Pre-Clan Munson: Tuttle Madness and Mayhem

Reenactment of settler colony

CAPT THOMAS MUNSON > HANNAH MUNSON m. Joseph Tuttle

This tale is of one of the two daughters of Capt Thomas Munson, Hannah Munson. She married into the storied Tuttle family of Massachusetts.

Hannah was the youngest child of Capt Thomas Munson, one of the earliest citizens of the New Haven Colony and a signator of the Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony signed in 1639 and 1640. Hannah's future father-in-law, immigrant William Tuttle was also a signator. 

On 02 May 1667, Joseph Tuttle married Hannah in New Haven. His parents, William and Elizabeth, had come from England in 1635 on the ship Planter. I'm not quite sure Hannah knew what she was getting into marrying into this family, but she had at least nine children by Joseph. Joseph came from a large family, including sisters Mercy, Elizabeth, and brother Benjamin. 

Hannah's brother-in-law Benjamin got into a huge argument with his older sister Sarah, wife of John Slauson, on 17 Nov 1676. Benjamin shouted at her about her behavior from years before when Sarah and a young man were fined for kissing by the local magistrate. The story was somewhat longer, but it was scandalous to touch each other and oh, my goodness, kiss in those Puritan days. Was it a temper tantrum or madness that caused Benjamin to grab an ax and strike his sister until she was dead. Sarah left a baby girl and a bereft husband. Benjamin was tried and executed on 16 Jun 1677.

Sister Elizabeth married Richard Edwards in 1667. It is reported that the couple was fined because their first child arrived before the requisite nine months. The couple had many more children but after 20 years of marriage, Richard began to plan on a divorce.  He apparently discovered the first child was not his. He filed divorce and it was granted. Elizabeth was said to have gone mad and disappeared from the area, whereabouts and disposition unknown.

Mercy had married Samuel Brown of Wallingford in 1667 and they had children, included Samuel Brown, Jr. On 23 Jun 1691, Mercy inexplicably took an ax and struck her son three times in the head. He lingered some six days before succumbing to his injuries. At trial, the husband denied there was any sign of mental illness in Mercy, but neighbors and even Brown's son Joseph had seen odd behavior and language for some time before the murder. She was, however, found guilty and not insane at trial in Oct 1691 and was sentenced to death. Fortunately for Mercy, a strange confluence of events occurred, and she was saved from the executioner. She survived until at least 1695, most likely in a madhouse.

Watsonville Business District

Generations would pass and the Tuttles would survive and thrive. If there were further incidents, they were not saved for posterity. Some Tuttles moved to Morris, New Jersey and then on to Washington County, Pennsylvania, and then to Richland County, Ohio. 

Daniel Tuttle and his wife, Phebe Case, were married 21 Nov 1786 in Washington County, Pennsylvania. They had at least seven children, including son Hiram. Hiram and his family went west Iowa, settling in Van Horn County. 

Several of the Hiram Tuttle children went on to California and practiced in their various occupations. 

Morris Burns Tuttle hit the Pajaro Valley and purchased 300 acres and began raising fruit trees and farming hops for beer with one of his brothers. The Pacific Ocean has only the Santa Cruz Mountains between our Tuttles and the surf.

Morris Tuttle Mansion

Brother Iowa Tuttle also joined this endeavor. He was married with children. According to his brother Morris, he had talked about suicide before, so when Iowa did commit suicide in one of the outbuildings on the Morris Tuttle Mansion grounds in 1913, it was reportedly no surprise to Morris. Iowa loved his wife and children and many did not think his financial woes rose to the level of suicide. The thing was, Iowa had been shot twice in the head. The police talked to Morris quite seriously because  it was mighty odd that Iowa was able to fire two bullets into his head before dying, making it all quite suspicious. In the end, Iowa's death was declared a suicide by the coroner. Whether that had anything to do with Morris' affluence, we will never know.

