss what they may have known. 

In a letter to Phyllis, Willy's daughter Mae wrote: 

I would have to be an idiot not to know something was wrong about Caroline and Sam's wedding. Before Ada died I had come up with three different dates when they were supposed to have been married. I knew something was wrong when Ada let me look at the bible and I saw the date had been changed in Edna's handwriting. We started to talk about it but when I saw Ada starting to cry I told her to forget it. It was over years ago and nothing could change it at this late date. She made me promise I would keep my mouth shut and do nothing to hurt Caroline's memory.

New Directions and Long Life

Carrie and her daughters brought
in extra income by taking in laundry

After her divorce, Carrie purchased the house on Chapin Street in Ann Arbor in 1906 with a legacy she received when her father died in Germany. There Caroline took in washing to make money and also sold milk and eggs. In their pre-teen years, each of the children went to work to help support the family. Only the youngest, Ada, finished high school.

Not all their life was a hardship. The children reported regularly playing across the street from the Chapin St. house at West Park, and spending time in the summers at the lake as well as visiting the Parkers on their farm north of town. 

Carrie and grandson Erwin, about 1914

If there were "skeletons in the closet" at Carrie's house on Chapin, they stayed in the attic and Carrie was adamant that no one could ever go up there (it wasn't really an attic but an unfinished storage space over the kitchen). At one time when young Stan Hoffman was visiting, Carrie and the daughters were mentioning that they would like to be able to plug in the electric iron in the kitchen. Like many old houses, the wiring was added long after it was built and there were few sockets. There was no electrical wiring in the kitchen except for one overhead light bulb. Daughter Minnie's husband, Fred Hoffman told Carrie that he could fix the light fixture so it would have the light and an outlet to plug in the iron. Carrie's immediate response was that he most certainly couldn't go into the attic. Fred assured her he could fix it without going upstairs over the kitchen.  

Carrie with her Hoffman grandsons,
Jerry, Erwin, and Stan. At West Park about 1927

Grandson Jerry Hoffman remembered that he and his brothers spent most time with their Mulholland relatives when they went to visit in Ann Arbor from their home in Detroit. Carrie's kitchen had a pantry attached to it, more of a long cupboard, that was the first stop during a visit because it always had cookies for the grandsons. Another popular stop was West Park across the street. At the farther end of the park was a pond with pollywogs that were captured and taken home to watch them become frogs. The boys carefully carried the young frogs down to the nearby Detroit River to hopefully spend a happy froggy life.

Carrie remained in the Chapin house until her death at 82 in 1947, living with her two unmarried daughters, Edna and Margaret. 

In her obituary, Carrie was noted as being a member of the first Baptist Church and was a charter member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Graf O’Hara Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. She was also reported to be active in the German social clubs that brought together the many immigrants from Germany who settled in the Ann Arbor area. Carrie is buried in the family plot at Bethlehem Cemetery with her children, and in death, next to her ex-husband Sam.

She was a tough woman who survived scandal and raised a large family alone successfully. In a letter to daughter Edna Mulholland in 1943, Rhubena Mulholland Schaal, a niece through Sam Mulholland, wrote of Carrie:

 I could wish that your mother's blood flowed in my veins—she is indeed a grand lady.

Carrie Knodler Mulholland, 1946 (location unknown)

William Muholland: The Good Son

William Mulholland is the youngest son of Samuel Mulholland sr and Jane Bullock's known children. Like his older brother Samuel jr, William Mulholland spent his life as a farmer in Superior Township after arriving from Ireland. While Sam was out adventuring in the new world, William was the good son who stayed home then helped move the family to Michigan in 1833 at age 19. His role in aiding family members continued throughout his lifetime, as his farm was constantly the shelter for his siblings and other relatives when they needed a refuge. While little is known of his life, the surviving evidence indicates he was a man who others relied on.

William Mulholland

Throughout his life, William sought to build his holdings and his community. He first appears in the records in early 1834 as a signer of a petition to Congress requesting road improvements to connect communities from Washtenaw to western Michigan. This road would ultimately become Michigan Avenue, connecting Detroit to Chicago. He was also buying and selling land in Ingham and Livingston counties (places he never lived but bought initial land patents) with his father and brother Sam jr, using the gains to expand his farm in Superior Township where he ultimately became one of the prominent citizens in the community. 

Initially William lived with his parents and siblings. William married Mary Pounder in 1844 when she was 18 and he was in his late 20s. Like brother Sam and his wife, Eliza Pounder Mulholland (the two brothers married two sisters), William had a large family with ten children.

