Clan William: Seaman Asahel Knapp, PhD

Today's story is about Dr. Seaman Asahel Knapp, a nationally well-regarded agriculturist and 
entrepreneur who hailed originally from Rutland County, Vermont and married Munson cousin Maria Hotchkiss. Their children were also high achievers. That descendency is as follows:

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Martha Munson > Loly Doolittle > Hiram Hotchkiss > Maria Hotchkiss m. Seaman A. Knapp

Maria Elizabeth Hotchkiss was born in Washington County, New York to Hiram and Lucina (Pearce) Hotchkiss on 31 Dec 1833. Seaman Asahel Knapp, son of Elisha and Catherine (Wright) Knapp. Seaman was born Schroon, Essex County, New York on 16 Dec 1833. At 16, he attended the Troy Conference Academy (which  later became Green Mountain College). It was while he was here he met and became engaged to Maria Hotchkiss. They both graduated and while Seaman attended Union College, Maria supported them by teaching at Princeton. After graduating from Union College in 1856 (Phi Beta Kappa), he married Maria in 1857. 

The couple both had teaching positions at the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute in Poultney, Vermont. Their first child, George, was born in 1958 but would die in 1862. Seaman would serve as vice president from 1856-1863 and from 1864-1865, he served as assistant manager of the Ripley Female College (Green Mountain College). Beset by a leg injury, which had become infected, his doctor recommended he move West and "follow and outdoor life."

They took the money they received for selling the farm that Maria's father, Hiram Hotchkiss, had given them for a wedding present and headed west, but not before purchasing a few Merino sheep, which along with their two children, Maria and Herman, headed to Iowa.

Iowa School for the Blind
Vinton, Iowa

Once there, Knapp served as a Methodist minister in Vinton, Iowa. According to a family genealogy blog (with a far more detailed and excellent account of Seaman's life), they lost their sheep the first year in Iowa. Things seemed dire. Still suffering with his leg, he was in a wheelchair when he was Superintendent of the Iowa School for the Blind, also in Vinton. According to the same blog, he began reading about agriculture and studied the many problems farmers were experiencing. During this time, he worked hard and ate healthily and was able to walk again without the aid of crutches.

It was then that Seaman, using everything he learned, started a modern hog farm and sold the hogs to other farmers to start their own hog farms. He often wrote about improving efficiency while farming, which was much-needed information for farmers throughout the country. Seaman authored articles for the Farmer's Journal and became an expert on agricultural issues that allowed him to have his speeches published, write in other periodicals, consult with the Department of Agriculture, and become famous in agricultural circles. In 1873, he became the president and founder of the Farmer's Loan and Trust Company in Vinton where farmer's got lower interest and could successfully pay back their loans. The standard loan burden was untenable for farmers on the whole.

While the family was in Vinton, they had three more children, Bradford, Seaman Arthur, and Louise.

He accepted a position to become the head of the agricultural program at the relatively new Iowa Farmer's College and Model Farm in 1879. Curriculum was aligned to be practical and to align with the purpose of the Morrill Act of 1862. 

Iowa was not going to spend any additional money on research funds for the college to expand and strengthen its curriculum, so Seaman wrote several bills to try to get Congress to fund it. Finally, this came to fruition in the Hatch Act of 1887.

He then filled a one-year term as President of the Farmer's College from 1883-1884.

Maria Hotchkiss Knapp

Seaman got his first taste of southern farming in 1884 when he went down to Lake Charles, Louisiana

to look at some land with a number of other Iowans interested in farming the area. Seaman believed that rice would be the perfect crop to grow there. Rice as a cash crop was greatly successful and the area became prosperous. He settled into the Lake Charles area and worked on a number of agricultural projects in the South in the coming years - nearly all with amazing success. 

Included in these was his development of the Farm Agent program in Texas, whereby one man, highly trained in the economics and operational matters of farming of the most modern level, would go out to a group of farmers and instruct them in a practical way how to make improvements and efficiencies. This effort was funded by John D. Rockefeller through the General Education Board in 1902.  Working with George Washington Carver, who was a well-known teacher for African-Americans, he helped develop the same program specifically directed at African-American farmers in the South.

