OUR KINDRED FAMILIES
The Bridges Family
Bridges Family is currently “under construction”. Check back soon!
Great Grandmother Sarah Bridges came from a large and complex English ancestry, arriving in Virginia. Sarah’s eighth great grandparents, Joseph Bridger and his wife Hester Pitt sailed from Gloucestershire, England after the death of his father, Samuel Bridger. Joseph had already established himself in Virginia for his wealth and wine trade.
A fascinating and beautifully written website by the Bridger Family Association can be found here. It is founded by the Descendants of Joseph Bridger and his wife Hester Pitt. Looking at my family tree, that would most definitely include those of you who have wandered into this space! Do take a look!!
To the best of my knowledge, the following is a very brief outline of Sarah’s Grandparent heritage. I continually update my Ancestry.com tree, however mistakes do occur and I am open to make any corrections necessary! My tree is public and if you would like an invitation to view it, please reach out.
Col. Joseph Bridger and his wife Hester Pitt had seven children, including Mary, Hester, Joseph, Elizabeth, Martha, Col. Samuel and Col. William. Apparently their son Captain Joseph was disinherited due to his involvement in the Bacon’s Rebellion, an armed rebellion of Jamestown settlers and their indentured slaves and servants against the Colonel Governor William Berkley in 1676. The uprising was lead by Nathaniel Bacon who wanted the Governor to drive the American Indians out of Virginia.
William Bridges and Sarah Perry were Sarah Bridges McIntire’s grandparents and my third great grandparents, and the sixth “William Bridges” in my line of Great Grandparents since the immigrant Joseph Bridger and his wife Hester Pitt arrived from England. And three of those William’s were married to a Sarah. Now obviously all these ‘Williams’ were part of much larger families, but is a convenient way for me to keep track of my Bridges paternity lineage! So many Williams. So many Sarahs!
Sarah Perry was from another line of repeat surnames in my ancestry, however none of those “Perry’s” appear to directly intersect. For example, my mother’s maiden name was Perry, but her grandfather came from Wales where they spelled their surname “Parry”. Another “Perry” in our family was a son of Martin and Sarah, Avilon Perry McIntire and we all called him “Uncle Perry”. Further adding to the Perry “soup” was the husband of Joan McIntire (daughter of Oliver and Frances). Joan married Clarence Newell Perry, who often went by CN, or simply Perry, or “Uncle Perry” to us!
Sarah Perry Bridges lineage is fairly straight forward with her ancestors hailing from England, settling in the Isle of Wight, Virginia and a direct descendant of the Mayflower Pilgrims through the ancestry of Mary Chilton and John Winslow, her fourth Great Grandparents! Her Grandmother was Esther Winslow, married to Reuben Perry. Another interesting family fact is that the older brother of Sarah Perry Bridges, Edmund Perry (born March 1, 1790) married Rachel Bridges (born in 1790). Rachel was the daughter of Sarah’s husbands’ Grandfather! Oh, and there’s more! Rachel and Edmund Perry’s daughter Sarah (yes, another Sarah!) married Elisha Perry, the son of Luke Perry, another brother of Sarah Perry Bridges! Talk about a close knit and kindred family!
William Bridges and Sarah Perry were married in Clairborne, Tennessee during the year of 1820. Their firstborn was a son, Thompson Davis born on February 23, 1823, followed by Nancy in 1825 and Julius Strange in 1828. The family then moved to Brown County, Illinois where James arrived in 1831 followed by Rachel in 1835. James and Rachel both died young, James at 21 years old and Rachel being only 17. Only Nancy, Thompson and Julius lived to adulthood. Nancy married Joseph Bryant Davis on September 21, 1843 in Brown County, Illinois. Together they raised ten children, Merinda Caroline, Augustus Allan, Orlando Butler, William Lysander, John F., James Buchanan, Thompson Bridges, Julia S., Nancy A., and Charles Thomas. John died in a tragic hay fire at the age of 6 1/2. He fell asleep in the straw when it was set on fire not knowing of his presence. Julia and Nancy died when they were young children as well. Orlando also died as a young adult.