Just months after his wedding, William purchased land from his parents in Section 17 of Superior Township for $800 in May 1845.  He owned 100 acres having started with very little. In his mid-50s, his farm was valued at $8000, a substantial holding back in 1870. At that time, he had four horses, three milk cows, four cattle, forty sheep, and six pigs. He grew winter wheat, Indian corn, oats and buckwheat, with 60 acres of undeveloped woodland. His farm later grew to 160 acres with a second parcel in a nearby area. William was considered very well off for his time, making money through prudent land purchases and sales, including in neighboring counties and as far away as Nauvoo, Illinois. As suggested by the stories of his sisters, land was a highly prized commodity for these once land-poor Irish immigrants.

In the 1881 History of Washtenaw County, William is described:

William Mulholland ranks among the honored and aged pioneers of the fertile valley. He was born in Ireland in 1816 and is a son of Samuel and Jane (Burlock) Mulholland, who emigrated with their family to America in 1835. He settled in Superior tp. the same year, where William grew to manhood. In 1845 he married Mary Pounder. The fruits of this union was the birth of 10 children, 9 of whom, 3 sons and 6 daughters are living. Mrs. Mulholland departed this life in 1880. The names of the children are - Eliza, Margaret, Mary Jane, Anna, William H., Elceba, Josie, John J. and Samuel L. Mary died September, 1880. Mr. M is a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church. His wife was a faithful and consistent member of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Mulholland is Democratic in politics, and has served the citizens of Superior tp. in various official positions. He has many warm friends in this country, who desire to see him prosperous in life. (1881 History of Washtenaw County, p. 1086)

William died in 1883 at the age of 66 of heart disease, three years after his wife. At the time of his death, five of his children were living at home. His mentally disabled sister MaryAnn Mulholland had been living with him since about 1847 when their sister Jane Mulholland Stebbins died. At various times he had others living on his farm, including Joseph Crawford, son of Martha Crawford Mulholland of the Dixboro ghost fame and stepson of William's deceased brother, John Mulholland. Also living near him were his newly-wedded sister-in-law Margaret Pounder and husband Francis Collier. 

William is buried in the Dixboro Cemetery along with his wife Mary and many of their children and grandchildren.

Finding Pounder, Bounder, Tounter: Eliza, Mary, Margaret and more

These days we care a lot about people getting our names right and have multiple records, from birth certificates, drivers licenses, passports, and social security cards that all have to match up perfectly. Just ask any woman who marries and takes the surname of her spouse how much effort it can be to make sure every record is the same. Not so true in the past. 

My Pounder ancestors were initially known through the 1881 History of Washtenaw County. Two Mulholland brothers married two sisters, Eliza Pounder and Mary Pounder. The only initial clue to the sisters' family roots were death certificates noting their parents were William Pounder and Margaret Byrne (Burns) Pounder. Eliza's certificate had William and Margaret Tounter while Mary's had Wm. and Margaret Pounder. From there it was a long genealogical journey through many misspellings of their name to find more about this family, including a marriage record for the parents, William Pounder and Margarett Byrne in 1821 Ireland.

Eliza Pounder Mulholland

My great-great grandfather Samuel Mulholland jr. married the 16-year-old Eliza Pounder on 31 Dec 1840 in Superior Township, Michigan. Her marriage record listed her name as Eliza Tounder.

From passenger records, we know that she was newly arrived from Ireland, having immigrated with her mother and siblings in July 1840 on the ship Liddons from Liverpool to New York, where she was identified as Elizabeth Pounder, occupation dress maker. Sam was 28 when they married, but perhaps had not found a suitable wife in his vicinity or perhaps he had an unrecorded earlier marriage.

Samuel and Eliza
Mulholland tombstone
in Dixboro Cemetery

Sam jr and Eliza had ten children, one who died as an infant. The children's stories as well as Sam jr's are elsewhere on this blog. They accumulated land over the years with their large Irish family to help extend the farm. Like many women of the time, we don't know much more about Eliza's life and there is little documentation to hint at what it was like. Her days would have been spent raising her large family, keeping house, and helping with farm chores, all very intensive physical labor in a time before steam and electrical machines.

Like many Irish immigrants of the time, it is probable that Eliza had little if any education, although Sam and Eliza made sure all their children attended school at least through elementary and learned to read and write. Illiteracy is one reason so many of the early records get names wrong, and she herself may have been unsure of the spelling. Pounder is the version that appears most often and was carried down to future generations by other members of the family. The Pounder surname appears in the earliest records, including a marriage in Ireland by her parents.

