Eliza (Sornberger) Pierce Sanford and Her Descendants - Part 4

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Widowhood and Second Marriage for Eliza


Like many other young widows with children, Eliza, and her two-year-old daughter Lizzie, returned to her parents’ home in Hillsdale. [45] In 1850, four generations of the Sornberger family lived together. The older family members were Eliza’s parents Uriah, and Betsy, both aged sixty-two, and her eighty-two-year-old grandfather John. Eliza, age thirty-four, her siblings George, age thirty-two and Emmeline, age twenty-nine, and Eliza’s eight-year-old daughter, Lizzie, completed the household.[46] But the extended family was not together for long. Eliza’s father, Uriah died on 17 September 1850, presumably in Hillsdale.[47] Her sister, Emmeline married William Leonard Johnson on 12 September 1852, and their first child Ida was born in 1853.[48] Her brother George married Harriet N. Osborn in Washtenaw, Michigan on 19 October 1852, and their first child Mary, was born in about 1853 in Columbia County, New York.[49] Her older brother, Edward, had died in 1842, during Eliza’s marriage to Levi Pierce.[50]

In 1854, life changed significantly for Eliza and her daughter Lizzie. On 9 May, Eliza married John Farnham Sanford of Great Barrington, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.[51] Sanford was a widower with five children between the ages of two and eighteen, all of whom were likely still living at home. His first wife, Louisa Derby Williams had died 9 June 1852, just two months after the birth of their son William, and less than a year after the death of their son, Sylvester.[52]Among the five children was Julia Clarrissa, born 9 September 1842, just a few months after Eliza’s daughter Lizzie was born.

So, Eliza went from being a single mother of one living with her extended family, to being the only adult women in a house full of children. Her daughter Lizzie went from being an only child with two infant cousins, to being one of six children, including having a stepsister just a few months younger than she was. [53]

Like many widowers, John remarried more quickly than Eliza had, just under two years after his first wife died, compared to Eliza waiting just over ten years. One possible explanation for men’s tendency to remarrying sooner than women was their need to have someone to care for young children. [54]

Figure 7. The Pittsfield Sun.
12 October 1854. Crop of longer article. [55]

Like her first husband Levi, Eliza’s second husband John was a merchant, most likely a dry-goods merchant. [56] Just a few months after their marriage, on 7 October 1854, the store of John F. and Frederick T. Sanford was one of several businesses, including the Berkshire Courier Printing Office, destroyed by a fire likely the work of an arsonist targeting the Housatonic Railroad Company. The Sanford brothers’ business was not fully insured, so the family likely suffered a significant economic loss. [57]

Eliza and John’s blended family was together for just a few short years. Mary, John’s oldest daughter from his first marriage, married Daniel Phoenix Griffith on 21 October 1856. [58] Just two months later, Eliza gave birth to a daughter, Louisa Emmeline, on 20 December 1856. [59]

Then tragedy struck during the fall of 1859 when three members of the family died of typhoid fever, a bacterial infection caused by contaminated food or water. Symptoms included fevers, red skin lesions or rash, and diarrhea. There was no effective treatment for typhoid fever in the mid-1800s, and a vaccine wasn’t introduced until 1896. [60] Louisa, John & Eliza’s four-year old daughter, died on September 29 after an illness of forty days. [61] Eliza died on October 29 at age forty-three, having fallen ill just after Louisa died. [62] Julia, John’s seventeen-year old daughter from his first marriage, died on November 27, having fallen ill shortly before Eliza’s death. [63] Imagine how these three deaths affected the remaining members of the family, especially Eliza’s daughter Lizzie, who was orphaned at age seventeen.

Just over a year after his wife Eliza’s death, John Sanford married for the third and final time. He married Sarah A. (Brown) Ingersoll on 14 November 1860. [64] Sarah’s first husband, Moses, died on 31 July 1849 - two years after the death of their son Anson Dudley, and less than two weeks before the death of their daughter, Sarah Elizabeth. [65] John and Sarah’s only child, a son, Walter Bramhall, was born on 22 August 1863. John’s third marriage lasted until his death on 6 December 1894. His widow, Sarah, died on 2 February 1903. [66]


 45. For discussion of widows with children returning to parents’ homes, see Susan Grigg, “Toward a Theory of Remarriage: A Case Study of Newburyport at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century,” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History VIII: 2 (Autumn 1977), pages 207-208.

46.1850 U.S. Census, household headed by Betsy Sornborger. See note 7.

47. New York, Columbia County, Hillsdale, Hillsdale Village Cemetery, Book 24, page 29, Sornberger graves; unknown website accessed on 22 July 2003 with information from Columbia County Historical Society cemetery books.

