This post is for the family of my foster mother Diane, who has always wanted to know more about her matrilineal line and the many women of strong character who form it. For as long as Diane has been alive, her family has been based in Minnesota, originally from the Mille Lacs County area. She had heard stories of her great grandmother Griffith from Iowa, but beyond that she was unsure, so we decided to look into it further.
Diane Lee (Johnson) Ruonavaara b.1951 in Princeton, Mille Lacs Co., MN
District of Dorset within southern UK
Location of Winterborne St. Martin's (Martinstown) within West Dorset, UK
Historical Background
Parish and monastery towns of Dorset in 1575 (view using link provided for higher resolution)
Winterborne St. Martin's Church, built in about the 12th century AD and remodeled with tower addition in the 15th century.
Economic disruption due to the Industrial Revolution came to Dorset in the early 1700s, as newly developed textile mills began to move cloth making out of individual homes and into the factories of more northern cities. Unlike many other areas of England, the early 18th century industrial revolution largely bypassed Dorset due to the lack of coal resources it had with which to fuel it. Because of this, Dorset's transition from an agricultural to an industrial based economy was delayed. This disadvantage was made worse by the Enclosure Acts that landowners of southern England began to petition for between 1770 and 1830 (a movement that had already restructured most other parts England over the previous two centuries). Prior to the passage of these laws, many less valuable pieces of land were considered to be held "in common" by the public, and thus were available to be used by peasants and tenant farmers for personal crops and shelter. After their passage, most farm workers became "landless", and therefore completely dependent upon the landowner for a livable wage.
The Enclosure act allowed wealthy landowners to fence off previously public lands, making them inaccessible to commoners. While this eventually resulted in increased food production, due to being able to try out more advanced farming methods such as crop rotation, it was initially a hardship for farm workers whose livelihood had depended upon these small plots of free land for many generations.
During the early 1800s, farm wages were at first tolerable due to the shortage of labor caused by the Napoleonic Wars. But after Napoleon's defeat in 1815, labor became abundant, grain prices plummeted, and many farm families became destitute. This demise in way of life caused a number of Dorset families to take advantage of a Canadian immigration drive the English government was promoting as a way of off-loading the poor, and reducing the burden of overpopulation. Additionally, after the loss of the Revolutionary War in America, Britain had political interests in populating the Eastern Townships of Quebec with as many English inhabitants as possible, so that it could act as a buffer between its capitol and the United States it bordered.
The primary land company in control of this Lower Canadian emigration drive was called the British American Land Company (BALC), which formed in 1832. Unlike its more successful counterpart in Upper Canada, The Canada Company, the BALC was plagued by mismanagement from the start. In 1835, they launched an almost entirely fictitious campaign promoting the virtues of the Eastern Townships. It claimed the weather was beautiful, the soil fertile, and the roads and rivers in excellent condition for travel. For those in financial hardship, the land could be purchased on credit with no money down. In reality, the summers were often wet and cool, followed by long, cold, snowy winters. The land was overworked and of poor quality compared with many other parts of Canada and the US. Roads were underdeveloped and in a miserable state of disrepair, and rivers were non-navigable for transporting goods or people. Upon discovering these harsh realities after arrival, many new British immigrants chose not to stay for long. Especially those of the younger generations that were attracted to the ample opportunities of the comparatively more developed US.
1842 BALC Advertisement
Diane's Matrilineal Line
Rachel (Watts) and Charles Bowring were in their mid-30s, already with 5 children (and 2 yet to come), when they landed on Canada's shores in 1844. Their daughter Sarah Bowring (direct line) was 9 years old at the time, and her older brother Henry was 11. Perhaps, due to being older on arrival, they felt less rooted in their new homeland than their younger siblings. Whatever the reason, it was only these two eldest children who chose to later immigrate to America. The younger 5 siblings remained and raised their families in southern Quebec, Canada. The area they settled in was called South Durham (Durham-Sud), Drummond, Quebec, Canada (East). Rachel and Charles died in 1893 and 1896, respectively, and were buried in the St. James Cemetery of Durham-Sud.
1800s postcard showing Selby Lake, about 50 miles south of Durham-Sud
The second born child of Charles and Rachel, Sarah Bowring, b.1836, married William Clark from Scotland in 1854, when she was 18 years old. However, Sarah and William had their first child, Anne (b.1852), out of wedlock about two years before their marriage, when Sarah was 16. It is interesting that her parents did not consent for them to marry at that point. Perhaps they disapproved? His family seems to have been Scotch Church Presbyterian, while hers was Church of England Anglican, so perhaps that was an issue? Whatever the reason, they were quick to make a fresh start in a new place shortly after tying the knot.
