THE STANFORDS

Following my mother’s paternal line our family story begins with the first ancestor in the New World traced back to 1644. There is a record of Thomas Stanford or Staniforth living in Concord, Mass. at that time, but it is not known on what date he arrived there from England. It is believed that this same Thomas, with Robert Stanford, owned land at Falmouth Neck, Maine in 1652.

The name, Stanford, according to Swarth, a genealogist, “…belongs to the class of nature-names, and is composed of two elements - stan meaning stone, and ford, a river-crossing. Originally, we may conjecture, one, Thomas lived by a river where there was a shallow, stony bottom, or where there was a series of stepping stones, like those at Ambleside in the English Lake District, over which passage was made; from this casual circumstance, he was designated as Thomas at, or of, or from, or by, the stone ford; and then, by degrees, arose the name of Thomas Stan­ford…..”

During the next thirty-five years Thomas’ and Robert’s names are prominent in the history of New England, for a record shows that a Thomas Stanford, perhaps the son of the 1644 Thomas, was living in Charleston in 1680. He was married to a former widow, Sarah Crouch Jones. Their oldest son, David, born in 1680, moved to Sherborn, ME and in 1712 married Lydia Morse. They had a large family, but it was through David’s son Caleb, born in 1714, that we descended. Caleb married Ruth Cozzens in 1740 and they had an unspecified number of children.

Abner, the second son of Caleb and Ruth, was born in 1747. In 1768 in Meudon, ME he married Jemima Green, the daughter of William Green and Hannah…. and settled at Upton where they had six children, Hannah, Lyman, Lois, Sally Washington, Jemima Green, and Joel; all born between 1769 and 1788.

Despite his large and still young family Abner served in the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783. “He enlisted in the Revolutionary War, April 27, 1775, as corporal in Captain David Batchelor’s Company, Col. Joseph Reed’s regiment (20th), credited to Upton. He was at Roxbury, Oct. 24, 1775, and served for Upton practically all the time from the beginning to the end of the war in 1783…. In 1780 and ‘81 he appears in the descriptive lists as thirty-three years old, six feet tall, with light complexion, brown hair and blue eyes…. He apparently was a corporal until Nov. 1, 1781, when he was reduced…. He took part in the capture of Gen. Burgoyne at Saratoga, Oct 17, 1777. His discharge was at New Windsor, NY, June or July 1783. He was pensioned at eight dollars a month by the United States.” (Arthur Willis–Contributors)

After a marriage of 32 years Abner and Jemima separated in 1796 and Abner moved from Upton to Peterboro. On Nov. 24, 1800 at age 52 he married Sarah Mackintire of Peterboro. They lived in Dummeraton then in New Boston, NH. Between the years 1797 and 1812 they, too, had six children, but it was Abner’s and Jemima’s second child, Lyman, born in 1773 who perpetuated our gene line.

Before his parents parted Lyman married Elizabeth Roberts in 1792, daughter of John Roberts and Margaret Leland, while Margaret was the daughter of Thomas Leland, whence came the name, Leland, into the Stanford family. Lyman was an innkeeper and farmer at Watervliet, NY for twenty-five years or longer and died there Dec. 16, 1826. In the years between 1793 and 1812 Lyman and Elizabeth had nine children, John Roberts, Josiah, Charles, Hannah, Lawyer, Elizabeth, Jemima, Lawyer Fay, and George Washington.

It was again that a second child, Josiah, born in 1795 in Watervliet, N.Y. who continued our lineal inheritance.

On Oct 23, 1813 Josiah married Elizabeth Phillips, born on April 14, 1791, in Bennington, the daughter of Asa Phillips and Mary E….. Elizabeth’s picture hangs on our “Ancestor Wall of Pictures.” Josiah was a tavern keeper in Watervliet, and tradition says that he entertained Lafayette on his second visit to this country.

