10: Gilbert and Mary Merritt Brundage

Grave of Mary Merritt Brundage

In 1850, Gilbert Brundage, a farmer, and his wife Mary were living with their three daughters - Susan, 28; Fanny, 25; and Sarah, 21; and 19-year-old son Merritt, as well as an eight-year-old Irish boy named Thomas Malory. The Brundages' real estate was valued at $10,000.

1850 US Federal Census

In the same year, Merritt's future wife Elvira Merritt (yes, Merritt) was living with her father, also named Gilbert, who was a painter with an estate worth only $1,000.

1850 US Federal Census

Four years after this census was taken, Gilbert died at the age of 67.

Grave of Gilbert Brundage

In 1860, his widow Mary was living with their son Merritt and his wife Elvira, 32-year-old Susan Green (Merritt's sister?), 28-year-old Sarah Brundage (Merritt's sister?), one-year-old Gilbert Brundage (Merritt and Elvira's son?), 19-year-old Whitney Brundage (whom I suspect might actually be Elvira's brother Whitney Merritt), and 13-year-old John Wood. As you can tell, the relationships between these people aren't made clear in the census.

1860 US Federal Census

In 1870 Mary and her daughter Sarah were living on their own. Mary died in 1875 at the age of 84.

1870 US Federal Census

Merritt's family appears in the 1870 census directly below Mary, suggesting they were neighbors.He and Elvira now have three children, two of whom were named after Merritt's family members.

1870 US Federal Census

Ten years later, the Brundages were living with their two youngest children, Merritt's brother-in-law Nathan Merritt (does this mean that Elvira was a Merritt, or is Nathan actually a cousin?), German boarder Charles Schmidt, and boarder Jonathan (?) Frawley. Nathan, Charles, and Jonathan worked in the optical factory. Which optical factory? My favorite optical factory.

1880 US Federal Census

According to the 1910 census, one of Merritt and Alvira's three children had died, presumably Fanny. At that point Merritt was working as a driver of a butcher wagon.

Meanwhile, Merritt's sister Sarah T. Brundage, age 50, was living on her own. She doesn't seem to have married. She died in 1898 at the age of 69 and was buried in the cemetery. This was her obituary:

On Sunday morning, Nov. 20th, 1898, at 5:30 o'clock, occurred the death of Sarah T. Brundage, at her home in this village, at the age of 68 years. About three months ago she was stricken with paralysis, and although at one time she somewhat regained the use of the paralyzed members, she never so far recovered as to be able to be about, and on Sunday previous to her death, she sank into a comatose state, from which she never rallied.

Her funeral occurred on Wednesday at 2 p. m. at the Methodist Church, Rev. A. T. Civill officiating, and the interment was in the family plot in the old Methodist burying ground.

Miss Brundage was born in the town of New Castle, and she was one of the village's old and highly respected residents. She is survived by one brother, Mr. Merritt Brundage, of this place, and two sisters, Mrs. Wm. Horton, who made her home with her, and Mrs. Erastus Johnson, of Rockland county.

Merritt Brundage appears in White Plains city directories up to 1919, when he would have been 88. I can't find Elvira in records after 1910.

Merritt and Elvira's son Gilbert, who was presumably named for both of their fathers, married Ida A. in 1881, and had a son who was named for his brother Frank. Gilbert was a veterinary surgeon, presumably of the James Herriott type, traversing the countryside and whatnot.

1910 US Federal Census

 In 1910 Ida was living with her only child Frank, a farmer. She is listed as married, not widowed, but where was Gilbert?

Whatever happened to Gilbert (and I'm presuming that he just died), Ida was still living in 1925, in the house of her son and his wife Louise E. Presumably she died before 1930, because at that point Frank and Louise were living alone. Frank was a road laborer. In 1940, he was working as a gardener on a private estate.

There's only two Frank Brundages in the Social Security Death Index; one died in Ohio, and the other in New York. The one who died in New York died in October 1962; I'm making a tentative guess that this was our Frank Brundage. There's only one Louise Brundage in the SSDI, and she died in Florida in 1980.

If we can, for a moment, travel back in time to Merritt's older sister Fanny - she married Erastus Johnson, and was living in Kingston, Ulster County, in 1860; in Ramapo, Rockland County, in 1870, with Erastus's 80-year-old father Daniel; and were still in Ramapo in 1900, when this census was taken. They had five children, three of whom were still living with them at this time, at ages 42, 38, and 35. Their daughter Fannie died in 1874.

1900 US Federal Census

Erastus Johnson died on October 28, 1908, at the age of 88, and Fannie in 1912. Erastus's portrait is featured in History of Rockland County, New York: With Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men, by Reverend David Cole, published in 1884.

The Johnsons' grave is featured on FindAGrave.com, along with their genealogy. Erastus was the son of Daniel and Hannah Coe Johnson, and had a wife before Fannie, named Elizabeth Raymond, who died in 1848. Erastus, Elizabeth, Fannie, and their children are buried in Summit Park Cemetery in Rockland County.

Strangely, three of Erastus and Fannie's four children seem to have never married. In fact, the three of them were still living together in 1930. Frederick died in 1933 and Annie in 1936. In 1940, 78-year-old Ida was living with her 84-year-old sister Elizabeth Eckerson and her 66-year-old nephew Harry - or rather, they were living with her, as Ida was listed as the head of household. She is also listed as widowed, which either means that I'm wrong and Ida was married, but resumed her maiden name at some point, or the census is mistaken.

1940 US Federal Census

Susan M. Brundage, Gilbert and Mary's oldest child, married William Horton.

1. Gilbert Brundage (1787-1854) m. Mary Merritt (1791-1875) before 1822
1. Susan M. Brundage (1822-?) m. William Horton
2. Fanny L. Brundage (1825-1912) m. Erastus Johnson (1820-1908) in 1854
1. Elizabeth Johnson (b. 1848) m. John Eckerson (b. 1843)
1. Harry J. Eckerson (b. 1874)
2. Annie Downing Johnson (1858-1936)
3. Ida Lincoln Johnson (1862-1940)
4. Frederick Merritt Johnson (1864-1933)
5. Fannie Brundage Johnson (1864-1874)
3. Sarah T. Brundage (1829-1898)
4. Merritt Brundage (1831-after 1919) m. Elvira Merritt (1838-1924) in 1860
1. Gilbert Brundage (b. 1859) m. Ida (b. 1861)
1. Frank G. Brundage (1882-1962?) m. Louise E. (1892-1980?) in 1913
2. Fannie Brundage (1861-after 1940) m. John Green (1856-before 1920)
3. Frank Brundage (b. 1862)