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Albert Whitcomb |
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Lucy Bishop |
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Albert Whitcomb (James, Lucy) was said
to have been born on June 12, 1804 in Bolton, Chittenden County, Vermont WH5 to James and Lucy Whitcomb WH5, CH10.
The census records from 1860, 1870, and 1880 indicated that he was born about
1804 in Vermont, and his obituary stated that he was seventy-six at the time of
his death in 1880 TH6.
The sole census record in which Albert and his father, James, appeared on the
same page was in 1830; Albert’s name was at the bottom of the page, and James
was recorded near the top of the page. The 1810 and 1820 census records for
James stated that a boy of Albert’s age at the time lived in his household, but
the censuses in those years did not record the names of household members. For
example, the 1810 census stated that two boys under the age of ten lived with
James Whitcomb UN6.
In 1820, one young man between sixteen and eighteen lived with James UN7. Albert may have also been known as
“Albro”, as his son’s death certificate stated that his father’s name was
“Albro Albert” (this was the death certificate for Charles Bishop Whitcomb,
issued on March 14, 1913 in Bangor Township, Van Buren County, Michigan).
He married his cousin, Lucy Bishop, on
February 18, 1830 WH5.
Their marriage notice, printed in the February 23, 1830 edition of The Vermont Watchman & State Gazette,
stated that Albert Whitcomb married Miss Lucy Bishop in Richmond on the
eighteenth. It appears as though the Whitcomb family lived in Canada for a
time, as Charles B. Whitcomb, Albert and Lucy’s son WH5, was born in Canada about 1835 UN10, UN13. This information conflicts with Charles
Bishop Whitcomb’s death certificate, which stated that he was born in Vermont.
In 1836, Albert, Lucy, and their children relocated to Battle Creek, Michigan PI6.
From what can be surmised from an article
written by A.D.P. Van Buren, Albert was a Fourierite who tried to help
establish “Alphadelphia” or “First Brotherhood” in Comstock, Michigan, under
the direction of Dr. H.R. Schetterly HI10:
To
the Fourier Convention to be held at Bellevue… the work of founding an
association in Comstock was soon effected. It was first intended to build the
mansion on the south side of the river. But the other side was afterwards
selected for this purpose. The domain was intended to include the southeast
quarter of the township of Comstock.
The
first meeting regarding this endeavor was held in Harvey Keith’s home on March
21, 1844 HI10.
Albert Whitcomb, along with eleven other men, were considered to be directors,
and they chose a president and other positions in the association HI10. Fourierites were followers of Charles
Fourier, a French philosopher and socialist utopian who believed that liberty
for women was essential for social progress. The mansion that Albert Whitcomb
and the other members of the Alphadelphia Association built, in the autumn of
1844, eventually housed 188 members but over 300 people HI10. The stipulation for becoming a member
was that one must be at least twenty-one years old, have good moral character,
and have “six month’s provision for the future, or the means to furnish it” HI10. The individual then must receive two
thirds of the vote to be accepted HI10.
The main goal of the Alphadelphia Association seems to have been that everyone
was rewarded for their work and skill, whatever it was. “This was the great
object for which the organization was effected, to live and work together in
harmony, and enjoy the benefits of each other’s society and the fruits of their
own labor, like a united, happy family” HI10.
This little utopian society did not last very long, because the last entry in
the Association’s journal was dated April 30, 1848 HI10. The family of Hannibal Taylor was the
last family to leave the property, and Kalamazoo County purchased the property
in the spring of 1848 HI10.
Albert Whitcomb was listed in Section 31
for Castleton, Barry County, Michigan on the Resident Assessment Roll of 1848;
the roll indicated that he owned 155 acres HI7. He was the treasurer for Castleton
Township in 1845, a Justice of the Peace in 1846, a School Inspector in 1847,
possibly a treasurer again in 1856 (the source listed “A. Whitcomb”, but not
“Albert Whitcomb”), and finally a treasurer again in 1863 HI7. Because Albert was living in Castleton
Township at the same time that the Alphadelphia Association was in existence,
it may be logical to infer that while Albert was an active member during the
planning stages of Alphadelphia, he never actually lived there.
A document dated April 21, 1864 in the probate record for his brother, Kilburn
Whitcomb, listed his siblings; it stated “Albert Whitcomb, a brother of said
deceased, of Barry County, Michigan” PR16.
The obituary for his
son, Charles Bishop Whitcomb, stated that Charles and his father moved to a
farm in Barry County when Charles was fifteen years old, which would have been
in 1850 PI6.