Eliza died of consumption relatively young at the age of 45 in 1869 when her youngest daughter was only six. On her death certificate, her parents are listed as William and Margaret Bownder. She is buried next to Sam in the Dixboro Cemetery, where her age at death date on her tombstone doesn't match the death register for the county. Somehow dates and surname spelling just weren't as important back then!

Mary Pounder Mulholland

Mary Pounder Mulholland

Like her sister Eliza, Mary arrived in the U.S. in July 1840 and settled in Superior Township where she lived her entire life. Based on her age in her Michigan death record, she would have been born in 1821 but this one turns out to be wrong. The mortality schedule for the 1880 census lists her age as 53, and she was listed as 13 on the 1840 passenger list, making the actual date more like 1827. The later date makes more sense as she was Eliza's younger sister.

Mary Pounder married Sam's younger brother, William Mulholland in 1845 when she was 18. Witnesses to the marriage were Margaret and Joseph Pounder, likely her sister and brother (see below). They had a big family of ten children, and spent their lives on the large farm William owned in Superior Township not far from where Sam jr. lived. In the 1881 History of Washtenaw County, she is noted as "a faithful and consistent member of the Episcopal Church." The Dixboro Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1858, and would have been a central part of social life of the time.

Mary (listed as May on the mortality schedule) died in 1880 of typhoid fever, and is buried in the Dixboro Cemetery next to William who died six years later. Mary lived long enough for photography to have become more common and a picture of her as an elderly woman remains in the possession of William's descendants.

Finding Mrs. Margaret Pounder in Superior Township

With both Eliza and Mary living in Superior Township at the time they married into the Mulholland family, it seems highly probable that they may have had relatives nearby. Finding the two of them was easy given the 1881 county history and biographies of their husbands. Identifying others was a bit more challenging but what has been found does hold together as a good basis for the family tree.

Mrs. Margaret Pounder (45y) arrived on the ship Liddons in New York from Liverpool on 23 July 1840. Listed as traveling with her were her four children, Joseph (18y), Elizabeth (16y), Mary (13y), and Margaret (11y). They are shown as originating in Ireland.

Margaret's husband, William Pounder, was not on this ship, and no evidence of his presence in the U.S. has been found. He may have died before they left Ireland, or if he did come to the U.S. before the rest of his family, left no known record. Margarett Byrne/Burns married William in 1821 in the Ossory Diocese of Ireland.

Margaret is shown as a midwife under occupation on the 1840 passenger list, an interesting note as most female passengers lacked any evidence of having an occupation, even keeping house as found in many census records. Being a midwife would have been a way for her to make a living in her new home if she lacked a husband to help set up a farm.

How do we know this is the right Pounder family? In fact, there was a Pounder family that arrived earlier who have incorrectly been identified as the family of Eliza and Mary and that record does seem at least partly right. Given the commonality of Irish names, matching families can be problematic. But the 1840 arrival is a perfect fit. First, we know the names and ages from the 1840 ship manifest match exactly the members found in Superior Township including for both Mary and Eliza. Joseph appeared as a witness for Mary's marriage, and the younger Margaret is also there. In deed records, Joseph's estate is shared among his mother and sisters, suggesting he died about about 1848 without marrying.

Margaret Pounder is living with the youngest daughter, Margaret (Mary) Ann Pounder Collier (22y) in 1850 and her husband, Francis Collier. Although listed as Mary in the 1850 census, perhaps to differentiate her from her mother, the younger Margaret is listed as Margaret in all other records. In the 1900 census, Margaret Collier gave an immigration date of about 1839, supporting an 1840 arrival.

The Colliers and Pounders must have had a long friendship, as Francis is listed on the same ship manifest just below the Pounder family, traveling with his parents Robert Collier and Mary (Price) Collier and their other six children. The older Colliers were married in the Ossory diocese in 1822, so likely they all originated in the same part of Ireland. The junior Margaret and Francis were a bit young to be married when they arrived from Ireland, but they did join in marriage about 1847. It may be Margaret sr. decided to make the voyage with the Colliers after her husband died and followed them to Superior Township. It is highly likely that she was in someway related to the Colliers but no other records have been located for their Irish roots. Also of note is that these families were Catholic but the daughters became Protestant in the US.

Mrs. Margaret Pounder died 2 February 1855 per her Washtenaw County Probate Court estate file. She was reported to have a will, but testimony in the file claimed she had ordered it destroyed by burning. She gave most of her estate to daughter Margaret Collier with a small sum to daughters Eliza and Mary Mulholland.

