Samuel E. Clement & Emma M. Farnum

Samuel E. Clement was born 8 Sep 1881 in Croghan, Lewis Co., New York he was the son of a US Civil Union Soldier from New York and farmer Daniel L. Clement and Mary Jane Palmer. In 1894 Daniel Clement died suddenly of Heart and Bright’s disease, with an enlarged liver. This left Sam as the oldest surviving son at age 13; having two brothers Charles F. and George H. that died in 1872 and 1884 respectively. The family consisted of Mattie Clement Herzig the eldest sister who had left home to start her own family, Anna P. Clement, Ira Edwin the youngest; Mary Jane Clement his their mother and Sam.

The eldest daughter Mattie left New York State with her family and settled in the Colrain, Massachusetts area. At some point just before 1900 Mary Jane Clement who by this point was going by the name Jennie Clement, left New York State and moved to Colrain, Ma with her two son’s Sam and Ira Edwin. Jennie’s daughter Annie had married Lorenzo Ashcraft in 1895 she had one daughter and died in 1898. Interestingly enough Lorenzo Ashcraft was born in Brattleboro, Vermont about 45 miles from where Mattie and later Sam would settle to live out their lives.

Jennie did not like living in Massachusetts and wanted to return home to New York, however Sam did not he stayed behind and Ira Edwin return with their mother to the farm in New York.

While in Colrain, he met Emma M. Farnum who was a loom weaver in a textile mill, they married on 6 Aug 1905, and raised their family in the Halifax, VT, Whitingham, VT and ultimately settling permanently on a small farm on Cyrus Stage Road in Rowe, Franklin Co., Massachusetts.

Emma Martha Farnum was actually born Martha Emily Farnum 19 Jun 1873 to Cyrus Farnum and Miranda Gates, she was the second generation of women in her line to live an extremely long life. Her mother was 90 Year old when she passed and Emma was 104 when she died in 1977. Emma was the second of 5 children, and the only one to marry and start a family of her own. Her family's ancestry extended back to before the Revolutionary War and involved some of the founding member of the towns of Halifax and Whitingham, Vermont. The Whitney’s, Crosier’s, and Gates’ were part of her direct family line, many of the descendants of these families still live in both towns to this day.

Sam and Emma had 4 children, Elmer Farnum 1907-1977; Doris Emma 1909-1996; John Edwin 1913-2003; and Alfred Burton 1920-1990. They farmed or worked on farms in and around the towns we have already discussed until 27 July 1952 when Sam had a heart attack and died suddenly at the age of 70. Emma lived the remainder of her considerably long life on the farm in Rowe, Massachusetts with her eldest son Elmer, who after returning from World War II, Italy never really went much further than the area around home, for the remainder of his life. Elmer never married spending most of his time taking care or the few farm animals that were around the Rowe farm.

Jennie Clement made a final trip to Colrain around 1912, she had sold the farm in New York and travelled to Colrain, MA with her son Ira Edwin and his wife Merle Florence Lake. She initially had intended to stay, Ira and Merle return to New York, it is unclear whether Jennie had decided she wanted to go home or she became ill and wanted to return. Whichever the case money was raised to send her back to New York, when she suddenly died on June 13, 1912, she is buried alone in Christian Hill Cemetery in Colrain, MA, her grave sets just inside the gate marked with a field stone marker rough carved, "J. Clement" to this day no other family member has been buried in that Cemetery.

Sam, Emma and now all of their children are gone; John Edwin Clement Sr. was the last of his family to pass on at 89 years of age, my grandfather, left a rich family legacy to preserve, a history that is still incomplete but a history that he helped research, write and more importantly preserve.

New Web Browser from Google "Chrome"

Yesterday Google released their new web browser identified as "Chrome" very interesting working with it. I've only used it for a short time and it appears that it is still officially in Beta test, however it's not bad for a first effort in web browsers.  It has a couple of little glitches and there should be some more control for the end user but we will just have to wait and see what the upgrades look like. Like other Google products it's free and worth checking out 

2008 Civil War Expo Chester VT

The Twelfth Annual Civil War Expo will begin Saturday September 27, 2008, in Chester, VT a website that offers all the details of the event is located at http://www.18thvt.com/

Grand Army of the Republic Post on Website

Just added a page to my website about the Town of Wilna, Village of Natural Bridge NY GAR Post 588. Have an old picture of two great uncles, both veterans of the 1oth New York during the Civil War. In the summer months between 1891 and 1905 this photograph was taken of them. The people in the photograph were identifed by name and by researching some records I found the majority of them, including my relatives who were members of GAR Post 588; the rest of the men were Veterans of the same military unit or different units all from the same area. The photograph and information are posted at http://www.lakegen.com/ in the photographs.

