31: Nathan C. Avery (update)

Update. Claudia, who saw this post through Facebook, has provided me with the details of Nathan's parents and wife. Thanks, Claudia!

I'm always curious about people who seem to have been buried in the cemetery on their own - that is, seemingly without other relatives in the cemetery. In the case of Ann M. Shamp, my first impression turned out to be mistaken; that is, while Ann was the only person with the surname Shamp in the cemetery, she was actually a Sarles by birth. For obvious reasons, this can't be the case for Nathan C. Avery. There are no other Averys buried in the cemetery. Who was his family?

Nathan died in 1894 at the age of 64. Unfortunately, most of the 1890 census was lost in a fire, so the 1880 census is the last surviving census in which he appears.

1880 US Federal Census

This census provides a possible explanation for Nathan's burial in the cemetery. An unmarried 50-year-old stonecutter, he lived with Edwin A. and Sarah E. Purdy in Manhattan. There are four Purdys buried in the cemetery, although Edwin and Sarah aren't among them, and Purdy is a very common surname in Westchester County. Were the Purdys Nathan's family? Sarah Purdy is the right age to be his sister, although his relation to Edwin Purdy is given as "boarder," not "brother-in-law." Additionally, the census says that Nathan was born in Vermont and Sarah was born in New Hampshire.

Ten years earlier, Nathan had lived in Manhattan with a different family - one that provides him with more connections to the cemetery.

1870 US Federal Census

Haight and Hall are both common names in the cemetery. The Mary S. Haight and Elizabeth Hall listed here are both buried there; the transcription indicates that they were sisters.

But how is Nathan related to any of them?

In the 1860s, Nathan's trail goes cold, and I can't find him again until the 1850 census.

In 1850, we finally find Nathan in his native state, Vermont, in the town of Sherburne. Yet there are no other Averys to be found here either, but some Richardsons, a Rowe, a Hawkins, a Danville, a Goodrich, and a Converse. Nathan worked as a farm laborer.

1850 US Federal Census

Because he would have been ten years old, Nathan wouldn't have appeared in the 1840 census except as a tally mark in the household of his father or whoever else was the head of his household, so I can't find him.

UPDATE
Claudia told me that The Chandler Family: The Descendants of William Chandler and Annis Chandler Who Settled in Roxbury, Mass., 1637 (1883) provides information on Nathan C. Avery's family. She was also able to find the maiden name of Nathan's wife, Libbie, through the New York City marriage records index. It's Haight - are you surprised?

The book gives Nathan's date of birth as November 25, 1829. He was the son of Jeremiah Avery of Sherburne, VT, and Ruth Chandler of Alstead, NH; they married on July 4, 1825. Jeremiah was the son of Nathan Avery, a cooper and farmer.

Nathan C. Avery married Libbie A. Haight on April 28, 1881, in Manhattan. Is this the same woman as Elizabeth Haight, age 17, with whom Nathan was living in 1870? And was this Nathan's first marriage? He would have been 52 at the time. Better late than never, I suppose!

Nathan and Libbie would have appeared together in the 1890 census, but that census was destroyed in a fire. The next time Libbie would appear, she would be a widow in the 1900 census. I didn't find her there, but I did find a Libbie Avery in the 1910 census, living in the Bronx with a family of Walkers. She was 57 at the time, which makes her precisely the right age to be Elizabeth Haight, the daughter of Stephen and Mary Haight, who was 17 in 1870. In the 1910 census, her occupation is given as music teacher.

1910 US Federal Census

The next census in which I find Libbie is the 1930 census, when she was living at the Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, and Indigent Females in Manhattan. She was then 77.

1930 US Federal Census

Libbie was still living at the Association in 1940 at the age of 86. It was also known as the Association Residence Nursing Home. The building, constructed in 1883 and designed by Richard Morris Hunt, is still standing and is on the U.S. Register of Historic Places. It's now a youth hostel.

(Source)

Through one of the family trees on Ancestry, I was able to find the name of Nathan C. Avery's sister, Eliza Arabel Avery, who was born in 1823. She married Charles Fisher Lincoln in 1844. In 1850, the couple was living next door to Nathan and Eliza's father Jeremiah and his second wife, Laura, in Sherburne. They had three children, and also housed 14-year-old Charles Avery and 23-ear-old Alonzo Estabrook.

1850 US Federal Census

In 1860, the family had moved to Woodstock, VT, with their six curiously named children.

1860 US Federal Census

They were still there in 1870 with two more children, bringing the total number up to eight.

1870 US Federal Census

By 1880, Charles Fisher Lincoln had died. Eliza Lincoln was the head of a household that included three sons, two daughters, and two grandsons.

1880 US Federal Census

These are the children of Eliza Avery and Charles Lincoln that I have been able to trace:

Newman M. Lincoln was already a farmer of 35 in the 1880 census. He fought with the 6th Vermont Infantry Regiment in the Civil War. He is listed in the 1890 Veterans Census as living in Woodstock, VT. He married his wife Lettie in 1887 and had one child, Gladys. He was working as a carpenter in 1900 and 1910. In 1914, Newman was admitted to a National Home for Disabled Soldiers in Los Angeles, near to the home of his daughter Gladys Mellon, with a number of infirmities. He died in 1915 of nephritis.

Estell W. Lincoln married Sarah Gates in 1878 in Boston. He worked as a machinist. They were living in Los Angeles in 1910 and 1920. They didn't have children.

Arba Nelson Lincoln married Mira Kimball in 1876 and had five children. They lived in Bristol, Massachusetts, and he was a lawyer. You can see his biography from Who's Who in England of 1915 below. He died in 1922.

Who's Who in New England 1915

Mary E. Lincoln married George W. Clark in 1874. In 1880, they were living in Illinois, and in 1900, they were living in Los Angeles.

Loyal Tisdale Lincoln and his wife Emma were married in 1894. She had two children from a previous marriage. They lived in Los Angeles, where Loyal was a mail carrier.

1. Jeremiah Avery (1797-) m. (1) Ruth Chandler (1804-); (2) Laura (1798-)
1. Eliza Arabel Avery (1823-after 1880) m. Charles Fisher Lincoln (1819-1876)
1. Newman M.  Lincoln (1845-1915) m. Lettie (1858-before 1910)
1. Gladys Lincoln (1891-) m. Mellon
2. Estell W. Lincoln (1847-) m. Sarah Gates in 1878
3. Arba Nelson Lincoln (1849-1922) m. Mira Kimball (1850-) in 1876
1. Ernest Avery Lincoln (1883-)
2. Ralph Hayford Lincoln (1885-)
3. Grace Lincoln (1888-)
4. Kenneth Chandler Lincoln (1890-)
5. Carl Kimball Lincoln (1892-1961) m. Jean L. (1887-)
1. Nelson H. Lincoln (1915-)
2. Warner C. Lincoln (1920-2001)
4. Mary E. Lincoln (1852-) m. George W. Clark in 1874
1. William L. Clark (1874-)
2. Dona M. Clark (1886-)
3. Loyal N. Clark (1893-)
5. Loyal Tisdale Lincoln (1857-) m. Emma (1855-) in 1894
6. Julia A. Lincoln (1859-) 
7. Nettie Lincoln (1861-1924)
8. Charles R. Lincoln (1866-) 
2. Nathan C. Avery (1829-1894) m. Libbie Haight (1853-after 1940) in 1881