After so many advancements and successes, Seaman went to Washington to lead the Farm Demonstration Work for the Department of Agriculture and the General Education Board. Maria moved with him to Washington.  Seaman furthered his work with the farm agents and extended that program into several states. 

Seaman's last major impact was the start of the boys' corn club - which was an extension of his demonstration model of farm education. It's purpose was to get young boys interested in farming so that farms could continue to produce food for the country. Soon, a similar club system was created for girls. This would be the early foundation of what would become 4-H Clubs. Unfortunately, he would never see the full force of the expansion of this program, nor would he see that his farm agent program would become something much greater with the development of county extension offices throughout the country.

Maria Hotchkiss Knapp died on 08 Jun 1910 in Washington DC after a year's illness. The couple had been married nearly 50 years. Seaman followed her 9 months later on 01 Apr 1911. The couple were buried at the Iowa State Cemetery at Ames, Iowa.

They were parents to some pretty remarkable kids as well:

• Maria would marry Augustus Mayo, one of the directors of the Eiber-Mayo Title Company. In her early life she taught privately and also did church and club work in Lake Charles.
• Dr. Herman Knapp was the Vice President and Treasurer of Iowa State College (formerly the Iowa Farmer's College and Demonstration Farm)
• Dr. Bradford Knapp was President of the Texas Technical College. He had previously been the President of the Alabama Polytechnical Institute in Auburn, President of Oklahaoma A&M College, and Dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Arkansas. He had also practiced law for many years while in Iowa. After his father's death, he succeeded him in the extension work his father had begun.
• Helen Louise Knapp married Dr. Oliver Fay, a noted surgeon in Des Moines. Helen was a great socialite and philanthropic doyenne, throwing glamorous parties and fundraisers. Dr. Fay was previously the president of the Iowa and Polk County Medical Associations. He was also the Chief District Surgeon for the Burlington & Northwestern railroad.

Smith Family: Captain (Ret) Grant Joseph Walker

(1) Grant & Mary Jane Scoles Walker (2) Captain Walker (3) In retirement

I started genealogy late in life. By the time I started most of the people I wanted to talk to had passed
away. In the case of Mary Jane Scoles, a cousin of mine through William Custer Smith, her husband, US Navy Captain Grant J. Walker, was still alive in his 90s with a clear mind and a pleasant way.

I worked through one of his daughters to get an interview with him and I spent about an hour taking him through his life and that of his family.  He told a great story and had a fascinating military life. He was very generous to tell his tale to a complete stranger and I really connected with him.  When I asked him what he was doing these days, he said in a totally self-deprecating way, "Well, I used to play poker, but everyone died."

I learned this week that he passed away at 96, surrounded by his family. 

I will direct you to the published portion of the interview here.

Thank you for your service, Captain Grant, and may you rest in peace.

Captain (Ret) Grant Joseph Walker, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on January 23, 2021.

Grant was born in Ramey, PA to the late Grant Joel Walker and Cecilia Knappage Walker, on December 16, 1925. Grant was preceded in death by his first wife, Mary Jane Scoles Walker; second wife, Dorothy Guyton Walker and brother, Walter Walker. 

Grant’s strong sense of values and his emphasis on family has left a lasting impact on us all. He was survived by 4 daughters, 2 step-children, 10 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, 1 great-great-granddaughter and close friend, Fran Morris. 

Grant had a successful career serving in the U.S. Navy for 33 years and retired in 1976. He attended Pennsylvania State University, Georgia Tech, and Columbia University. 

He instructed at the CIC Officers School in Glenview, IL and at the U.S. Navy War College in Newport, RI. He served aboard the USS Chandeuler (AV-10), USS Rockingham (APA-229), USS Yosemite (AD-19), USS Newport News (CA-148), USS Cecil (DRR-835), and served as the commanding officer of the USS Joseph K. Taussig (DE-1030), USS Waddell (DDG-24) and the USS Coronado (LPD-11). His final tour was Commanding Officer, SURFLANT, Inactive Ships, Norfolk, VA . 

Grant will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and his church family at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church. He was an active member and attended St. Andrew’s for over 50 years. He served in leadership positions, sang in the choir, and was a life member of the United Methodist Men. Grant was also a proud member of Osceola Lodge #515 Free and Accepted Masons of PA. 