Luckily for William and Sarah, the railroad industry was booming at this time, in both the US and Canada, finally connecting isolated areas to larger industrial centers. East Canada joined the transportation boom in 1853, when the Grand Trunk Railway reached Durham-Sud on its way to joining the international cities of Montreal, Quebec and Portland, Maine. By 1856, connecting routes made it possible to reach as far as Illinois by train. In that same year, Sarah (Bowring) and William Clark likely hopped one of these trains, with their daughter Ann and their son Stephen in tow, to settle in the newly platted town of Lena, Stephenson, Illinois.
1856 map of Railway Routes available in the US and Lower Canada
The railroad helped Lena, IL to quickly become a bustling town. They stayed there almost 10 years, through the civil war (1861-65), adding 5 more children to the mix. Passage of the 1862 Homestead Act made many Americans hungry to move west again, however, and the family left for Iowa as soon as the war ended. Initially they settled on a farm in Butler County, IA, where two more children, Rachel (direct line) and William, Jr. joined the family. Then, in about 1871, they picked up stakes and moved west again, this time to Boyer Township, Harrison County, Iowa, west of a city called Woodbine.
City of Woodbine, within Boyer Township, Harrison Co., IA. The Clarks lived a few miles west of the town.
Woodbine was first settled in 1849 and was platted in 1866, once it became a stop on the newly completed Chicago and Northwestern Railway. This caused a quick influx of new businesses and land investment purchases. However, in 1867, the railroad chose to move the station to Dunlap instead, which was a blow to the newly forming local economy. Understandably, some businesses chose to relocate, and land that had been planned for city development became destined for farmland instead. No doubt there were real estate deals to be had due to this change of fortune, and perhaps that is what drew William and Sarah (Bowring) Clark to the area.
Sarah and William had 12 children total, 8 of whom survived to adulthood. They operated a modest sized 125-acre farm whose main crops were corn and wheat. They also owned a number of cattle, horses, chickens, and pigs, and produced a fair amount of butter and molasses for market. Their five daughters (Helen, Elizabeth "Lizzy", Armina "Mina", Rachel (b.1866, direct line), and Sarah "Sadie") married and initially stayed in the Harrison County, IA area. Their sons moved on to new adventures- Stephen to South Dakota, George to Oregon, and William, Jr. to Idaho. Apparently, Rachel liked to help her father in the fields and became known as "his right hand" (see Note 1). William, Sr. passed in 1894 at the age of 69, and is buried next their son Andrew in the Biglers Grover Cemetery.
Sarah (Bowring) & William Clark (far right) with 3 of their children, probably "Sadie", William, and "Lizzie". Likely taken about 1883-84 after Rachel and "Mina" were married, but before Elizabeth was wed.
After William's death, Sarah remarried in 1897 to a Nebraskan man of comfortable financial means named James McCartney. They lived together on a farm outside of Stuart, Holt, Nebraska. When her second husband died in 1915, Sarah (Bowring) Clark/McCartney sold the contents of his considerable estate, which gave her ample means to live on. It is said that from that point on she chose to have no fixed address, and instead traveled the country visiting her children and other relatives for the remainder of her days. She passed away in 1921, at the home of her daughter Mina in OR, having reached 84 years of age. Her body was brought back to NE, and she is buried next to her second husband at the Stuart Cemetery.
A sad and disturbing event occurred in the family on 9 Jun 1899. Sarah and William's oldest son, Stephen Clark, had married a woman from a nearby county in Iowa named Eliza Gilbert in 1881. Soon after they moved to Hutchinson County, South Dakota near the city of Delmont. They had 3 children together. In Jun of 1899, however, Eliza filed for divorce from her husband due to his "extreme cruelty". Two days later, Stephen retaliated by shooting his wife and 15 year old daughter while at a dinner party. His wife was seriously injured but lived, while his oldest daughter passed away a few days later from her wounds. Meanwhile, Stephen fled to the nearby county of Brule, SD, where his body was found near Kimball a couple weeks later, having died by suicide. Eliza remarried only 3-1/2 months later to a man named Frank Peshak, a guest at the dinner party who came to her rescue during the assault. Given that both Stephen and Eliza were from the surrounding Iowan community, there must have been a lot of talk. By the year following this family tragedy, most of Sarah (Bowring) and William Clark's children had left Iowa and chosen to make a new start elsewhere. The families of Helen, Elizabeth, and Sarah all moved west to Oregon to join their brother George. Mina and her husband Stephen Terwilliger moved to South Harbor, Mille Lacs County, MN, where her husband's brother, Harvey, was also headed. Only Rachel and her husband Lewis Griffith, who must have been made of tougher stuff, stayed in Boyer Twp., IA.