 48. New York, Columbia County, Hillsdale, Hillsdale Rural Cemetery, memorial 38879897, Ida Johnson; gravestone image added by BoniJean, 22 May 2021; FindAGrave.com

49. For marriage, see Michigan, Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor, Marriage Record, volume 2, 1851-1860, page 101, 19 October 1852, George Sornberger (indexed as Lombeyer) and Harriet Newell Osborn; FamilySearch.org, DGS 004674384, image 73 of 219. For birth of Mary, see 1855 New York State Census, New York, Columbia County, Hillsdale, election district 1, unpaginated (7th page of Hillsdale ed 1), lines 5-11, dwelling 50,  George Sorenberger household including John Sorenberger; Ancestry.com, image 4 of 24

50. New York, Columbia County, Hillsdale, Hillsdale Village Cemetery, Sornberger graves. See note 47.

51. “Married,” The Pittsfield Sun (Massachusetts), 18 May 1854, page 3, column 4, John F. Sanford.

 52. Carlton E. Sandford, Thomas Sandford, the emigrant to New England; ancestry, life, and  descendants. 1632-4. Sketches of four other pioneer Sanfords and some of their descendants (Rutland, VT: The Tuttle Company, 1911), pages 867-868, John Farnham Sanford.

53. 1855 Census, Massachusetts, John F. Sanford household. See note 5.

54. For information about remarriage see Susan Grigg, “Toward a Theory of Remarriage: A Case Study of Newburyport at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century,” pages 204 and 217. See note 45.

55. “Destructive Fire at Great Barrington,” The Pittsfield Sun (Massachusetts), 12 October 1854, page 3, column 1; Newspapers.com.

56. John Sanford’s occupation was usually just listed as merchant. In 1870, his occupation was listed as dry-goods merchant. 1870 U.S Census, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Great Barrington, page 75, dwelling 525, lines 5-11, John Sanford household; Ancestry.com, image 75 of 110

57. “Destructive Fire at Great Barrington,” The Pittsfield Sun. See note 55.

58. Carlton E. Sandford, Thomas Sandford, pages 1202-1203, Mary Elizabeth Sanford. See note 52.

59. Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840-1915, Great Barrington, number 94, 30 December 1856, Louisa Sanford; Ancestry.com, image 70 of 1103.  For middle name, see Carlton E. Sandford, Thomas Sandford, pages 867-868, John Farnham Sanford. See note 52.

60. Michael Mahr, “Typhoid Fever - One of the Civil War’s Deadliest Diseases,” National Museum of Civil War Medicine (https://www.civilwarmed.org/). Karin L. Flippin, Causes of Death in the Late 19th Century mentioned in the Register of Deaths, 1893-1907 (1997); Core.ac.uk, pdf 267990436, page 11. Yolanda Smith, “Typhoid Fever History,” News Medical Life Sciences (https://www.news-medical.net).

61. Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Great Barrington, Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1843-1903, volume 1, 1843-1866, Deaths, page 22, number 32, 29 Sept 1859, Louisa E. Sanford; FamilySearch.org, DGS 007009244, image 103 of 492.

62. Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Great Barrington, Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1843-1903, volume 1, 1843-1866, Deaths, page 22, number 38, 29 October 1859, Eliza Sanford; FamilySearch.org, DGS 007009244, image  103 of 492.

 63. Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Great Barrington, Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1843-1903, volume 1, 1843-1866, Deaths, page 22, number 47, 27 November 1859, Julia C. Sanford; FamilySearch.org, DGS 007009244, image 103 of 492.

 64. Carlton E. Sandford, Thomas Sandford, pages 867-868, John Farnham Sanford. See note 52. For first marriage of wife, New York, Greene County, Hunter, Church Register of the Hunter, N.Y Presbyterian Church, Marriages, page 196, 5 July 1845, Moses S. Ingersol and Sarah A. Brown; Ancestry.com, image 168-169 of 186.

65. New York, Columbia County, Austerlitz, East Hill Cemetery, memorial 11862211, Moses S. Ingersoll; gravestone image added by Elsie Scharpf Saar, 2 October 2005; FindAGrave.com.  New York, Columbia County, Austerlitz, East Hill Cemetery, memorial 11862236, Anson Dudley Ingersoll; gravestone image added by Elsie Scharpf Saar, 2 October 2005; FindAGrave.com. New York, Columbia County, Austerlitz, East Hill Cemetery, memorial 11862184, Sarah Elizabeth Ingersoll; gravestone image added by Elsie Scharpf Saar, 2 October 2005; FindAGrave.com.

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