After the death of Lucy, Albert Whitcomb, age forty-eight
of Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan married Rebecca Sherman, age
forty-two, of Homer, Calhoun County on December 23, 1852 at Homer, Calhoun
County, Michigan MI2, LA22.
A son, Amos Brewer Whitcomb, was
born to Albert on October 9, 1853 WH5, or on October 9, 1854 according to Amos Whitcomb’s
March 1904 Grand Traverse County, Michigan death certificate, but this death
certificate did not record any sort of information regarding his mother, who
would have been Rebecca (Sherman) Whitcomb. Amos
B. Whitcomb, age thirty-four and the son of Albert Whitcomb and Rebecca
Sherman, married Clora L. Winters, age sixteen and the daughter of John
Winters, on August 3, 1889 in Helena Township, Antrim County, Michigan MI23. L.H. Disbrow of Helena Township was a
witness to the ceremony, which was the second marriage for Amos Whitcomb MI23.
Charlotte
Whitcomb stated that Albert “went into the railroad freight business, which he
followed for many years” WH5. This may be true, but Albert was also a
farmer; the 1870 non-population agricultural census stated that he owned forty
acres of improved land, seventy-nine acres of unimproved woodland, three
horses, three milk cows, thirty-two sheep, and two pigs. At the time of the
1880 census, he and Rebecca lived in the household of his son, C.B. Whitcomb,
in Bangor Township, Van Buren County UN13.
He died on December 4, 1880 WH5 at the age of seventy-six; his death was
due to heart disease and “urinary trouble” TH7. Albert was buried at Hartford Cemetery
in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan, but the gravestone thought to be his,
at Section 2, Lot 477, has been broken. The headstone of Rebecca Whitcomb is
nearby. The notice in the December 11, 1880 edition of The Hartford Day
Spring stated TH6:
Mr.
Whitcomb, a man 76 years old, who lived near Rush Lake, died last Saturday, and
was buried in the cemetery west of this village on Monday. Although the day was
one of the worst of the season, most of the people in the vicinity turned out
to escort his body to the grave.
·
1830 US Census: lived in Bolton, Chittenden County,
Vermont with one woman whose age was between twenty and twenty-nine.
·
1840 US Census: lived in Le Roy, Calhoun County,
Michigan with one girl under the age of five, one boy and two girls between
five and nine years old, and his wife, who was between thirty and thirty-nine
years old.
·
1850
US Census: lived in Emmett, Calhoun County, Michigan.
·
1860 US Census: lived in Castleton, Barry County,
Michigan.
·
1870 US Census: lived in Castleton, Barry County,
Michigan.
·
1880 US Census: lived in Bangor, Van Buren County,
Michigan.
Lucy Bishop (Amos,
Rhoda)
was born on August 3, 1808 in Vermont, and was allegedly Albert’s cousin WH5, although it is not clear how they were
related. The March 1913 Bangor Township, Van Buren
County, Michigan death certificate for her son, Charles Bishop Whitcomb, stated
that his mother, Lucy Bishop, was born in Vermont, and the 1850 census record
indicated that she was born about 1809 in Vermont. Lucy was the mother of Rhoda A., Lucy Ann (perhaps),
Charles Bishop, James B., Sarah Jane, Joel K., and Amos Brewer WH5.
Rhoda A. Whitcomb was
born on July 3, 1831 and married a man with the surname of “Dibble” WH5. At the time of the 1850 US Census,
Cephas T. Dibble, age twenty-four, and his wife, Rhoda A. Dibble, nineteen,
resided in Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan; Rhoda
was born about 1831 in Vermont UN10.
Ten years later in 1860, Rhoda A. Dibble lived in Michigan City, LaPorte
County, Indiana, with Sarah J. Whitcomb, who was her younger sister UN11. This census
indicated that she was born about 1832 in Vermont UN11. C.T. Dibble was enumerated elsewhere
in Michigan City as a thirty-six-year-old shoe dealer from New York UN11. Rhoda and C.T. Dibble were enumerated
together in Michigan City, LaPorte County, Indiana in 1870; this census
indicated that she was born about 1831 in Vermont UN12. She allegedly died on June 9, 1875 WH5. C.T. Dibble was enumerated in 1880 in
Michigan City, but his wife’s name on this census was Jennie,
who was thirty-one, born in Michigan UN13.
Lucy Ann Whitcomb was
born about 1833 in Vermont UN10, UN11, UN12, UN13 or on March 25, 1833 WH5. She was enumerated
with Albert and Lucy Whitcomb in Emmett, Calhoun County, Michigan in 1850 UN10 and married a man with the surname of
“Hunt” WH5.