Rachel (Clark) and Lewis Griffith raised four children: William, Elsie (b.1885, direct line), Fred, and Elvira. (Apparently, Rachel got very sick with each of her pregnancies, and after the fourth, Lewis said that was enough). Sometime in the early 1890s, the family moved to Stuart Co., Nebraska for a time in a covered wagon. Her great uncle Henry Bowring (Sarah's brother), had lived near them in Crawford Co, IA, but in 1886, he became a naturalized US citizen and was able to use the 1862 Homestead Act to purchase land in Cherry Co., NE. Rachel's father, William Clark, died in IA in 1894, so perhaps the family relocated to Nebraska shortly after that time. This would explain how her mother Sarah met her second husband from Nebraska. Elsie would have been about 9 at the time, and along the way she remembered playing with a swan iron that is still in Diane's family's possession. (See Note 3)
Unfortunately, the 1890s was bad timing for a move to Nebraska. Most of the good farmland had been taken up by prior settlers by this time. Making a small farm profitable on the marginal semi-arid tracts remaining was almost impossible, and more than half of the original claimants ended up abandoning their homesteads. The family returned to Boyer Co, Iowa by 1900, and the two oldest children, William and Elsie, married and settled there. Rachel and Lewis must have heard good things about Mille Lacs County, MN from Rachel's sister "Mina" though, because in 1914, about the time their youngest, Elvira, finished school, they decided to move to South Harbor, MN as well. Upon their arrival, they added a new cabin addition onto a home that had been constructed back in the 1880s, when White settlement in the area first began. Unfortunately, they would not end up living close to her sister Mina after all, because at about the same time, her sibling's family decided to relocate to Malheur Co., Oregon, where most of the rest of the family was residing.
The Griffith Family: (left to right) Lewis, William, Elvira, Elsie, Rachel (Clark), and Fred (circa 1907)
Rachel had been only 16 years old when she married her husband Lewis, and he was about 11 years older than her. He was said to be an "affectionate father and considerate husband", while she was said to be "a woman ahead of her time", who loved photography, gardening, and many other creative pastimes. She particularly loved to take photos of people in their "natural stances", rather than in the formal poses that were more typical of that time. Many of these photos she made into post cards, which she then mailed to family members. At one point, she was asked by Ojibwa Chief Wadena of the local Mille Lacs tribe, to take a formal picture of him in full ceremonial dress. This is likely the photo of him that now appears in many history books.
Possibly the photo of Chief Wadena taken by Rachel (Clark) Griffith
One of Rachel's postcards, showing either her son Fred or her grandson Lewis in front of the barn built by the Griffith's in MN.
Sadly, Rachel's husband Lewis passed away in 1920 at the age of 66, only six years after their move to MN. Rachel's younger daughter, Elvira, had married just a few months prior to his passing and moved back to IA. Her younger son, Fred, had joined a cavalry unit of the military during WWI when he was 30. He returned home from the war in Mar 1919 and was living with his parents a little over year later when his father died. After his father's death, Fred took over the some of the farm duties. He was said to have been a "shy, quiet man not given to social graces". In his later years, he developed advanced type II diabetes. Rachel helped to manage his diet for him until she was no longer able, after which point he went to live in a nursing home. He is buried near his parents at the Eleanor Foster Cemetery in Onamia, MN.
