From Roberta Medina (email 12 Dec 2004):

...this is Ruhama at 71 years old. It says she was 71 on May 31 no year & died June 4 no year. It also say she has man's hair at her death so I'm taking that to possible mean she has a wig.

Picture probably taken while she was either visiting or living with her daughter, Hattie, in San Jose.

Her unusal first name is often listed as Ruhana or Ruhama in various documents and by family members. Ruhamy is the name used in her 1891 land grant in Arroyo Seco, and was the name used by the Salinas branch of the family in the "Card of Thanks" at her death.

Listed with her husband and family as Ruhama in the 1850 Census for Bates Co., MO, living in District No. 6, dwelling #234 (a complete census listing under her husband's page).

She left Pleasant Gap, Missouri in 1853 and came to Santa Rosa by ox-driven wagon, with her husband Harrison, in the Hagans-Cockrill immigration.

In the 1860 Census record for Santa Rosa Township (Santa Rosa Post Office), Sonoma County, CA, there is a listing at dwelling #135, for Ruhana Cockrill, age 36, bp. TN, as the head of the household with "Housewifery" listed as her occupation. Enumerated with her are, Bruce Cockrill, a. 15, bp. KY; Charles Cockrill, a. 13, bp. MO; Mary Cockrill, a. 11, bp. MO; Eliza Cockrill, a. 6, bp. CA; Jenetta Cockrill, a. 4, bp. Nevada Territory.

Enumerated in the 1870 Census for Alisal Township, Monterey Co., as Ruhamy Grant and living with her son, Charles Cockrill. Her daughter, listed as Hattie Grant, was also living in this household.

A deed recorded in Sonoma County Deeds Book 61 Page 48, lists her with her children and heirs to her husband's estate, as grantors selling six lots between 1st and 2nd Streets in downtown Santa Rosa (in the Chinatown area) to Richard Fulkerson.

According to the Illustrated History of Sonoma County (The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago: 1889) biography on Stephen T. Fulkerson, Ruhamy had married a Henry A. Grant, who died, and lived in Monterey Co. However, the 1880 Census shows her living in Stephen T. Fulkerson's household with her daughter Amanda, as Ruhana Grant, age 58.

There is a Cockrill family story told to me by Dr. Baker, which says that Ruhamy left her abusive second husband and that she went to live with Henry Beaver's family in Salinas. Ruhana's two sons appear in the 1870 Census for Alisal Township, in the general area though not "next-door" to Henry Beaver's household. Though Ruhana appears to have been also living with her son, Charles, in Alisal in 1870, she appears to have returned to Santa Rosa, an was living there with her daughter, Amanda, in the 1880 Census. Henry Beaver left the Salinas area sometime before 1880, lived near Fresno for a short period of time, and then on to Kings County, where he passed away in 1881.

It is not clear when Ruhamy returned to Monterey County or if she moved back and forth between Amanda in Sonoma and the rest of her children in Monterey. Her youngest daughter by James Cockrill, Jeanette, married into the large Bardin family in Salinas in 1873. Ruhana's other two daughters, Mary Milvina and Eliza Livina had gotten married in Sonoma County, a year or two before, and probably moved to Monterey county by the mid 1870's.

Ruhamy applied for a Land Patent in Monterey County in 1892, where it was stated that she had lived in that county since April 1887. Her application papers also indicated that Henry Grant had "abandoned" her, and she then went to live in Monterey on her own. Grant was murdered in Los Gatos in January of 1887 (and was living alone at that time). It appears that they had been separated at least as early as 1870, since she appears to have been living (along with her daughter by Grant) at her son's place in Alisal by then. It is somewhat doubtful though that she actually lived with the Beaver family. It is also unclear that she was actually living permanently in Monterey county before 1887 since she shows up in Santa Rosa in 1880. It is more likely, that she finally moved to Monterey because her sons had found land to homestead land there in 1883.

Besides her sons, her son's (Robert) widow, Mary E. Cockrill, her daughter's (Mary Milvina), husband, Andrew Foster, and her granddaughter's husband, Thomas Joy, also homesteaded land in the same Township 19 South, Range 5 East which is along the Arroyo Seco in Monterey County. From family stories it appears that the descendants of the Cockrill family eventually owned all the land from the west of their farms on the Arroyo (in the vicinity of Soledad) all the way to the coast. Some of this land still remains in the possession of the descendants of these families.

From Roberta Medina (email 12 Dec 2004):

...taken by L. A. Rendall, in Santa Rosa, CA. all it says on the back is Mam, Pap & Hattie.

Ruhamy's date of marriage to Harrison Cockrill and date of death obtained from family bible information transcribed by Effie Joy.

Her marriage to Henry Grant and the names of their two children is from the Bardin family list, "Information Concerning the Family of Mrs. Jesse Bardin as told to Winifred (Bardin) Reidmiller by Nancy (Beaver) Maddock."

From an unlabeled clipping (Salinas Index-Journal ?) obtained from Rebecca Cockrill:

Card of Thanks

We desire to take this means of thanking our neighbors and friends most sincerely for their many acts of kindness and helpfulness during the final sickness and at the death and burial of our beloved mother, Ruhamy Grant. The tender words of sympathy spoken in our bereavement have touched a tender chord in our hearts, never to be forgotten.

Charles Cockrill,

Mrs. John McGuire,

Mrs. Jesse Bardin,

Mrs. Hattie Ballard.