Grant’s legacy of love, loyalty, and laughter will live on through all who knew and loved him. A viewing will be held at Smith & Williams Funeral Home, 4889 Princess Anne Rd, Virginia Beach on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, from 5-7:30pm. Due to Covid restrictions, a Celebration of Grant’s Life will take place this summer. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to St. Andrews United Methodist Church, 717 Tucson Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23462. 

Clan William: The Southern Contingent: 1st Corporal Buren Strickland

Watercolor of the battle of Malvern Hill by Sneden 
nps.gov

The Strickland Family as it relates to the Munsons began when Silas Strickland married Olive Marie Munson back in 1829. They moved from Connecticut to Georgia and then Alabama, where they rasied their children. 

Today, the subject is Buren Strickland, who was probably born in Russell County, Alabama. Buren's siblings grew up and married, but Buren stayed with his mother and never married.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > William II Munson > William Munson > Olive Maria Munson > Buren Strickland

On July 1, 1861, he went to war, fighting with the 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment, Company C. The regiment was organized in August 1961 at Fort Mitchell in Alabama. The regiment had 11 companies. According to the National Park Services, the regiment consisted of 900 members from Russell, Barbour, Dale, Henry, Macon and Pike counties into 11 companies. This regiment saw heavy action. It moved from Tennessee to Virgina and then became part of Trimble's Campaign.

Later, it served under the Army of Northern Virginia. Battles included Suffolk, Chickamauga, and
Knoxville. It also fought at Petersburg, Appomattox, Cross Keys, the Second Manassas, Port Republic, and in the Wilderness Campaign. The group took heavy casualties throughout the war. When the unit finally surrendered at Appomattox, it surrendered with a mere 15 officers and 204 soldiers.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/maps/malvern-hill-july-1-1862

"The Seven Days battles ended with a tremendous roar at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862. The contending armies collided for the final time that week on ground that gave an immense advantage to the defenders—in this case McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. With the security of the James River and the powerful United States Navy at his back, McClellan elected to stop and invite battle. 

The Confederates, elated by their victories but frustrated by their inability to achieve truly decisive battlefield results, obliged McClellan by attacking Malvern Hill. The hill itself was a modest elevation about 2 ½ miles north of the James River. Its strength lay not in its height, but rather in its fields of fire. Gently sloping open fields lay in front of the Union position, forcing any Confederate attacks against the hill to travel across that barren ground. 

McClellan unlimbered as much artillery as he could at the crest of the hill, facing in three directions. Nearly 70,000 infantry lay in support, most of them crowded in reserve on the back side of the hill. General Lee recognized the power of Malvern Hill. 

In tandem with James Longstreet, one of his top subordinates, Lee devised a plan where Confederate artillery would attempt to seize control of Malvern Hill by suppressing the Union cannon there. Lee believed his infantry could assault and carry the position if they did not have to contend with the fearsome Union batteries. 

The Confederate bombardment failed, but Lee’s infantry attacked anyway, thrown into the charge after a series of misunderstandings and bungled orders. Lee himself was absent when the heaviest fighting erupted. He was away looking for any alternate route that would allow him to bypass Malvern Hill. But once the attack started, Lee threw his men into the fray. Some twenty separate brigades of Southern infantry advanced across the open ground at different times. 

As the Confederate leaders had feared, the Federal batteries proved dominant. Most attacks sputtered and stalled well short of the hill’s crest. Occasionally McClellan’s infantry, commanded by Fitz John Porter, George Morell, and Darius Couch, sallied forward to deliver a fatal volley or two. Pieces of Confederate divisions led by D. H. Hill, Benjamin Huger, D. R. Jones, Lafayette McLaws, Richard S. Ewell, and W. H. C. Whiting advanced at different times, always without success. General John B. Magruder organized most of the attacks. 

Late in the day, a few Union brigades and some fresh artillery raced to the hilltop in support. But in fact only a small segment of the Army of the Potomac saw action at Malvern Hill. The dominance of the position enabled less than one-third of the Union army to defeat a larger chunk of the Confederate army at Malvern Hill. 