Josiah’s and Elizabeth’s eight children were: Elvira, who died as an infant; Josiah, born in 1817; Charles, born in 1819, in Watervliet. Asa Phillips, their fourth child, was born in 1821. He became the father of Jerome whom I knew as Grandpa. Leland, Josiah and Elizabeth’s fifth child, was born in 1824 in Watervliet. Next there was DeWitt Clinton, born in 1826 who died in Australia 1862, unmarried. Then there was Jerome Bonaparte, born in 1829 and who died in 1838. My grandfather was named after him. Josiah and Elizabeth’s youngest child, was Thomas Welton, born in 1832.

[INSERT IMAGE Elizabeth Phillips Stanford, Born 1791 in Bennington, N.Y. Married Josiah Stanford Mother of Josiah, Jr., Charles, Asa, Leland, DeWitt, Jerome, and Thomas Welton]

[INSERT IMAGE Asa Phillips Stanford, Born January 16, 1821 at Elm Grove Farm, NY. Married Mary Whitney, Father of Jerome Bonaparte Stanford (Grandpa).

[INSERT IMAGE The Leland Stanford Mansion on the corner of California and Powell Streets in San Francisco, 1886. (The film seems to have been reversed when printed).]

[INSERT IMAGE Josiah Stanford 1817]

[INSERT IMAGE Charles Stanford 1819]

[INSERT IMAGE DeWitt Clinton Standford 1826]

[INSERT IMAGE Thomas Welton Stanford 1832]

[INSERT IMAGE Joshua and Jessica Johnson standing by painting of Leland Stanford, Jr. Joshua and Jessica are the children of Pat Johnson, great granddaughter of Jerome and the great, great niece of Leland Stanford, Sr.]

[INSERT IMAGE Leland Stanford 1824-1893 Governor of Calif. 1861 Endowed Standford Univ. 1891 U.S Senator 1885 Uncle of Jerome Stanford]

[INSERT IMAGE Thomas Hill (England, 1829-1908, United States) “Palo Alto Spring” 1878 oil on canvas Stanford Collection 14945 The house in the background was the Stanford’s home in Palo Alto. It was located near the present Childre’s Hospital. Those who can be identified in the painting are:

1. Jane Lathrop Stanford (Mrs. Leland Stanford)
2. Mrs. Dyer Lathrop (Mother of Jane Stanford)
3. Anna Maria Lathrop Hewes (sister of Jane Lathrop)
4. Elizabeth Phillips Stanford (mother of Leland Stanford)
5. Thomas Hill, artist
6. Leland Stanford
7. Leland Stanford, Junior
8. Josiah Stanford (brother of Leland Stanford)
9. Henery Lathrop (brother of Jane Stanford)
10. Thomas Welton Stanford (brother of Leland Stanford)
11. Josiah Winslow Stanford (nephew of Leland Stanford)

A note found among Maud Stanford Parson’s things says, “Elizabeth Phillips…[and) Josiah Stanford [lived at] Elmgrove Farm and Inn on the Postroad between New York and Albany…. …all the children of Josiah and Elizabeth were born at Elm Farm.” I mention this for the benefit of anyone who might wish to locate the Stanford place in New York.

During the years from 1644 to the middle of the nineteenth century the Stanford men branched out through New England. Four of Josiah’s sons, however, moved in the mid 1800’s to California to make their fortunes.

Lured by the California gold rush of 1849 Asa Phillips Stanford, my great-grandfather with two of his brothers, Josiah and DeWitt Clinton left their homes in Albany, NY to settle in Council Bluffs, just out of Sacramento. The brothers established a general merchandise store, specializing in miners’ supplies.

The most well-known of Josiah’s and Elizabeth’s sons was Leland. Great Uncle Leland Stanford was a practicing attorney in Wisconsin before he joined his brothers in California in 1852. He was married to Jane Lathrop of Albany, NY.

