17 September 2010

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

Under partly sunny skies, eight of us gathered at the cemetery for our monthly workday. Regional Parks provided their usual welcome support of the tool trailer and dump truck. Most of us were engaged in clearing the paths of debris and obstacles, as well as in removing debris / vines that were obscuring stones. We also reset several footstones. Conditions were perfect for us, with a light breeze to keep us cool while we worked. As you can see from the last attached picture, we left the cemetery looking absolutely lovely.

In last month's recap, I continued the story of Francis Leah McReynolds Ogan Simons (seemed to go by Leah), wife of DPV Ogan and secondly, John S Simons. Last month I had no information on what happened to her after 1875. One of our industrious 'Friends' (many thanks, Sam!) followed up on Leah for us and sent me further census information.

To repeat just a bit of the history, Leah was born in Virginia (or by some census records MO) probably in 1845 (could be 1844). Her father was native Virginian, John McReynolds, a gold digger and later a farmer. Leah's mother died young, and by 1850 John, Leah, and her two brothers were living with John's parents in Missouri (Jacob McReynolds and Anna Christina Miller McReynolds) where they are all listed in the 1850 census. Leah's father, John, went by overland trail to California in 1850 in search of gold, leaving Leah and her brothers with their grandparents. John came back to Missouri at some point, and then left again in 1852/1853 bringing the family to Sonoma County. October 1853 John married Olivia Goldsmith Cockrill in Bloomfield, Sonoma County. Olivia died in July of 1856, six months after having a son, Henry. John married thirdly Martha Buggs in 1856 and went on to have 6 more children by this union.

When Leah was just 16 or 17 years old she married DPV Ogan (a local school teacher and farmer). By June of 1872 when DPV Ogan died, Leah was 27 or 28, had delivered at least 6 children of which 3 died before the age of 3 and were buried at Spring Hill. She married John S Simons in Santa Rosa in 1873, had another son who died at birth in 1874, and one more son in 1875. At this point I could find no further mention of Leah in Sonoma County.

'Friend" Sam was able to find Leah in the 1880 census in Butte City, Deer Lodge, Montana living with her husband, John, who was then a miner; 3 children by DPV OGAN (Kitty 18, Amy 11, and Davie 9); plus 2 more children by husband John (Willie 4, Eva 2). The 1900 census shows Leah still living in Montana with John, and with 3 Simons children (Guy Mc 19, John H 17, and Olive S 14). In 1910 Leah 66 and husband, John 67, had moved to Seattle Ward 3, King, Washington. Her husband was then listed as a contractor and builder. Also living in the household were daughter Emma (Amy?) Ogan 41, and Olive Worthington 24 married with no children. The 1910 census states that our Leah had had 13 children (6 Ogan and 7 Simons) with 7 of them still living. I found Leah's son, David V Ogan, in the 1920 census living in Jefferson Co, Montana, and a farmer with a wife, son and daughter. I could not find Leah or her husband John in 1920, but it would seem that from Leah's fairly tragic start in life, she went on to a fairly long life in which she had 7 healthy children, and at least 2 Ogan grandchildren -- and after a short first marriage, did have a long second one.

Please note that our next workday is scheduled for October 8th, weather permitting! Originally we had planned the date later in the month, but rescheduled it due to a Regional Park's conflict with our original date.

Please come join us if you can. There are only two more workdays left in 2010: October 8 and November 19th.