Finally, cousin William Tuttle came down to Santa Cruz County from Rocklin, California in 1911 to stay in Morris' carriage house while he worked out his marital difficulties with his wife Hazel. Hazel was his first cousin and the couple had been wildly in love - at least until their marriage. It was downhill from there, despite the fact they were new parents of daughter Alice. William, a former employee of Southern Pacific railroad, had been unemployed for months. As the New Year of 1912 loomed, he returned home from Santa Cruz County, bought the baby some belated Christmas presents, talked to his wife in the kitchen, and after following her to the bedroom, shot her dead with two shots to the heart. He then shot himself. The baby was found unharmed.

Morris built a beautiful mansion in in south Santa Cruz County in 1899 that still exists today as a private residence. There are those who say the mansion is filled with the ghosts of Iowa and all the Morris Tuttle descendants who would die tragically young. 

Sources:

1. Babe Smiles at Tragedy, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, 31 Dec 1911, p 6
2. Trainman Kills Wife and Self, Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, 30 Dec 1911, p 1
3. Divorce, Murder, and Madness: The Puritan Tuttles of New Haven Colony, New England Historical Society, 2017
4. Tuttle Mansion: a haunted piece of history, The Pajoronian, by Johanna Miller, 30 Oct 2017
5. Haunted Santa Cruz, by Marianne Porter, History Press, 2016
6. Biography of William Tuttle, Access Genealogy
7. Had Threatened Suicide Before Saturday's Act, Santa Cruz Evening News, 30 Jun 1913, Mon, p 2
8. Widow of Late Iowa Tuttle is Left the Estate, Santa Cruz Evening News, 23 Jul 1913, Wed, p 1
9. A Brutal Murder, Ava Chamberlain, NYU Press, 2012

Clan William: Charles Monson Jr. & the Wild Ride, Part 1

Charles Monson Jr. was a member of Clan William of the Capt Thomas Munson family; the clans 
are made up of the great grandchildren of Thomas. I'll be highlighting various stories of interest from the branches of that clan over the coming stories.

For clarity, here is the descendancy of the subject of this story: Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > William Munson II > William Munson > William Munson Jr > Charles Monson > Charles Monson Jr m (1) Sara Cowen (2) Rae Adae Battersby

The subject of our story was the son of prominent and very wealthy dry goods store owner, Charles Monson. The senior Monson operated The Charles Monson Co., one of the largest dry goods store operators in the New England area. His children grew up in the lap of luxury. Young Charles Monson, Jr. attended Yale University and belonged to Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. In 1904 was made the Secretary of The Charles Monson Company. 

One day in 1909, Charles Jr. got a call from his best friend, Townsend Miller, who at the time resided in the Hotel Patterson in New York City. Miller recounted that not too long previously, he met the most amazing woman by name of Sara Campbellina Cowen, of Baltimore. Sara's father was the late John Kissig Cowen, former president of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad. The Cowen family was extremely wealthy and Sara was left with a very large trust fund. 

All is Fair in Love and War
Monson's friend Miller told Monson he had won fair lady's heart and he wanted Monson to meet his love. Monson did meet Sara and over the next two months met Sara over and over, without Miller. One day, Miller called him and said, "Look here, Charley, I'm desperately in love with Sara and want to marry her, but my mother says I am too young. What would you advise?"

Monson told Miller he agreed with Miller's m other and believed Sara would not suit Miller as a marital prospect. 

Days later, on 28 Apr 1910, Monson and Sara eloped into the "Little Church Around the Corner" and were married. Miller was not present. 

The couple were both popular in the circles of the young people of society who liked the nightlife. It was probably during this time Sara experimented with drugs. The couple moved to Tacoma, Washington and lived there when Charles Monson Sr died about a year later in New Haven on 30 Apr 1910. The couple returned to the New York City/New Haven area for the funeral, but returned to Seattle afterwards. The marriage had devolved to such a state, she told friends in Dec 1910 she planned to divorce. She began commuting back and forth from New York to Seattle because during the divorce process, she could not leave the area for more than 10 days at a time.  She accused her husband of chronic drunkeness and abandonment. Charles admitted to the judge the allegations were true via letter, and the divorce was granted. 