While researching our ancestors it is easy to feel accomplished if we know when they were born, where they lived and when they died! That information is important of course, especially when delving into families with repeating names (so many William’s in the Bridges family!!). It is delightful to find details about a particular relative, the color of their eyes, how tall were they, what did the inside of their home look like! That information is like a treat given to a child on Halloween! Hipe Hall and his daughters Wilna and Edna often wrote such ‘treats’ in their family book “It’s Been a Honey”. My favorite description of Mary Anderson Bridges was that she was a hard worker and “went on a trot and wanted everyone else to go that fast too”! Hipe described her as a wonderful cook and that the table was always out and ready for company. The house had a huge back porch and in one end was a safe (pie safe), which is a cabinet with screened panels on the doors where cookies, pies and such would be placed to cool. Thompson had hired help and would also take in anyone who needed food or clothing. Nellie McIntire Clark, Thompson and Mary’s grand daughter said that “Grandfather Bridges was good to everyone”. Nellie also recalled her grandfather as a young man “had black hair and brown eyes and it was said that more than once he danced the feet out of his socks. Thompson’s mother had dark hair and eyes. His wife Mary Anderson had blue eyes and medium brown hair”. Both of their mothers were widowed and lived with Thompson and Mary. Thompson’s mother Sarah Perry Bridges and Mary’s mother Lucinda LaRue Anderson hardly spoke to each other but shared a big room upstairs! They are both buried in the Bridges Pioneer Cemetery.
Thompson Bridges
Thompson was the father of Sarah Bridges McIntire. He was first married to Nancy Gibson, daughter of Jacob and Mary “Polly” Gibson. Nancy’s sister, Matilda was married to Thompson’s cousin, also named William! Nancy and Thompson had three children together, but only their son William “Billy” Bridges survived into adulthood. Billy married another family tie, Elizabeth “Betty” Jane Hall, sister to Hipe’s father, Jonathan “John” Hall. Together Billy and Betty had ten children, three dying in infancy. Of the seven surviving children two were centenarians, and another lived to 98! The Hall family is another of our kindred and much loved family and will be honored in future postings. After the death of Thompson’s wife Nancy, he married Mary Anderson, mother of Sarah Bridges McIntire and the daughter of Robert Anderson and Lucinda LaRue. Thompson and Mary bore ten children, with one dying in infancy. The son of Thompson and first wife Nancy, “Billy”, also lived in the home with his half siblings Nancy, Sarah, Thomas, Lucinda, Robert, Rachel, Anna, Mary Elizabeth, Thompson and James Irwin.
William "Billy" Bridges, son of Thompson and Nancy Gibson
William “Billy” Bridges was the first born son of Thompson and Nancy Gibson Bridges. He was born on November 17, 1846 in Missouri. He and his family, which now included his sister Mary Ann and baby brother Joseph moved to Marion County, Iowa around the time of his mother’s 1853 death. This was a difficult season for all of the family with first the death of Billy’s uncle James and aunt Rachel (both siblings of his father). They died in 1852, almost one year apart from each other. The following year, 1853 brought the death of Billy’s sister Mary Ann on March 1, then within a few short weeks, his mother Nancy Gibson Bridges on March 18. His little brother Joseph followed in death on October 7, 1854. One bright note happened on April 3, 1854 when his father Thompson married Mary Anderson. Billy was soon joined by two loving sisters, Nancy and Sarah with eight more successive siblings to fill their home. Billy later married Elizabeth “Betty” Jane Hall, sister of Jonathan “John” Hall, Hipe’s father. Billy and Betty raised seven children, Mary Ruth, Ollie, Arthur T., Julius Eugene “Gene”, Martin Thomas, John Hall and Sabra Ethyl.
Nancy Bridges and Michael Lemmon
Nancy Bridges was born in Attica, Marion County, Iowa on May 23, 1855, the first born child of Thompson and Mary Anderson Bridges. Nancy grew up on the farm in Attica, Marion County, Iowa surrounded by her ten siblings and a welcoming home full of love, where she lived until her marriage to Michael Lemmon. The couple married on January 27, 1876 in nearby Greene County, settling in Scranton, Iowa, where their first three children were born. Together they would have eight children, with three passing as toddlers. Sarah Myrtle likely died in 1882, when the family was living in South Dakota. She was about eighteen months of age at the time of her death and the third child born to the Lemmons. Her brother Frank Ernest, born in 1888 died of pneumonia when he was just one day shy of his first birthday. Then Roy Everett just six months old when he died in 1898 of “brain fever” after a three week illness. Brain fever was the 1800’s medical term for what is now understood to be encephalitis or meningitis. He certainly must have been a sick little boy.