Later he became very influential in establishing the railroad system crossing the United States. As president of the Central Pacific Railroad, “he pushed the road eastward until it joined the Union Pacific near Ogden, [actually at Promontory,] Utah. Control of these railroads brought him large land holdings and gained him power in the economic and political life of California,” according to the World Encyclopedia. In time the Central Pacific Railroad became the Southern Pacific Railroad of which Leland remained president. Leland also earned fame as the Governor of California, 1861-1863, and as U.S. Senator from California, 1888-1893.

Josiah, Jr. “lived on a large estate in the hills back of Warm Springs,.CA. He married twice, had a daughter by his first wife, who married a Mr. Taylor. His second wife, a widow, had a daughter whom he adopted. He had a son by his second wife.” (from Note found with Maud’s things.)

“Thomas Welton was a wealthy dilettante [and] lived for years in Melbourne, Australia. He believed in spiritualism. He left much of his money and fine books and art collection to Melbourne and Stanford Universities when he died.

!!! Missing page to be rescanned pg 4 !!!

ome’s parents had their forth child, a son, Phillip Welton.

It was also that year on May 27th that Great Uncle Leland celebrated the birth of a son after 18 years of marriage. He and Jane named their boy Leland DeWitt Stan­ ford. His middle name was after Leland’s next youngest brother who had died in 1862. At young Leland’s request he had his name changed to Junior when he was about 10 years old.

Jerome married Lillian Clark, of San Francisco in 1869, then moved to New York where their first daughter, Maud Lillian Stanford, was born in 1870.

Maud as a young woman was very pretty with a crown of blond hair worn fluffed around her cherubic face. Her skin was fair and her blue eyes danced with a mischievous and daring look. She was a member of the church choir and also sang solos, for she had a lovely singing voice, according to members of the family who had heard it. As she grew older, however, she grew bitter and angry, angry at things she could not, or made no effort to change and bitter with her life in general.

When Maud died in Los Angeles in 1951-2? I inherited some of her papers and pictures. Among the papers was the story of her life scribbled on two sides of a sheet of yellow graft paper and two other half sheets of the same kind of paper. Maud writes:

MY LIFE

I, Maud Lillian Stanford, was born August 14, 1870 at Guymard, a summer resort in the S.W. part of New York State, 90 miles from New York City. It is now called Graham and is a part of the town of New Hope in Orange County. My parents, Jerome B. Stanford and Lillian Clark Stanford, had been living in New York City at the Grand Hotel on Broadway at 28th Street.

Soon after my birth they went to house-keeping in a house on Bank Street owned by a Frenchman. The rooms they occupied contained a number of fine pieces of furniture, once the property of Napoleon III when in exile in America. A desk had several secret drawers.

Before I was a year old we went to London, where my father’s parents [Asa and Mary] were living. We sailed on the Oceanic (on its maiden voyage) of the White Star Line. The owners were also aboard. Encountered a terrific storm and the cabins were filled with water two feet deep. I was very seasick.

The Oceanic on which the Stanfords sailed was, accord­ ing to World Encyclopedia, “rigged for the sails of a four-masted bark. But she could make a speed of fourteen knots without these sails. This was the first ocean steamer able to beat the 24-hour run of the great clippers under sail.”

Maud continues her diary:

In London we stayed at Hotel Caledonia Adelphi Terrace, in the Strand. When the Franco-Prussian War and the “Commune” were ended Saturday, May 12, 1871, we went to Paris (there was still sporadic shooting) on our way to Bilbao in Spain. Stayed 3 days in Paris where many houses were riddled with shot and some streets were still barricaded.

In Bilbao we stayed at the Hotel Brigida for 3 months, then moved to a ten room Apt. in an old Palace Numero Dos (#2) Calle de Ripa, Secundo Piza. Here I had my first birthday. My father was Superintendent of the Mina Josefa iron mine. Only remained a year. Returned to London and joined my grandparents in their home· (Willowbank at Fullham) across the Thames River from Putney, a half mile below the Putney bridge. Here, when I was 1-1/2 years old my sister Mable Helen was born Jan. 20, 1872.

