32: Isabella Bird Luckey

Isabella Bird Luckey died on September 1, 1847, at the age of six. She was the daughter of John Luckey, a Methodist preacher of Scottish descent, and Diana Rutherford. John Luckey's biography is featured in the book Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Brooklyn, NY, by Edwin Warriner (1885).*

Luckey's father, Joseph or "Squire" Luckey, immigrated from Ireland to the United States with his two brothers. Joseph's wife and John's mother was Lanah Wagner, a Dutch woman. John Luckey was born in 1800. His wife wrote of him:

"He left home when a mere boy, lived with his brother Samuel, went to school, and became a teacher. The love of the brothers for each other was like the love of David and Jonathan to the end of their lives."

For twenty years, Luckey ministered to destitute people and criminals in New York City. In 1855, he became the chaplain of Sing Sing Prison. Then, in the decade before his death, he and his wife lived on a farm near Rolla, Missouri.

Luckey married Diana Rutherford, the daughter of fellow Sands Street preacher Christopher Rutherford, in 1829; she was born in England around 1808. They had six children, only one of whom outlived her father. Mary and John Luckey were buried in the Sands Street Cemetery in Brooklyn, and Samuel and Emma Luckey were buried in Ossining. Isabella is the only Luckey buried in the Episcopal cemetery (presumably in the Methodist section). The burial place of Jane, born around 1836, is unknown.

Luckey died in 1875 in Missouri and was buried in Dale Cemetery in Ossining. After his death, Diana moved back to New York and lived in Haverstraw with their only surviving daughter, Helen Eliza.

This is Luckey's pastoral record:

And this is how the author described him, with the help of Luckey's widow:

And this is how the author described Diana Luckey:

The census below is from 1850, when the Luckeys were living in Mount Pleasant, New York. Four of their children were living at this point, and at least one had died.

1850 US Federal Census

The 1880 census shows the widowed Diana living with her unmarried daughter Helen, "adopted daughter" Sarah Rutherford (who probably was a relation of some kind as well), and a servant, Ellen Dolan.

1880 US Federal Census

By 1900, Diana had presumably died, as Helen Luckey lived with her cousins, the Felters, in Haverstraw. The Felters had a son named Rutherford, so I'm assuming that they were Helen's cousins on her mother's side.

In 1910, Helen had moved in with another cousin, Martin S. Paine, who was a banker in Manhattan. Ten years later, Helen was back with the Felters, now living in New Jersey. She seems to have died before 1930.

In 1888, the Sands Street Methodist Church was sold to developers and the people buried in the cemetery were reburied in Evergreens Cemetery.
 

*The book about the Old Sands Street Church also includes this picture of "pioneer Methodist preacher in Brooklyn" Captain Thomas Webb and his bangin' eyepatch and sword:

Maybe I will do his genealogy next. He looks like a badass.

1.  Joseph Luckey (1766-1833) m. Lanah Wagner (1763-1816) in 1787
1. Reverend John Luckey (1800-1875) m. Diana Rutherford (1808-before 1900) in 1829
1. Helen Eliza Luckey (1833-after 1920)
2. Jane Luckey (1836-before 1885)
3. Samuel J. Luckey (1838-before 1885)
4. Isabella Bird Luckey (1841-1847)
5. Emma A. Luckey (1848-before 1885)
6. John Luckey (?-before 1885)

24: Susan Emily Woolsey

Grave of Susan Emily Woolsey (source)

There are six Woolseys buried in the cemetery, four of whom died in the 1850s. The grave of the youngest Woolsey is perhaps the most poignant: it commemorates Susan Emily Woolsey, only child of Jonathan and Maria Woolsey, who died in 1859, four years after the death of her father.

Jonathan Woolsey's father, Jonathan Sr., died the year that Jonathan Jr. was born, making him the last of ten children by Jonathan's mother, Susanna Carstang. Susanna's parents were Gideon Carstang (1751-1817) and Catharine Fowler. Gideon Carstang was a descendant of Gideon Carstang, a rope maker born in the 1680s who lived at Philipsburgh Manor, and his wife Catherina Cockefer, a woman of Dutch descent.

In 1850, 25-year-old Jonathan Woolsey Jr., a cartman, was living in Manhattan with his wife Maria, 24. According to the census, they had been married that year. They shared their apartment with 14-year-old Hannah Nickinson, a servant. Their daughter Susan was yet to be born.