Lucy A. Whitcomb, age nineteen years, who was of Emmett,
Calhoun County, married John A. Hunt on November 3, 1852 “at the house of S
Howland in the town of Ross” in Kalamazoo County, Michigan MI2. Lucy A. Hunt and John A. Hunt were
enumerated with their children (including their son, Charles A. Hunt, who was
born about 1854) in Deerfield, Van Buren County, Michigan in 1860 and 1870 UN11, UN12, and in Covert Township, Van Buren
County, Michigan in 1880 UN13.
Lucy was said to have died on February 25, 1888 WH5. A death record for “Luce A. Hunt”, who
died at age fifty-four
years, ten months, and twenty-eight days from typhoid fever
as a widow on February 27,
1888 in Covert, Van Buren County, Michigan, stated that she was born in Vermont
to John and Jane Whitcomb, who themselves were born in Vermont, in about the
year 1834 MI3.
Her age at the time of her death indicates that she was born about March 31,
1833 MI3.
If this death record is correct, then she was not a daughter of Albert and Lucy
Whitcomb. She was called a widow at the time of her death, yet her husband,
John A. Hunt, was enumerated in the 1900 US Census; he resided in Covert
Township, Van Buren County with his wife, Jane, and son, “Chas A”, born in
September 1853 in Michigan to a mother who was born in Vermont UN14.
Charles
Bishop Whitcomb was
born on February 18, 1835 WH5 or
(as Charles B. Whitcomb) about 1835 UN10, UN13 in
Canada UN10, UN13. Charles B. Whitcomb, age twenty-four,
married Sarah E. Gibney on January 26, 1860 in Deerfield, Van Buren County,
Michigan VA12. C.B.
and Sarah E. Whitcombe were enumerated in Bangor Township, Van Buren County,
Michigan in 1880 with their children, Albro A. and Lucy E., as well as C.B.’s
father and step-mother, Albert and Rebecca UN13. Charles B. and Sarah E. Whitcomb lived
in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois in 1900 UN14,
but had returned to Bangor Township by 1910 UN15. The Van Buren, Michigan death
certificate for Charles Bishop Whitcomb stated that he was born on February 18,
1835 in Vermont to Albro Albert W. and Lucy Bishop, who were both born in
Vermont, and that he died at age seventy-eight on March 14, 1913 in Bangor
Township, Van Buren County.
James B. Whitcomb
was born on March 6, 1837 WH5.
He was not enumerated with Albert and Lucy in the 1850 US Census; he may have
died before that time. Sarah Jane
Whitcomb was born about 1839 in Michigan UN10, on November 25, 1839 (according to her
Van Buren County, Michigan death certificate), or on November 27, 1839 WH5. Joel
K. Whitcomb was said to have been born on March 6, 1844 but was killed in
some sort of automobile or train accident in 1850 at the age of six WH5. The death of Joel K. Whitcomb was
recorded on the 1850 US Federal Census
Mortality Schedule which stated that he was
nine at the time of his death, and so born about 1841, and was “Run Over by Cars” in Emmett, Calhoun County, Michigan in
May 1850 US7. Charlotte
Whitcomb’s book, which stated that he was born in the year 1844, may have been
a typographical error, for the position of his name in the order of children
listed placed him before Amos Brewer Whitcomb WH5. Because his older brother, Charles
Bishop Whitcomb, had a middle name which was the surname of his maternal
grandfather (Amos B. Bishop), it might be reasonable to speculate that Joel’s
middle name may have been “Kilburn”, which was the surname of his paternal
grandmother, Lucy Kilburn. Amos
Brewer Whitcomb was said to have been born on June 19,
1843 but died on March 24, 1848 WH5.
Lucy died in Michigan after August 22, 1850,
which was the date she and her family were enumerated during the census, but
before December 1852, when Albert married Rebecca WH5. The obituary for her son, Charles Bishop
Whitcomb, stated that when he was fifteen (in 1850), he and his father moved to
a farm in Barry County, but it did not mention his mother PI6. According to Debra Stanley, the General
Manager of Oak Hill Cemetery, the gravestone of Lucy B. Whitcomb is located at
Oak Hill in Battle Creek, Calhoun County. Ms. Stanley stated that Lucy Whitcomb
died at the age of forty-three years
and eight months and was buried on April 2, 1852.
·
1850 US Census: lived in Emmett, Calhoun County,
Michigan.