How many more ways can you spell Pounder?

Death records are helpful because they are sometimes the one good link between parents and child. But the person who provides the information after a person dies may have little idea who the parents were, particularly if no one is left from the family who knows because a person lives to very old age.

The problems with the Pounder names become more obvious in looking at death records. The younger Margaret was said to be the child of Sam Pounder and Mrs. Burns (Mrs. Margaret Pounder's maiden name was Byrne) in her death record, perhaps because her father was unknown to her surviving family. Her daughter Charlotte gave her mother's maiden name as Margaret Pound.

Eliza's children listed Eliza Tounter (Sarah B. Mulholland) and Margaret Pounder (Eliza Mulholland Parker). Mary's children included Jane Mulholland Cadwell with Mary Pownder or Mary Mulholland Cadwell with May Mulholland. It was correct on less than half of the records, with some actually showing the deceased's mother as unknown or just listing the mother's married name. No wonder it can be difficult to trace families over time!

updated 20 April 2026

Mary Ann Mulholland: Always Cared For

To refer to a person as "idiotic" in modern times is often a slang term for acting stupid. But in the 19^th and early 20^th century, the term was used to refer to an individual with a severe intellectual disability. Such was the case of Mary Ann Mulholland, youngest daughter of Samuel Mulholland sr. and Jane Bullock.

Like her siblings, Mary Ann Mulholland was born in Ireland, coming to the United States as a toddler in 1833 with her parents. She stands out among Sam's children as the only one who never married and always lived with relatives. While many families have spinster sisters in their records, Mary Ann's case becomes more sad when she appears listed in the "1880 U.S Census Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes Schedule: Idiotic."

Page from 1880 "Defective Schedule"
click to see larger version

What we learn of Mary Ann who was about 50 in 1880 is that her situation is more than just the case of a spinster sister. According the "Defective Schedule" as it is often called, Mary Ann, of Superior Township, was:

• only partly self supporting,
• age at which idiocy occurred: birth 
• size of head: natural

The record also indicates she was never institutionalized and did not have other disabilities such as blindness, deafness, or epilepsy.

While there was a space for cause, in her case this was blank, implying she just was this way from her early life. Whether she may have had Down's syndrome, being a late-in-life child for her mother Jane, had a genetic disorder, or whether something occurred at birth to cause her condition remains unknown, as few records from the time gave more detailed information other than the very broad classification of "idiocy."

The census enumerators collecting information for the "defective" schedule were given very specific instructions about what the term "idiotic" meant. From the census schedule page:

The word “idiot” has a special meaning which it is essential for every enumerator to know. An idiot is a person the development of whose mental facilities was arrested in infancy or childhood before coming to maturity. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the stupidity which results from idiocy and that which is due to the loss or deterioration of mental power in consequence of insanity. The latter is not true idiocy, but dementia or imbecility. The enumeration desired for the Census is of true idiots only. Demented persons should be classed with the insane. (1880 U.S. Census Supplemental Schedule 3, Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes: Idiots)

Although there are hints of her disability when she was younger, she was not listed as "idiotic" in earlier census records. A column for this could be found in the 1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses. What does show up is that she was cared for consistently by her family who did not share with the outside world that she had special needs. In the 1834 Michigan and 1840 U.S. census, she is likely one of the female children listed with Sam sr (except for the head of household, none of the household were identified except by age and gender).

By 1850 after the death of her parents, she was living in a household next to brother William Mulholland with a 16-year-old who may have been a caretaker. Mary at 22 is shown as unable to read and write English, the only one of the children of Sam and Jane for whom this was the case.

In 1860 she appears as Mary Mulholend, a "domestic servant" living with her sister, Eliza Mulholland Larabee, in Clinton County Michigan. No record has been found for Mary for 1870 after the death of Eliza, but presumably she continued in the household of one of her siblings. 

In 1880, she is living with her brother William's family in Superior Township, listed as a sister and boarder, with a check in the column for "idiotic," thus indicating she is included on the "Defective Schedule." The census indicates she cannot read or write, and on a deed record from 1846 signed by her sister Eliza and husband William Larabee, Mary Ann has "her mark," an X.

After William's death, Mary Ann is found living with his son John J. Mulholland, and his younger siblings Elceba and Lewis in the 1884 Michigan census still on the farm that had been William's. Once again, the family reports to the census taker that their 57-year-old aunt is neither sick nor disabled.