As with each of the other battles during the dramatic week, darkness concluded the action. Malvern Hill had demonstrated the power and efficiency of the Union artillery in particular. Confederate leaders and soldiers alike could look back on poor command and control as the principal cause of their defeat. The casualty totals were more balanced than expected for a battle in which the outcome never was in doubt. Slightly more than 5000 Confederates fell killed and wounded, while roughly 3000 Union soldiers met a similar fate." https://www.nps.gov/rich/learn/historyculture/mhbull.htm

Buren didn't make it through the entire war. He fought at Winchester, Virginia and Creek Stand in early 1862 and was promoted to 1st Corporal on December 1st. In July, he was at Cross Keys in early June of 1862. His last battle was part of the Seven Days Battle, which culminated at Malvern Hill, a win despite the fact the Union took many casualties and the battle didn't advance General McClellan's position at all. 

Buren lost his fight with his injuries on July 7, 1862. He was 23 years old. 

According to the testimony of his surviving siblings, all Buren had was a share of the property on which his mother resided. His mother, O.M. Jackson, received his Confederate pension. The testimony of his sister Mary Strickland Renfroe, was provided to the probate court. Other testimony is available on Ancestry.com

Click images to enlarge

Clan William: The Southern Contingent: The Stricklands

Trail of Tears

Today's story takes us into the Deep South. Not a lot of Munsons headed down south in the early days of pioneering, but headed west. The first big contingent of Munson descendants were descendants of Olive Maria Munson (1801-1866) and became part of a vast family of Southern Stricklands.

The descendancy goes like this:

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > William II Munson > William Munson > Olive Maria Munson m. Silas Strickland

From what I can tell, Silas was born somewhere in New York in 1802. According to the Munson Genealogy, he was "of Connecticut." Silas married Olive in Georgia in 1829. It appears that Silas began farming in Georgia at Youngs Valley, Talbot, Georgia before 1830 (Harrall's Valley). In 1834, Strickland purchased 202.5 acres of land in Talbot County by auction for $361. There is also some indication that Strickland participated with the Hamilton's Co. I of the Georgia Militia in the "Cherokee Wars." Then president Andrew Jackson wanted the land east of the Mississippi for settlement and commerce. To that end, a federal law was passed in 1830 which called for the movement and removal of Indians (Indian Removal Act) from lands east of the Mississippi. Despite the Cherokee leaders calling upon Washington for help, by 1838, the US government started forced removal of the native populations, including the Cherokee in Georgia. Thus began the lamented Trail of Tears a tragedy-filled mass movement of indigenous people.

By 1840, the Stricklands were living in Russell, Alabama. According to the 1840 Census, the household was made up of seven members and they had a whopping nine slaves.

That kind of shocked me. For one, slaves!  Two, you have to be pretty darned well off to hold nine slaves.

That year was also the year that Silas was selected to be a delegate for the Democratic Party for the State Meeting during the election year.

Silas wasn't long for this world though, and died in 1841 in Russell County. He left five living children and his wife, Olive Munson Strickland. 

Olive remarried to Carter Jackson in 1845. I have found nothing of note about him except he was 80 years old in 1860 and she 59. She was obviously not listed with him in the 1880 Census, when she lived with family at Warrior Stand, Macon County, Alabama. She died on 02 Nov 1886.

This is merely a launching point to learning more about our Alabama Munson connection. You can read about the death of youngest Strickland son Buren's Civil War death here. Stay tuned for more.

Apppointment of Delegates

Clan William: The Brilliant Scientist William Webster Hansen

Today's subject is the brilliant scientist, William Webster Hansen. A member of Clan William he descends in this way:

The Forthcamp Ave Neighborhood

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Martha Munson > Reuben Doolittle > Ormer Doolittle > Caroline Doolittle > Lydia Webster > Laura Gillogly > William Webster Hansen m Elisabeth "Betsy" Ross

William Webster Hansen was born to William George Hansen, son of a Danish immigrant, and hardware sales manager and his wife, Laura Gillogly, daughter of Rev James Lee Gillogly and wife Lydia Lucelia Webster on 27 May 1909 in Fresno, California. William had one sibling; a brother, James L Hansen (1917-1993).