In 1851, the succession of Woolsey deaths began with the death of Susanna Carstang Woolsey. Her son Jonathan died in 1855; his grave is inscribed: "By his wife Maria this stone was placed." Jonathan's brother Joseph died in 1858, and finally Jonathan's daughter Susan died in 1859. As always, I wonder if the same disease carried both of them off.

What of Jonathan and Susanna's eight other children?

Catharine Woolsey, the couple's first child, was born in 1806 and died in 1809.

Isaac Woolsey, born 1810, was a boat captain. The year before she died, Susanna was living with him, his wife Marietta Bird, his unmarried sister Mary, and his son Alonzo in Ossining. Alonzo later became a guard at Sing Sing Prison, though not at the same time as Amos Babcock.

1850 US Federal Census

Mary Woolsey, born 1816, married Gilead Holmes, who owned a furniture store. They had two children, Charles and Marietta. In 1870 they were housing their niece, Susan, and in 1880, Susan's father Daniel. Mary died in 1893.

Susanna Woolsey, born 1821, married Valentine Cox, a miller, and lived in Lewisboro. They had five children. Susanna died in 1889. After his wife's death, Valentine moved in with his widowed daughter, Mary Church, and her house full of Churches.

Daniel Woolsey, born 1823, was a shoemaker who married Mary Sands. By coincidence, they also happened to have a daughter Susan Woolsey who was born around 1850. In 1870, Susan was living with her aunt Mary Holmes. By 1880, Susan had moved out, but now Daniel was living with Mary, her husband Gilead Holmes, and their son Charles. Both Daniel and Charles worked as clerks in Gilead's furniture store. However, in 1896, he was admitted to the Westchester County Poorhouse as "sick and destitute." He was recorded as having two brothers living, but the number "2" was then crossed out. Two children were living, though.

I have seen many people - either those buried in the cemetery or their relatives - who were in the Westchester County Poorhouse at one point in their lives. This was a time before nursing homes, hospices, or home health aids, and so many of the people who wound up in the poorhouse were simply old and sick and unable to take care of themselves. They might have had family, but family members might have been ill-equipped to take care of them. Without knowing more details, I can't really judge Daniel's family who were unable to give him a place to live in 1896.

I realized that I've been forgetting to count the most popular given names in each family. So here are the most popular names in the Woolsey family:

Mary/Maria (6)
Susanna/Susan (5)
Catharine (3)
Marietta (2)
Jonathan (2)
Charles (2)
Carrie (2)

1. Jonathan Woolsey (1783-1826) m. Susanna Carstang (1786-1851) in 1805
1. Catharine Woolsey (1806-1809)
2. Joseph B. Woolsey (1807-1858) 
3. Isaac Woolsey (1810-1856) m. Marietta E. Bird (1815-)
1. Alonzo B. Woolsey (1839-1914) m. Carrie M. Ackerman (1841-before 1910)
1. Charles Woolsey (1864-1880)
2. Carrie Edna Woolsey (1874-1914)
4. James Woolsey (1812-)
5. Catharine Woolsey (1814-)
6. Mary Woolsey (1816-1893) m. Gilead Holmes (1824-)
1. Charles Holmes (1856-)
2. Marietta Holmes (1858-1935) m. Marcus Washburn (1853-) in 1887
1. Harold Holmes Washburn (1891-)
7. Sarah Woolsey (1819-)
8. Susanna Woolsey (1821-1889) m. Valentine Cox (1822-1903)
1. Mary J. Cox (1849-)
2. Sarah F. Cox (1851-)
3. Maria L. Cox (1853-)
4. Ellen B. Cox (1858-) m. Francis B. Church (1855-)
1. Susannah Church (1876-) m. Young
1. Mary E. Young (1909-)
2. Clarence E. Church (1878-) m. Catherine Ward (1877-) in 1898
1. Elsie I. Church (1899-)
3. Ernest Church (1880-) m. Frances (1877-)
1. Ellwood B. Church (1904-1974) m. Helen Cone (1905-)
1. Shirley H. Church (1925-)
2. Norma M. Church (1928-)
5. Georgeanna Cox (1859-)
9. Daniel Woolsey (1823-) m. Mary Sands (1823-before 1880)
1. Susan Woolsey (1849-)
10. Jonathan Woolsey (1826-1855) m. Maria (1827-) in 1850
1. Susan Emily Woolsey (1850-1859)