While many classified as idiotic died young, Mary Ann lived to be over 60. She died of pneumonia in April 1892 and is buried in the Dixboro Cemetery still surrounded by the family that supported her throughout her life. Her story is a reminder of how differently mental disabilities were dealt with in the nineteenth century. On the one hand, the family took care of their own, but it wasn't something to be discussed in public.

Eliza Mulholland Larabee: Almost Invisible

Eliza Mulholland is one of the nine children of Samuel Mulholland and Jane Bullock Mulholland. Eliza is one of the "lost" children in the family, as those previously doing genealogy had not been able to link Eliza to Samuel. Her story is not only about what has been learned about Eliza but also a reminder of the caveat against blindly following family trees posted online that have missed evidence of connection or simply have links to the wrong person who may have had the same name.

Like her sister Jane Mulholland Stebbins, Eliza Mulholland's story is a short one, as she married in her early 20s and died at 37. Although she had four children with her husband, William Lorenzo Larabee, her line died out and she has no known living descendants. Because extant online family trees for William have been created primarily by descendants of his later wife, Catherine Carnahan, or William's siblings, most have completely eliminated Eliza from their lists.

Eliza Mulholland was born in Ireland, presumably in County Monaghan where her brother Sam jr. originated. Eliza and her family followed Sam jr to Superior Township, Washtenaw, Michigan when she was about 7 in 1833.

Eliza lived on a farm with her family until her marriage to William about 1849 at the age of 23. William, son of Silas Larabee and Lucy Ring Larabee (often misspelled, sometimes shown as Larrabee or even Lariby), was born in New York, arriving with his family in Superior Township sometime before 1840.

Shortly after their marriage, William and Eliza moved to Clinton County where she had four children before her death about 1861. No documentation for her death has been found so the date is estimated based on other evidence including records kept by Larabee descendants, and her burial place is unknown.

William L. Larabee remarried after Eliza's death. The one online family tree (see below) that correctly identified Eliza as his first wife and mother of his first four children suggested a second and very short marriage to Agnes Ballentine. No other documentation has been found for this marriage to date. Agnes died in 1863, less than two years after that wedding. In the 1864 Michigan census, William is shown as living alone with the children apparently living with other relatives.

William married a third time to Catherine Carnahan about 1865. They had three more children. Catherine had been previously married, but her daughter by that marriage died as a child, perhaps before her marriage to William. Catherine raised Eliza's three surviving children along with her own. The family moved after the marriage to a farm in Williamston Township, Ingham County, Michigan where all the children grew up. William's third marriage lasted until his death in 1887. Catherine died in 1901.

Dying Too Young

Eliza and William had four children during their short marriage who survived long enough to appear in official records, but one, Esther P. Larabee, died in early childhood, appearing in the 1860 census as a one year old but no longer listed by 1870.

Two of Eliza's other children died as young adults, both of consumption (or tuberculosis as it is known today). Jane (Jennie) S. Larabee was living with William and Catherine in 1880, but died single in 1881 just before her 26^th birthday.

William Chauncey Larabee died at 37 of consumption in 1887. He had married Louisa Kent in 1881 when he was 29 and she was 21. Their one son, William Lorenzo (Ren) Larrabee was only 4 when his father died. Louisa moved near her husband's half-brother, Willis Nathan Larrabee, but she also died young in 1898 when Ren was 14. Both William C. and Louisa Larabee are buried in the Summit Cemetery in Williamston where they grew up.

After his mother's death, Ren Larrabee followed his uncle's family to Kansas around the turn of the century, marrying Stella Arnette in 1909. He worked as a store clerk and did some farming. Ren died at 57 in 1941 in Wakeeney, Kansas where he lived throughout his adult life. Their only known child was stillborn in 1909. The Kansas branch of the family used the Larrabee spelling with two Rs, unlike the Michigan group.

Lucy Carolyn Larabee Fuller

Lucy Larabee Fuller
1919 U.S. passport application

Lucy Carolyn Larabee was the only child of William and Eliza who lived to old age. Born in 1857 in Clinton County, she lived to be 71, dying in California in 1928.

Lucy was three when her mother Eliza died, so spent most of her life living with her father William and stepmother Catherine in Williamston, Michigan. She married a local farmer, Alonzo Fuller, when she was only 18 and he was 28. Her sister Jane (Jennie) was a witness at their marriage, less than two years before she died of consumption.