Fresno High completed in 1889

William grew up at 735 Forthcamp Ave in the Lower Fulton-Van Ness neighborhood of Fresno. In the early 1900s, the neighborhood was full beautiful homes and cottages which were nearby the new trolley line. William excelled in school and graduated from Fresno High School at the age of 15. Following  high school, he attened Fresno Technical School for a year before winning the Dickey scholarship and moving on to attend Stanford University. He was elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma XI, the two highest national honor fraterntieis. Nearing graduation, he was then picked up as an instructor in the theory of electro magnetism and electrical measurements for the coming year. He received his PhD from Stanford in 1932 in Physics.After three years as an instructor at Stanford, he was awarded a National Research Council fellowship to MIT to continue his research.  He received a second fellowship in 1934 and his work at MIT also extended to work at Princeton University.

He returned to Stanford after his fellowship as an associate professor. And in 1938, he was finally able to focus on his personal life. He married a longtime friend, Miss Elisabeth "Betsy" Ross, of Palo Alto. She was the daughter of the late Dr. Perley Ason Ross, professor of physics at Stanford. Miss Ross had completed her junior year at Stanford when the unplanned marriage took place at Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 1942, he was appointed to a full professorship at Stanford.  World War II was raging and the physics team was working full-throttle for the war effort. 

Describing the work he did theyears from 1943-1949, the following is currently posted on the Stanford website and shows that his work was of critical importance:

The Middle 1930's through the 1960's

Encouraged initially by Enrico Fermi to do experimental physics because, among other things, it was "fun," in 1938 Bloch (in collaboration with Luis Alvarez) made the first experimental measurement of the magnetic moment of the neutron, marking the beginning of the work for which he is perhaps best known.

By the end of the Second World War, Bloch, working with Bill Hansen and Martin Packard, had succeeded in observing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in condensed matter by the method of nuclear induction. For these discoveries, and the discoveries made with this technique, Bloch shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics with Harvard's Edward Purcell.

It was Stanford's first Nobel Prize. NMR has since become the most important spectroscopic technique in chemistry and biology, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an imaging technique based upon it, is considered the greatest advance in medical imaging since the discovery of X-rays in 1895.

In the late 1930s, Research Associates Russell and Sigurd Varian, working in collaboration with their mentor, Professor Bill Hansen, invented the klystron, a high-power microwave source and amplifier. The klystron was rapidly developed during World War II for use in radar, navigation, and blind-landing devices for aircraft.

But Hansen, whose own contribution to the klystron was the resonant cavity called a rhumbatron, was interested in using the klystron for the acceleration of particles. And by 1947 he had built the first linear electron accelerator, the Mark I, which accelerated electrons to 6 MeV.

Then, just four years later, Edward Ginzton and Marvin Chodorow completed the Mark III, a 1-GeV electron accelerator. It was the Mark III that allowed Robert Hofstadter to study the charge and magnetic structure of nuclei and nucleons, work that earned him the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Hansen's work has continued to be highly fruitful. In 1967, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), a national facility designed to hold a new two-mile accelerator, was completed and running, and nine years later, Stanford's Burton Richter shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the Psi/J-particle. In 1988, Mel Schwartz, a long-time member of the department, shared the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the muon neutrino, though this work had been done earlier at Brookhaven. Then, in 1990, Dick Taylor shared the Nobel Prize for his studies of deep inelastic scattering, which showed the existence of point-like objects in nucleons, now recognized as quarks. In 1995, Martin Perl won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of a new elementary particle known as the tau lepton.  https://physics.stanford.edu/our-history

On 10 Aug 1947, the Hansen's welcomed their only child, Peter Ross Hansen. Fate would not be kind as the infant died on 28 Sep 1947. 

Just two years later, on 23 May 1949, Dr. Bill Hansen died at the age of 39.  He died of a lung condition and pneumonia. Colleagues attributed his illness to overwork. 

Click to enlarge

The sadness doesn't end quite yet with this story. His wife, Betsy, moved to a Greenwich Village apartment in New York in August of 1949, just three months after his death. She was attending New York University and was a student in Bellevue Hospital's physio rehab program. After a neighbor had seen Betsy's car parked on the street for three days, she entered the apartment to find Betsy dead of an apparent pellet rifle shot. 

