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Thursday, September 27, 2007

ORPHA

Her name appears on the 1860 Census of the Town of Upton,
County of Oxford, State of Maine at the end of the list of names in
John Cutter West’s family.


Orpha Reynolds. 18 F. Further over on the line it states she was
born in Maine.


She is a bit of an enigma in my genealogy research,



There aren’t any other Reynolds listed on the census in Upton
that year so her family might have been living elsewhere. Perhaps
she was a hired woman who helped Arvilla Ames West run the
household, for Arvilla was now fifty years of age and while most
of her children were grown, she still had 9 year old Ruth and 6
year old David to care for. Ruth in particular might have been
challenging; she was listed as an “idiot” on the 1860 census and
would have perhaps needed more supervision. (19th Century
terminology for intelligence levels differ, I think, from modern
assessment. I’ve no way of knowing how mentally impaired Ruth
might have been by today’s standards.)


At any rate, Orpha lived with the West family, one of whom was
the 26 year old Jonathan Phelps West. I cannot say how or when
they fell in love since I don’t know of any letters or diaries by
either of them that might shed some light on their courtship.

The couple married on October 20, 1861.


A little over two months later, their marriage would come to an
end.



During the year 1861 diphtheria raged throughout the area but
up until now it had not touched the West family. Now it struck it
hard. It could have come to the family from a guest invited to the
wedding who wasn’t as yet displaying the full symptoms of the
disease.



Orpha Viette Reynolds West died on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31st,
1861. She was 19 years old.


David Pingree West died on Jan. 17th , 1862

Ruth Ellen West died on Jan. 26th.

16 year old Arvilla Electa West died on Feb. 6th.

Older brother Asa Atwood West lost two of his children to the
disease as well:

8 year old Arvilla died on Feb. 18th.

2 year old Anna Pearl on Feb. 20th.

Another grandchild died in March, but cause of death is not given.

So by Spring of 1862 Jonathan Phelps West had lost a brother,
two sisters, two nieces, and his bride Orpha to the epidemic. And
that Summer he lost his father as John Cutter West passed away
at the age of 59.


I cannot begin to imagine how Jonathan could have coped with
such losses in so short a time. But he did.


He did what generations of New Englanders before and after him
have done: he survived and got on with life.


Three years later, on Jan.31st, 1865,Jonathan married Louisa
Almata Richardson. They would have four sons, the second of
whom was my great grandfather Philip Jonathan West.


I of course would not be sitting here typing this had Jonathan not
lost his first wife Orpha and later married Louisa. But still I
cannot help but feel sympathy for him. I wonder if he ever looked
back at his memories of that October wedding? It took place after
harvest time on a farm, so was wherever it took place decorated to
celebrate both the wedding and Harvest?


Did Jonathan revisit that memory with a smile or did the
knowledge of what came after make it too painful?


And did he ever wonder what life might have been like if he had
not lost his Orpha?

10 comments:

Chris said...

I believe that Orpha was the daughter of Simeon Otis and Ruhamah (Ames) Reynolds, which would make her a first cousin of Jonathan Phelps West. An Orpha V. Reynolds, 9, b. Maine, was living with Simeon and Ruhamah in Bethel in 1850.

Terry Thornton said...

Bill, What a sad story. When one visits a cemetery and sees one family member after another buried side by side only days or weeks apart in death, one knowns that some dread scourge such as diphtheria was rampant. Earlier epidemics of diphtheria in New England (around 1840) were said to have killed up to 80% of all children under age 10 years. Well done story of Orpha and Jonathan --- and one I will remember and think about.
Terry Thornton
Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi

Emerald said...

Reynolds hm? I know of a certain Marylander who has Reynolds roots :)

Bill West said...

Dang Chris! I have Simeon and
Ruhamah in my files but hadn't added their children yet. This is why I need to keep plugging away at
my ancestors siblings and their
descendants!

Thanks!

Bill West said...

Thanks, Terry.

It's hard to imagine how people were able to cope with tragedies like this. Harder still to realize there are places in the world where living peopleare dealing with similiar ones today.

Bill West said...

Hmm, Em.
Don't think the bloodlines got that far South.

And I only know of one firedragon!

Janice said...

Bill,

Just keep posting your mysteries, and your cousin Chris will keep solving them LOL.

That will teach me to not read the comments first.. I went hunting for Orpha and came to the same conclusion that Chris did.

Janice

Bill West said...

Thanks for trying,too Janice!

I'm grateful for any and all help
I can get from all of you folks.

I'm still pretty much a newbie at
this compared to the rest of you
guys!

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

Such a tragic story. I don't know how families coped with such losses.

Pam Carter said...

A comment on the term idiot - early in the classification of intelligence (around 1910) an idiot would score 0-20 on an IQ scale. Such a person would not be functional enough to marry and raise children, even with assistance. So given the date of the census and the profound level of disability the label was used to describe after the advent of IQ testing, it has to be a term used as loosely then as it is today.