Lucy and Alonzo had four children. Two died single without children: Maud L. Fuller, born in 1880 died at the age of 23 in 1904. Nelson Alonzo Fuller, born in 1884, died at 25 in 1909. Like the children of Eliza earlier, both died of consumption which seemed common in this family. Eliza herself reportedly died of the disease.

Lucy's Children

Lucy's youngest son born in 1885, Edwin Earl Fuller, married in his late 20s to Georgia Moore of Kansas. No marriage record for the couple has been located, but his Larrabee relatives in Kansas may have been part of the lure that drew Edwin from Michigan to the west. By 1918, when he registered for the World War I draft, Edwin and Georgia were living in Sheridan, Placer County California. They lived in Placer County throughout their lives running a fruit farm. His mother Lucy lived with them before her death in 1928, and supposedly was cremated there with her ashes being returned to Michigan for burial near her husband Alonzo. Edwin died in 1952 and Georgia in 1958. They had no known children.

Genevieve Fuller French
from 1916 US passport application

One of the more interesting stories is that of Genevieve (Jennie) May Fuller, born in 1877, the oldest of Lucy's four children. Jennie married later in life at 27 to Clifford Hiram French, an accountant and later vice president of an international importing company who was often in Asia based on passenger lists. His residence was listed as Manila on their marriage license although he had been born in Michigan. Jennie accompanied him on many of his trips and they spent extended periods living overseas. They usually listed a residence in New York or the Washington, DC areas as their U.S. address, but in 1935 did use the address in California of brother Edwin. 

Jennie died in Shanghai, China in 1935 at the age of 58 of high blood pressure and heart disease. She was cremated in China and her ashes were returned to her native Laingsburg to be buried near her mother. They had no known children. 

Clifford remarried within months to a Portuguese woman born in China, Thelma Remedios. They continued the pattern of traveling back and forth between Asia and the U.S. Clifford died in 1947 at the age of 69 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery based on his service as a corporal in the Michigan Infantry from 1899-1901. Thelma died in 1962, with her occupation listed as "secret" on her funeral record. Does leave an open question about what their real jobs might have been!

Finding Eliza Muholland

Linking Eliza Larabee to the Samuel Mulholland sr family are several documents although none are as solid as something like a birth or death record listing Eliza's parents. No records are known to survive from Ireland where she was born, and Eliza died before Michigan required certification of death. No tombstone provides evidence for a date of death, as many individuals dying at this time were buried on their farms rather than in formal cemeteries.

Additional confusion arises from several online family trees on Ancestry.com. Compiled by individuals linked to the side of the Larabee family through William and his third wife, these trees did not follow out the evidence for a different first wife found in the 1860 census. All children are shown as Catherine's in multiple family trees. In some cases, it is clear that one tree was the source for the other trees, duplicating the errors. Only one online tree in Ancestry.com (Nelson/Smith), created by DWHeath has good information. It shows Eliza as the wife of William Lorenzo sr but Eliza's parents are not identified. This tree is also the only one that captures the first marriage of Catherine known from census records before she married William and the probable but undocumented marriage of William and Agnes. A number of dates are undocumented in the Nelson/Smith tree, suggesting a family source rather than official documents. In a very few cases, these dates do not seem correct based on documentary evidence found by me but the tree is highly reliable where it can be checked.

However, what first led me to the Larabee connection was not the online family trees but a census record in 1860 showing a Mary Muholend (one of the many possible misspellings found for Mulholland) discovered when searching for Samuel's youngest daughter, MaryAnn. Mary was about the right age to be the same person and was shown as born in Ireland. The wife named Eliza was also born in Ireland suggesting the two women were related. The 1860 census does not list relationships for a household as was common in later censuses. Further strong evidence comes from the deed registry for Washtenaw County. 

Further evidence came through other birth and death records. Death records for the children of William and Eliza identified the mother's maiden name as Mulholland. William and father Silas could be found living in Superior Township at the time the pair were married. An additional piece of evidence was a daughter of about Eliza's correct age in Sam sr's household in the 1834 Michigan and 1840 US Census records who was unknown after those dates (the early census records only gave gender and age ranges for household members, not names). In 1860 there were not that many Mulhollands living in Michigan, narrowing down other possibilities. Finally, a key piece of evidence came from deed records. Eliza and sister Mary Ann Mulholland were deeded property in Superior Township from Sam. jr in 1838, which William and Eliza Larabee and Mary Ann Mulholland sold in 1853 to William Mulholland, thus clearly connecting Eliza Mulholland to the Larabee family.

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.


__________
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