Beautiful family of Nancy and Michael Lemmon
Sarah
Sarah was born on April 23, 1857 in Attica, Marion County, Iowa to parents Thompson and Mary Anderson. Thompson was a successful farmer and stock owner and owned a beautiful home in a lovely location on 262 acres. Sarah was the second born to Thompson and Mary Bridges and the third child living in their home. Her half brother William “Billy” was born in 1846, but his sister Mary Ann and brother Joseph passed away when they were quite young. Billy was almost eleven when Sarah was born, and her eldest sister Nancy was two years of age. The three siblings were soon joined by Thomas in 1859, Lucinda in 1862, Robert in 1864 (he died in 1865), Rachel in 1866, Anna in 1869, then Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” in 1872 and finally some more brothers, Thompson D, Jr in 1874 and James “Jim” in 1879.
A little side note of interest, Thompson Jr. married Hipe Hall’s sister Ida, however she passed away in 1904 after their first child, Floyd was born. Thompson then married Ada Smith. Their daughters were Verna and Velma. I clearly remember Verna while living in Long Beach, California and particularly remember her daughter Audrey! We stay in touch and she is my go-to ‘scholar’ on all things Bridges! Cousins are the best!
Sarah grew up on her father’s farm in Marion County and lived there until her double marriage ceremony with Martin Luther McIntire, her husband and sister Lucinda and her husband Urial “Rile” Mallory. The two couples were married in their family home on December 12, 1882. Martin and Sarah made their home in Marion County until the decision to move to Kansas was made around 1885. Lucinda and her husband took up homesteading in South Dakota.
We will pick up Sarah’s story in the second portion of Martin, as they later make the move to Olathe, Colorado.
Lucinda
In 1862, the United States Congress passed the Homestead Act which permitted any twenty one year old citizen or immigrant with the intention of becoming a citizen to lay claim to 160 acres of land in what was known as the Great American Prairie. After paying the required fees, farming the land and living on the parcel for 5 to 10 years, the homesteader would then own the land. Lucinda and her husband Urial “Rile” Mallory along with her sister Nancy and her husband Michael “Mike” Lemmon left their home in Attica, Marion County, Iowa and laid claim to land in Burdette and Miller in Hand County, South Dakota during the early part of 1880. The following letter to her sister Sarah and husband Martin McIntire, she gives a peak into the many hardships the families endured. The South Dakota prairie was flat and treeless with long, cold and windy winters. While Lucinda and Rile were building their home, Lucinda said it was only framed with one end and one side weather-boarded when “it rained and blowed, we fixed the end up with sheeting, tacked the window in, laid some floor in one corner, laid a loft of sheeting and flooring and you bet we had a nice time”!
Burdette Hand County, D.T.
December 23, 1883
Dear Brother and Sister,
It is with the greatest of pleasure I seat myself to answer your kind and most welcome letter which found us all well and was glad to hear that you was all well. Well I have got as sweet a baby as you ever seen. He is purt, and big and fat, he looks just like Jimmy did only he has blue eyes and he ain’t on bit of trouble, only when he gets hungry or wet and then he will fuss as soon as he is tended to he is all right. You said you had been trying for the last six months to get you a boy started, maybe you don’t try at the right time.
You wanted to know what kind of dress to get for the baby, you can get the blue for I have got embroidery that I got and though that I would make a long white dress and I didn’t do it, so I have trimming and when my hens go to laying again I will get the dress. I don’t go to any extra for we are too poor and hard run.
You wanted to know about the house, we have a shed room with partition. On the north end is the coal house and the other I use for to cook in. The coal house is handy, we all have to keep coal and such things shut up or else it will be packed off. Coal ranges all the way from $12 to $8.50 a ton, everything is so dear and everything to buy. I will tell you how we had to do out here last spring, we couldn’t get anything to burn scarcely at all. We would cook one warm meal and cook enough to do all day and go to bed to keep warm. When we moved out to our claim we had our house framed and one end and one side weather boarded so I helped him. It rained and blowed, we fixed the end up with sheeting, tacked the window in, laid some floor in one corner, laid a loft of sheeting and flooring and you bet we had a nice time. I never wrote home how we was doing for I knew it would worry you all. Coal wouldn’t be got at all only once in a while, everything was emigrant.
You wrote you was making so much butter to sell. How much do you get for it? It is 25 cents per pound, eggs 30 cents per dozen, has Sana gone dry? I get about one gallon a day, make plenty of butter and I sold butter last Friday. Bought soda, a broom and several little notions. I came very near losing my cow. She got to the frozen turnips and eat so many that she was swelled so they couldn’t do anything for her. We thought die she would, so they stuck a knife in her and let out the gas and she got well and you bet I felt good to see her getting well again.