It strikes me as interesting to note that at the time Jerome and his family were visiting in London with his parents, Asa and Mary also had a young child, Phillip Welton, Jerome’s brother, just two years older than Maud. She makes no mention of him in her life story.

When one hears the bare-bone facts of the lives of distant relatives’ dropped here and there in a conversation–in a random sort of fashion–it gives no sense of continuity or connection between events and people. It is only after putting it all together, subtracting and adding dates to arrive at the ages of individuals, that you come to find episodes that must have been intertwined into the lives of others in the large panorama of people and events.

For example what did it mean to Jerome that the year he graduated from the University his parents had a baby, and perhaps more influential in his life was the birth of a son to his uncle Leland Stanford? Then within two years there was his own marriage and the birth of a daughter.

Maud continues:

Later we returned to London and took a house in Colville Gardens, Elgin Terrace, Ladbroke Grove Street and Great West Road, Notting Hill. Stayed there 6 months and I had my second birthday.

She must also have played with her uncle Phillip Welton.

She goes on with the story:

Returned to America, to the Walker House in Salt Lake City for a year, where we met Judge and Mrs. Toohey, and I had my 3rd birthday.

To California where my mother’s parents lived on Union Street near Powell in San Francisco. We stayed at Tubbs Hotel in E. Oakland, then took a housekeeping place at# 12 Washington St. owned by Miss Gwynn. Spent a summer at Maynard’s Resort, a mile from St. Helena, California. Were there 3 months. Went to Cherry Creek, Nevada, where my father was Supt. of the Flagstaff Silver Mine. Remained there only a year. I was 4 years old, my sister (Mable) 2 1/2.

I was 5 years old when we returned to San Francisco Took a house 2414 Mission St., owned by Mr. Black. Next door lived the Lincoln Savages (father, mother and son). Our house was robbed one night when we were all out. Soon after we moved to 2324 Mission St.

It was when Maud was seven years old and lived at 2414 Mission Street, that she received an invitation from her first cousin once removed, young Leland Stanford, to attend a formal party. To celebrate the completion and occupation of their newly finished mansion in San Francisco Jane Stanford gave her 9 year old son, Leland an elaborate afternoon Christmas reception.

An article by Gunther W. Nagel describes the affair. “The young couples invited, together with their parents or guardians, numbered 150. Promptly at two in the afternoon, the carriages began rolling up the driveway to the east entrance where footmen assumed the ease and safety of the alighting guests. …all the blinds in the house were drawn and the gas chandeliers lit, creating an illusion of evening obligingly heightened by a dark and blustery December day. Inside all was warm and bright. The rustle of the party dresses of the early guests was drowned out as more arrived and the house’s [sic] halls resounded to the chatter and laughter of youthful voices.”

I have in my Ancestor Book the invitation that Maud received to this party. As I hold it in my hand I see the stiff white paper is still unsoiled or stained, though it was received in the mail 113 years ago. It reads, “Master Leland Stanford requests the pleasure of your company at S.W. cor Cal’a & Powell Sts. Friday afternoon, Dec’r 28th, at two o’clock. 1877. In the lower left corner is R.S.V.P., while in the right lower corner in small type is the word, “Dancing.”

Nagel continues writing, “Leland at the age of nine was large for his age, handsome, and unspoiled. His education was described as sensible and practical…which would allow for later development in accordance with his own inclinations.

“As a young boy and as a teenager young Leland traveled extensively in Europe with his parents. On a trip to Italy with his mother, shortly before his 16th birthday Leland became ill with typhoid fever and died in Florence, Italy in March 1884.

In 1885 the distraught father, Leland Stanford Sr. in the name of his son established the Leland Stanford, Jr. University in Palo Alto, California. It was open for students in 1891.”

