In 1880 our ancestor Andrew
Jackson Cole (named after the president
from 1829 to 1837) is a farmer with two live-in
laborers, Jerome Wilber and John Wade. His wife Mary
Bartlett, 16 years younger than Andrew,
keeps house. Though census records stopped showing the
value of property in 1870, it looks as though Andrew
and Mary are doing alright. Their 2nd daughter, our
ancestor Effie Gertrude
Cole, is four years old.
June, 1880: Andrew Jackson Cole and Mary A. Bartlett in Williams Michigan
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Andrew J. Cole |
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Mary A. Bartlett |
Both Andrew's and Mary's fathers are from New York but they came to Michigan by very different paths. Mary was raised in Ontario, Canada. As a teenager Andrew moved from Steuben County, New York to Potter County, Pennsylvania, where he married 19-year-old Ascenath Robinson, a Native American. When Ascenath died around 1863 in her mid-twenties, Andrew was left to care for three young children: Phebie Arzilla "Zilla", Peter, and LuAnna.
Around 1864 at the peak of the Civil War, Andrew moved to Williams, Michigan, halfway between Midland and Bay City. Under the Homestead Act of 1862, Andrew could have purchased 160 acres for a small filing fee if he agreed to farm the land. In 1866 he re-married, to 17-year-old Mary Bartlett. Mary helped Andrew raise his three children and they had five of their own: Winnie, Linford, Gertie, Otto Ray and Jay. Daughter Linford and son Otto Ray both died young, Otto as a toddler.
Mary provides our family perhaps its best claim to distinction through her relationship to Josiah Bartlett, a governor of New Hampshire and a Founding Father. Mary's grandfather Lemuel Bartlett was born in New Hampshire in 1787. Her great grandfather Jacob Badger Bartlett's birthplace is unknown.
Phebie or Phoebia is married to Albert Foster and they have a daughter Elenor A., age 4. Note how the description of relationship is smudged as though the enumerator was corrected or changed his mind.
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| Source: U.S. 1880 Census - Bay
County, MI Click here to see full image |
Portage, Pennsylvania: Andrew Cole's first family
Jump back 20 years. The 1860 Pennsylvania census shows an Andrew J. Cole living with his wife Asenath (age 23), son Peter (4), and daughter Phebie in Potter County, Portage township. Daughter Luanna will be born in 1862 and Ascenath will die a year or so later.
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| Source: U.S. 1860 Census -
Pennsylvania Click here to see full image |
Phebie married Albert J. Foster in 1875. Eleanor was their only child. Eleanor married Richard Theodore Lambert in 1899 and they moved to Oregon, where she died July 28, 1963. Her descendant Les Lambert was kind enough to contribute the above photo of Andrew and Mary, loaned to him by Sybil Lambert.
 
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| Notes on back of Andrew Cole/Mary
Bartlett photo, probably written by Luanna's daughter Lefa Haight, and/or by her grand-daughter Elsie Hawkins Source: Ella Buckman Haight & nephew David Hawkins Click here to see full image |
1900: Andrew and Mary are in Midland
At the turn of the century, 67-year-old Andrew and 50-ish Mary and their son Jay are living in Jerome township, Michigan. Notice Andrew has changed his birthplace from New York to Pennsylvania, hence much of the confusion in our family records. Maybe a certain nostalgia setting upon him in old age? Gertie, who our records show wed John McMullen in 1892 (1st son George was born in 1893), is living with her mother and father. Or is she? Looks like she's been erased, actually.
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| Source: U.S. 1900 Census -
Michigan Click here to see full image |
There is no cenus trace of Gertie, her husband John McMullen or any of their kids, though we shouldn't worry: he and Gertie had nine children, our favorite being of course Marcel Alexander McMullen born that beautiful day March 4, 1907. John & Gertie's last child, Wilson, was born in 1913.
Andrew died in 1904. Mary outlived him by 13 years. They are buried side by side in the Jerome Michigan cemetary.