December 26
Well how did you spend Christmas and what did you get? I didn’t get anything. I went over to see June and Frank yesterday while Rile went to the store and when I got there they was gone so I went to the store too and got Pa and Ma’s letter with that money in it. Was glad to get it for we needed it, and a letter from Billy and came back home. John came over from Frank’s this morning and said they had a big girl. I had my boy weighed, he weighs 13 pounds and is as sweet as they grow. The hardware man sent him a rattle box.
Rile was at Mike’s last week, they was all well and sold out at Miller and going to move back to the claim this week. It is so cold that I can’t go down there, it turned colder last night in the night.
(no signature)
Several years after Lucinda wrote this touching letter from South Dakota to her sister Sarah and husband Martin, she became quite ill and they quickly attempted to make it back to Iowa for help and the comfort of her family and home. Their little one, Thompson Reuben Mallory born on November 21, 1883 was over a month old when Lucinda wrote her letter two days before Christmas. Baby Thompson was two years and a few months when his mother became ill and they headed back to Iowa. Some records indicate she died in childbirth, but there isn’t any record to support she was pregnant at the time. Likely she became ill with an upper respiratory infection and in the cold harsh environment of South Dakota, the only option was to try and make the journey back home. Sadly she did not survive the trip, and was then buried in Bridges Pioneer Cemetery. Her husband remarried fairly soon after, as was common especially when there was a young child needing a mother.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson short life was filled with the marriage of his wife Mary Emma Robuck where they had three children, Cora Estella, Loyd and Florence. Only Cora survived into adulthood as her baby sister Florence died at only 26 days old and her brother died when he was two. Cora’s mother remarried nearly a year after her father died of pleural pneumonia and inflammation of the bowels and liver. Mary Emma Robuck’s second husband was Harry E. Innskeep and together they raised two boys, Harry and Monte. In 1901, Cora married William Proby Davis and together raised two boys George Fay Davis and James Anderson Davis and a girl named Ruth Elizabeth Davis.
Cora and her husband eventually moved west, settling in Fullerton and Long Beach. Her mother (Mary Emma Robuck Bridges Inskeep) also moved with her husband to Fullerton. Her mother died in November of 1920. Cora stayed in close contact with the Bridges family for her entire life. There are mentions of her in letters written by Sarah, her aunt. Those letters will be shared in context in upcoming posts.
Rachel
Rachel the sixth born child of Thompson and Mary Bridges and their fourth daughter. Unlike most of her siblings, Rachel lived in the Marion County area all of her life. She married Charles Ashley Spaur on December 1, 1866. Their firstborn, a son, Clark Emerick was born on November 23, 1888 and almost reached the century mark when he passed away in 1984. Clarence Michael was born in 1891 followed by a baby girl in November of 1895 who passed away in infancy. Mina Mae was born on June 16, 1896. Her sister Hazel Marie came along on July 5, 1898 with Thompson Anthony born last on June 25, 1900.
Anna
Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie"
Thompson D., JR.
James Irwin
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Back Row L-R: Walter Black, Perry McIntire, Zaccheus “Z.I.” Jones, Ira Clark, James (Jim) Bridges, Thompson D Bridges, Mike Lemmon, Martin McIntire
Middle Row L-R: Myrtle Black holding Irene Lucille Black, Maude McGregor McIntire holding son Kenneth McIntire, Mary Mark Bridges, Anna Bridges Jones, Sarah Bridges McIntire, Nancy Bridges Lemmon, Nellie McIntire Clark, Walter Black’s sister.
Children standing in front row L-R: Floyd Bridges, Florence Bridges.
Four small children in front L-R: Eleanor Ruth Bridges, Harvey McIntire, Mable Bridges and Rodney Black.
As a post script, tackling the massive Bridges family has been an endeavor to tackle for a long time. Unraaveling all the different William, Sarah, and interconnected marriages to other families within their small geography of Marion County, Iowa (Hall, Whitlach, McIntire and so on!), it has deepened my appreciation for the heritage shared with those very kindred families. The many struggles, illnesses and ultimate losses have tugged at my heartstrings. In so doing, my understanding of the family ties has increased many times over. Having been born in Long Beach, California and recalling some of the Bridges family that would gather together when out of town relatives would arrive. Much like those letters from long ago (to be shared Some of the Bridges family also lived in Southern California and I have very vague childhood memories of those gatherings. The food was always amazing and the laughter and love contagious. Although those memories lack detail after my seventy seven years of life,