Helping other Researchers

As of late been spending time working on other peoples genealogy on top of trying to get my website off the ground haven't had much time to renew posts on this blog. The latest work I've been doing involves French Canadian Ancestry, Quebec Canada specifically, very interesting only wish I could read French. I think I found enough in the past couple of day to get this person over their hurtle, been lots of fun like finding your own family members when you've been working from a dry spell for awhile.

Website opens at www.lakegen.com

It's been a little while since posting several goings on have kept me away from the blog for the past couple of weeks.

I decided recently to create a website that covers many of the thing that I have been doing with the blog. I thought that a more permanent home for research information might rest with the website and the blog which I may move to the site will be more what I orginally intended it to be, a research journal. So I've been playing with designs and have put the shell on line and made it active at www.lakegen.com for anyone to review. Comments would be apprieciated at my facebook site.

Harvey Jesse Lake of Natural Bridge NY

Harvey Jesse was born December 7, 1863 to Joesph J. Lake and Christie Ann Calder Lake, he was the eldest of three and the only son. He was born in De Kalb, St. Lawrence Co., New York, in what can be considered the seat of this branch of the Lake Family from the War of 1812 until relatively modern times.

A short history is in order to place Joseph and Harvey in historical perspective. The first of this Lake Family line known to be in the colonies was John Lake of Gravesend, NY. Some accounts have him traveling to the Gravesend Colony with Lady Deborah Moody, a religious dissenter of the time. No historical evidence is currently available to prove that he travelled to the Gravesend Colony with the original party, but it is clear that he was a member in the years very shortly after it was founded. John married the daughter of one of the original party and established his family, the majority of which stayed in or around that area of New York and New Jersey until the American Revolutionary war. John’ son, John, was the next in our family line; he was born and died in Gravesend, NY. They were all farmers, or at least that is what history can tell us so far. It appears that the elder John went from being a relatively poor farmer to a man of some means before his death, based on his will.

Nicholas, the third generation, was also born in Gravesend, but moved to New Jersey to raise his family and died in Somerset in 1773. His son Thomas was born in New Jersey but did not stay in that area, information has him in the Upstate New York in an area of what is now Washington County. When the American Revolutionary War began he was a Loyalist who served in a Loyalist Militia and at the Battle of Bennington he was captured, his nephew, Nicholas Lake was killed. An interesting side note: Thomas' son Henry was also at the Battle fighting in a Patriot Militia unit, which must have made for interesting family reunion conversation.

After the war Thomas and most of his family fled to Canada as all of their farm land was confiscated and it was extremely difficult for any loyalist to live in the new Republic. Thomas’ son James was the first to return to the United States but he moved back and forth across the border several times. His son Jesse Lake, during the War of 1812, was conscripted by the British to fight against the American Army in an upcoming attack across the St Lawrence River; Jesse escaped the British, and when crossing the river, he notified the American Garrison of the British intentions. Jesse never returned to Canada and after this, his father refused to sign a loyalty oath to the British Crown and was forced to leave Canada for good. It was at this point they settled in Gouverneur, St Lawrence Co., New York. Several generations, and Lake family lines can trace their roots to this place.

Jesse Lake was, as many of his ancestors, a farmer. He married Lavinia Cook in 1816 and began their family; they had 10 children, one of which was Joesph J. Lake, the father of the subject of our article.

Harvey J. Lake worked as a laborer on farms, mines and the railroad. It was while he was working in a Railroad engine for the New York Lime Co. on June 19, 1906 that he was critically injured, losing an eye when the boiler valve exploded in his face. The article (above) from "Watertown Daily Times June 20, 1906" tells the story of what happened.


This story (left side) from the "Carthage Republican July 11, 1906" demonstrates just how serious the injury was and it talks about his return from the hospital some 20 days later. The photograph of Harvey (above) was taken about 1930, twenty four years after the accident.

He lived through defining moments in this US and World History. Looking at the times of my Great Grandfather's life, he was born in the middle of the American Civil War, he was 35 years old during the Spanish American War. The SS Titanic was lost in 1912, the Russian Revolution of 1914, the Abdication of King Edward VII of England in 1938, and the "Roaring Twenties." I would imagine that many of these important historical dates meant very little to him. The important dates to him would have been when his youngest son Robert was coming home after serving in the Navy during World War I, the loss of his wife, and nearly his son in law to the flu pandemic of 1918, the Great Depression.

His birthday in 1941 marked a point in history that will forever be remember in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as "A day that will live in infamy;" the beginning of World War II for the United States.

He lived during the terms of 16 of our Presidents, one serving two different times so 17 administrations in all. Presidents Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Authur, Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland (again) McKinley, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt.

Harvey Jesse Lake died April 3, 1942 in his home in Natural Bridge NY, without fan fair or parade with only his family to mark his passing. The times he lived in were some of the greatest and worst in our history but they passed by for this simple working person who raised his family in New York, probably never realizing just how important a time he lived in and how much history he was witness to. Wouldn't it have been nice to talk to him!