In 1912, Charles Monson Jr would marry divorcee Rae Battersby Adae on 01 Oct 1912. Rae's father A.
H. Battersby was Secretary of the Brighton Beach Racing Association and horseman who lived at 12 Shore Road in Brookly district 31, Bay Ridge. She had  previously been married to Charles Flamen Adae, ten years her senior. Rae went to Reno to secure her divorce on 22 Sep 1912.

The two lived a fairly quiet life, with Charles dying in 1956 and Rae in 1974. Sara, Monson's first wife, did not live a quiet life following her divorce from Monson.

Sara Cowen's life went on a heady downward spiral unmatched by most heiress standards. See Part 2 tomorrow.

Thomas Munson & The Thomas Munson Foundation

My great-great grandmother Mary Jane Munson Smith was part of an absolutely gigantic family of

Munson's signature of the
founders of New Haven is
fifth down on the left

Munsons that started with Capt Thomas Munson, the first emigrant. Munson came originally from Rattlesden, England and became one of the founders of New Haven, Connecticut.

From the Thomas Munson Foundation website: 

"The first appearance of Thomas Munson (1612-1685) in America is recorded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1637 as a member of the militia unit engaged in the Pequot Indian War. He signed the Fundamental Agreement at New Haven Colony (dated 1639) prior to April 1640 and established his permanent home. His life and actions are well documented in The Munson Record, Volume I and the Connecticut colony records.

The evidence is persuasive that the Thomas Munson who was recorded as being baptized in St. Nicholas Church in Rattlesden, County Suffolk, England on September 13, 1612, was the same man who later distinguished himself in the public affairs of colonial New Haven. The principal tie is the age listed on his gravestone… aged 73 years, which links well with the baptismal record.

The Church records document that the Thomas Munson of Rattlesden was the son of John and Elizabeth Munson. John was baptized 14 October 1571 and was buried 26 November 1650. Elizabeth was buried 3 January 1634/5. John was the son of Richard and Margery (Barnes) Munson. Richard was buried at Rattlesden on 3 December 1590, while Margery was buried there 7 February 1622/3. (The Munson Family of County Suffolk, England, and New Haven, Connecticut, Milton Rubincam, The American Genealogist, January 1941.) Thomas Munson of Hartford and New Haven married Joanna. This marriage produced 3
children (generation 2): Elizabeth, Samuel, and Hannah. Generation 2 produced 19 generation 3 descendants (grandchildren of Thomas and Joanna); Generation 3 produced 66 great-grandchildren of Thomas and Joanna (generation 4).

From the beginning of TMF, a “Clan-based” structure was recognized. Originally, each TMF Clan was understood to consist of all identified linear descendants of Thomas and Joanna through male lines; as Clan Head was the great-grandson in that line; the Clan bore his Name. 17 such Clans were recognized. Obviously, many lines from Thomas and Joanna were overlooked in this structure: the descendants of Elizabeth (generation 2) and Hannah (generation 2) as well as all the female lines in later generations. In 2008, TMF broadened the definitions to recognize descendancy traced through all the great-grandchildren of Thomas and Joanna. Thus were identified as many as 43 potential new Clans. To date, descendants in 7 of these have been located and their new clans have been activated. Listed on this website is the current list of 24 Clans."

The early Munson's lived in New Haven. Here's a neat image of where the early Munson's lived in town:

I am from Clan William. I have purchased the first two volumes of The Thomas Munson Genealogy and though Clan William is completely left out of Vol II, enough information was available in Vol I to help keep my efforts going. Clan William seems to have a lot of people who moved West early on, which could account for the genealogy not being able to keep up with their movements while Vol II was being prepared. I'm awaiting Vols III-V to see where I've gotten it right/wrong/or where the genealogy document needs some help. 

There are well over a million living descendants of Thomas Munson living in the US today. Wow!