The note she left said: "...I know this a cowardly thing to do. But the bottom's fallen out since the death of Peter and Bill..." She was 32 and left a mother and sister behind. 

Clan William: Charles Monson & the Wild Ride, Part 2

 

Yesterday, I told the story of the brief and tumultuous marriage of Charles Monson Jr and Sara Cowen. Today, I'm dedicating an entire post to the last ten years of Sara's life.

Sara inherited quite a sum of money.  And over the course of the years from 1911-1921, she spent an amazing amount of money on her lavish lifestyle.  She was left over $100,000 in trust at the death of her father. Her mother didn't have the best of luck with money and was forced to declare bankruptcy before her death in 1912. Some reports at the time claimed Sara burned through $2.5 million dollars, but I just didn't find any evidence of this kind of money. She also had developed a severe drug problem - opiates, which was then, the drug of choice for the upper class set.

Sara lived the next 10 years in the Hotel de France in New York City, despite the fact she had inherited the family mansion in Baltimore.  

The pull of opiates was strong, and though she tried over and over to be free of her addiction, she was never successful and returned to drugs. 

She gave one last valiant last try in May of 1921, when Sara decided to take up nursing as a profession. She entered the New York Post Graduate and Medical Hospital, allied with Bellevue hospital, as a student nurse. It was reported she hoped to kill her desire for drugs by throwing herself into the 12-hour shifts required of nursing.  In late July 1921, Sara left the Hotel de France and checked in at the Hotel Maryland on W 49th Street in the Tenderloin of Manhattan with a man who was identified as her chaffeur. They registered as Mr & Mrs S. Cowen.  Reports say the couple left the hotel shortly after checking in. Sara returned at 5 am Saturday morning, 31 Jul 21. Her companion returned two hours later to find Sara unresponsive on the floor.

A physician, Dr. J T Carriva, who resided in the hotel, entered the room and found Sara dead. He reported that on the table near her, were two glasses containing a brownish fluid and the other a white liqued. A package of white powder was beside the glasses. Dr. Carriva believed these items to be drugs. He phoned the police and her body was sent to the New York City morgue, where it remained, unclaimed until a nephew eventually claimed the body. The cause of death was morphine overdose.

The chaffeur had run out of the hotel after the physician arrived, but did make himself available to the police at a later date. He stated he was married and did not want to get involved in the mess in which he found himself.

"Her death recalled to these friends memories of big dinner and theatre parties she had given at prominent hotels, where lavishness was the watchword. Some of the guests at them remembered that there came a time when her popularity began to wane.

She had lost money, they said, in Wall Street, at the races, and in purchasing drugs to appease a desire which rapidly became a craving. Her once-plentiful money rapidly dwindling, she began to pawn her jewels and costly clothes to pay for drugs..

There are those who say some of her friends were friends in name only, and that they could account for much of Miss Cowen's m oney. The last year and a half of her life was a constant battle to overcome the drug habit - a battle she waged in Brooklyn, where a prominent woman in Brooklyn aided her in her losing fight...

...Miss Cowen, the police believe, is one of many girls of prominent families who have  become drug addicts and creatures of the underworld. Their downfall, the police assert, can in nearly every case be traced to the use of narcotics given them be girl friends or by men who were planning to rob them of their money.

At police headquarters, the criminal record of Miss Cowen was found yesterday. Her picture was among thosein Dr. Carleton Simon's Narcotics Division. Miss Cowen had first been arrested on Jan 22, 1918, on the charge of having narcotics in her possession, and was placed on probation. In Jan 1919, she was again arrested and this time was again arrested, and this time sent to Blackwell's Island  Asylum (now Roosevelt's Island) to get relief from her addiction. She was released on 9 Nov 1919. --Daily News, New York, New York 02 Aug 1921, Tue, pg 3

Sara had come a long way from her early debutante days when she was crowned, "The Oriole City's most beautiful bud." Her society connections, for the most part, did not attend her funeral. Though a loyal group of friends made up the meager 50 guests at the funeral in Baltimore. She was interred near her mother in Aiken, South Carolina. Sara was 33 at the time of her death.

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.