Back to Maud’s life:

When I was 8 years old my mother became ill with incipient tuberculosis and the doctor ordered that she go East for a change of climate. We went to New York State and spent the spring and summer at Scroon Lake, Balston Spar, and Saratoga Springs. Visited in Albany and met uncles, aunts and cousins. Had my 9th birthday. Took a house on State St. in Schenectady for the winter. Here on the 12th of October, 1879 my sister, Bessie Gertrude, was born. On November 23rd my mother died. We returned to California. Stayed for a short time at Grandpa Clark’s home, then boarded at Hartog’s on Ellis St. where the Charles Lathrops (brother of Mrs. Leland Stanford) also lived. Later went to housekeeping with a Mr. and Mrs. Houston in a house on Laguna St., near McAllister St.

At the age of 35 Jerome found himself a widower with two little girls, as well as an infant, for whom he was responsible. The time he spent at the Clark home must have been helpful to him, though, there is no mention whether there was a grandmother Clark to supervise the care of the children.

It was probably during this period of his return to San Francisco that Jerome purchased the very successful G.W. Clark wholesale paint and wallpaper business from his father-in-law, who was retiring. The business was paid for with a part of $100,000 Jerome borrowed from his Uncle Leland.

Some ten or twelve years later when Leland Stanford died in 1893, Jerome was left $100,000. He forfeited this inheritance, however, as repayment of the debt he owed his uncle, believing he would receive a larger amount on his Aunt Jane’s death. However, he did not receive this expected inheritance when Jane died in 1904, at a time, it happened when Jerome was in particular need of money.

The family story goes that the widow Jane saw to it that the money all went to her side of the family, (which, in all fairness to Jane, may previously have been agreed upon with her husband. Jane Lathrop, in fact was a highly respected and well thought of woman.) This omission of Grandpa in her will, nevertheless, became a much discussed subject in our family down through the generations. “Just think,” the topic would begin, “if Grandpa had gotten that money…

My impression, hearing this as a child, was that the money would have forever brought riches and happiness to Grandpa and his heirs, so indeed it was a pity that we did not have it!

After Jerome’s move to Laguna Street he sent Maud and Mable to the Sacred Heart Convent on Lake Merritt in Oakland for a term and then to Mills Seminary in the Oakland hills for 1 1/2 years.

Mable presented a contrast to her blonde, out-going, vivacious older sister, for Mable’s dark hair and eyes and her serious countenance and shyness seemed to automatically put her in Maud’s shadow. All of her life she ostensibly accepted second place to her sister’s dominant personality.

Within the next two years Jerome moved again, establishing himself in a house on Pine near Laguna with an elderly Irish cook named Mary and a nurse to care for little Bessie.

Maud continues with her diary:

In the summer of 1883 Papa married Miss Florence Runyon. In the Fall he bought a house on 1711 Broderick St. between Bush and Pine. And we left Mills to come home and live and attend Public School (The Denman School for Girls). We lived there 12 years. In the Spring of 1884 a son, Clark was born. That Fall I had my 14th birthday.

By the age of 38 Jerome had given up a career in mining and settled down as a man with a successful wholesale wallpaper and paint business in a rapidly growing city. He had a new wife and was happy with the arrival of his first son. Bessie, now, at age four, had a mother and blossomed in the stable environment, while his two older daughters, Maud and Mable, returned home to complete the family.

Maud’s diary goes on:

In 1887 Mable and I went back to Mills Seminary and I graduated in 1889. In 1890 my father bought a summer home in Mill Valley.

After graduating from Mills both Maud and Mable returned again to live in the Broderick Street house. There they enjoyed the freedom of life without financial responsibilities while they awaited suitable proposals of marriage.

[INSERT IMAGE Clara’s grandmother. French Huguenot – mother of William?]

[INSERT IMAGE General Patrick Edward Connor]

[INSERT IMAGE Margaret Conner Douglass]

[INSERT IMAGE Douglass Family—William, Margaret, Louise, Henrietta, and Clara]

[INSERT IMAGE Nina Douglass Talbot]

[INSERT IMAGE Stephen Douglass about 1890]

[INSERT IMAGE Margaret Connor Douglass 1890s]

[INSERT IMAGE Leland Stanford about 1918]