We know that...

Backing up a bit...

And because of Hampton Wilmot, Jr. we also learn about Eugene...

Eugene Siddall, submitted by Hampton Wilmot, Jr.

 

This blogger, Lara Lynn Lane, was in a correspondence with Mr. Hampton Wilmot, Jr. in 2011-2012.  And that correspondence yielded some important clues for further research and a wonderful "sketch" of Alta Siddall.

We heard that the image of Sarah Orinda Candee Siddall that we found on Flickr most likely came from Susan Price, retired librarian of Syracuse University, directly related to Sarah Orinda.  Ms. Price fits into the puzzle as the great-granddaughter of Sarah Orinda and James.  Her grandfather--William Asa Siddall.  And her mother:  Frances Antoinette Siddall Woodruff.  Mr. Wilmot had worked with Ms. Price at some point in an exchange of photographs and archival identification information for those photographs but through several iterations of computers and a shortage of ink, the records got dislocated from orderly.  At last check (summer 2012) Mr. Wilmot was re-organizing his archive.  He shared many photographs with us for the project A QUILT FOR MAMA and we've put them together in here with his sketch.

Of particular importance to the puzzle of "the Candee-Siddall boys" is the re-membering of Charles' two children "of whom we have lost track" (Correspondence Hampton Wilmot to Lara Lynn Lane, 13 JULY 2011).

And of United States historical research importance is the Sarah Orinda lore that she was involved with the "underground rail road in Oberlin."

Sarah Orinda's husband, James, was a dentist in Oberlin, so he would've had more to do with the underground of teeth--root canals, presumably.

The couple had six sons.  One died young; two became dentists like their Dad; one was a lawyer in Cleveland; there was John McAlpine Siddall, "a muckraking journalist who did the investigating for Ida Tarbell's prize-winning expose of John D. Rockefeller" (Hampton Wilmot, 30 JUNE 2011); and there was Eugene who, for health reasons, moved to Iowa to be with his Uncle Selden Candee.

We found more information about Selden/Seldon Candee on the IowaGenWeb.

He was a central character in the Candee family even though he traveled all over early America.

A history of Clayton County, Iowa (1882) tells us that Seldon was raised on a farm (that of his father Asa Candee, first in Oswego, New York and then in the Monroe County area of Michigan territory.

In spite of receiving a limited education, he left home in 1838 and made his way to now-Iowa/then Indian Territory--crossing the Mississippi River at Davenport.

In Galena he was engaged in mining for ten years.

By 1849 he was in a company of 120 men who started out for California.  Uncle Seldon proceeded to St. Louis.  The company of men had made contract with parties to take them "through" (the Interior) in 60 days.  There was $200 involved:  for the trip and a "few extras."  The biographical sketch tells us that, "After starting out the company failed to fulfill their contract and the greater part of them had to walk most of the way' (pp. 1307-1308, History of Clayton County, Iowa).

Well, Seldon made it to "California" and remained there for about 15 months.  Then he returned to Galena and from there made way to Clayton County, Iowa.

In February of 1859 he married Eleanor J. Bowles (whose father was Thomas C. Bowles).  At the time of the History writing Seldon had a "beautiful farm of 210 acres, valued at $35 and acre."  This was situated on Section 5 in Monona Township.  And Eleanor was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church there.

Uncle Seldon was the Seldon Candee who had been born in 1816 to Asa and Mary (McAlpine) Candee.  In 1816 then, Asa and Mary were still in Oswego, New York.  That was before they migrated to Monroe County, Michigan and located "on a farm of heavy timber" in 1834.

We found a detailed account of the migrating when we learned of some writings by Eliza Hitchcock Candee.  She was the wife of Seldon's older brother Caius.

One thing we don't want to do is to confuse Seldon and/or Selden Candee with SHeldon Candee.  Sheldon Norton Candee (born 1813) of Muscatine, Iowa is found on the the U.S. Census 1880 in Muscatine with both parents born in Connecticut.

We'll eventually get our Iowa Candee sorted out on the Iowa web page of the A QUILT FOR MAMA webcluster.  Suffice it to say we know there were several Seldon/Selden/Sheldons, but we are confident that Uncle Seldon (born +/- 1816 to Asa and Mary McAlpine Candee) is most likely the Uncle Seldon with whom Eugene Siddall went to live in Iowa.

Eugene later went to work in a hardware business with a cousin--Roger Candee-- in a small Minnesota town.  Aunt Jane (Candee) Phelps was up in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.  That was Jane (one of Asa and Mary McAlpine Candee's thirteen children; Uncle Seldon's sister) who married Silas Phelps in 1876.

It's possible that Jane is one of the girls in some of the mystery photographs posted on the Iowa page of A QUILT FOR MAMA which you can get to by clicking the link below.  Or maybe one of those girls in the photographs is related to Uncle Seldon somehow.  Place, the place of one of the photographs connects the people pictured to the possibilities--Monona, Iowa.

Mr. Hampton Wilmot has plans to do some further research in Northern Iowa and we may be able to sort out the mystery photographs better as his journey of discovery progresses.