Rachel (Clark) and Lewis Griffith
Lewis and Rachel's two oldest children, William and Elsie, were back in Iowa raising families of their own during this period. Elsie had married a man named Thomas Coffman in 1907 and they had 6 children: Martha, Lewis, Mary Ida (b.1910, direct line), Helen, Frank, and Rachel (called "Johnny" because she liked to wear pants- must have taken after her grandmother!). Elsie and her husband had a difficult relationship. Despite being a Methodist Episcopal lay preacher, Thomas was said to have had an angry temperament. Sometime in the early 1920's, he left his wife Elsie for another member of his church. Left on her own, Elsie decided to relocate her 6 children northward to Mille Lacs County, MN, where her mother and brother Fred were living. Her youngest sibling, Elvira, and her husband, Roy Lukecart, eventually chose to join them there as well. After the move, Elsie's son Lewis often stayed with his grandmother Rachel to help her on the farm. In return, Rachel willed the farm to him after her death with all of the family's blessing. Many years later, Lewis' son, Scott (see Note 2), inherited the cabin they built, and restored it at a new location in Isle, MN. Elsie worked as a school teacher in Cove, MN to help support her family. Eventually, she remarried to an intelligent and kind man named Frank Thompson, who was also the Cove school principal.
Elsie (Griffith) Coffman/Thompson with her adult children. Left to right: Martha, Lewis, Mary Ida, Elsie, Helen, Frank, Rachel "Johnny"
Elsie (Griffith) Coffman and her second husband Frank Thompson at their wedding in 1942
Elsie's children all married and settled in MN, so from this point on, the MN branch of the family was firmly established. Some moved to the Twin Cities, while others stayed in the Mille Lacs area. Her daughter Mary Ida married Lawrence "Larry" Cornelius from Elk River, MN in 1929. Larry was highway patrol man, and it is said that he acquired the family summer cabin property on Little Whitefish Lake one winter, due to having saved the life of a man who had fallen through the ice! The man sold it to Larry very cheaply out of gratitude (and a desire to be done with the back taxes). Mary Ida lived in Sauk Rapids and attended St. Cloud State University in the early 1940's to become a teacher like her mother, Elsie. She taught Special Education in Onamia, and even served as interim principle for a time. In 1972, she was awarded the Mille Lacs County Teacher of the Year award. One of her grandchildren's favorite memories of her is the special "Grandma Rides" she used to take them on in her VW beetle. At intersections, she let a grandchild pick which way they should go. The rules were: take turns picking which way, dirt roads only, and you can stop to get out and explore anywhere.
Mary Ida (Coffman) and Lawrence ("Larry") Cornelius
Mary Ida and Lawrence had 3 children: Theodore, Ruth (direct line, b. 1932), and Elizabeth ("Betsey"). After finishing college, she and Larry moved back to Milaca by 1947. Their daughter Ruth Cornelius graduated from Milaca High School in 1950. Five months after graduation, she married Curtis Johnson from Foreston, MN. Although she did not become a teacher like her mother and grandmother, she did become a school secretary and administrative assistant to the superintendent. Curt was a sheet metal worker, but was very handy as well, and built the family home where he and Ruth lived in Fridley, MN during the 1950's. They had two children, a girl and a boy: Diane (b. 1951 direct line) and Chris. Later they moved to Zimmerman, MN, where Curt built significant additions onto another older home. Ruth and Curt both loved antiques and "the old ways" of doing things. She taught herself many homesteading skills that her grandmothers before her probably used regularly, and Curt took care of a farm that was complete with horses, cows, and chickens.
Ruth (Cornelius) Johnson, about 1950
Ruth and Curt while fishing on a camping trip
Diane's matrilineal line has a long history of women coming together and supporting one another through difficult times. Almost all of them lived significantly longer than (or were separated from) their husbands and had to figure out how to be economically and emotionally secure on their own. Diane now has three grown children of her own, one son and two fraternal twin daughters, plus one foster daughter (me!), who are all lucky to be a part of such an amazing family.
Notes
1) There is a Thomas Watts (b.1809) living in nearby Netherbury, Dorset, England, who may be related (perhaps a brother?) but I have not yet found a record to verify this. There is also a Richard Watts (b.1811) living with his wife Peggy and their 6 children in Martinstown on the 1841 and 1851 census, though they are gone by 1861. There are no births or deaths in the town parish registries (1653-1812) with the Watts surname though, so I doubt that Martinstown is the village Rachel herself was from.
2) Scott Coffman is involved with the Mille Lacs County Historical Society and many of the quotes about what different people were like came from his family research.
3) Elsie remembers being told they were moving to Nebraska to get away from the Indian attacks. This is pretty unlikely, however, given that the last known Native American violence against White settlers in Iowa took place back in 1857 during the Spirit Lake Massacre. My theory is that her father was joking with her when he said this (he was known for being a jokester), but being an earnest young girl, she took it seriously. Certainly, with attacks between White settlers and Native Americans being so recent at the time, such stories would have carried a powerful "boogeyman" effect for kids at the time.
