Josiah Cutler (abt. 1795 - abt. 1881)

Born about 1795 in District of Maine, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Sally Jane (Hanscom) Cutler — married 27 Mar 1820 in Mount Vernon, Kennebec, Maine, United States

Husband of Sarah (Bailey) Cutler — married about 1822 in Maine, United States [uncertain]

Died about 4 Jun 1881 at about age 86 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Stuart Bloom [send private message]

Biography

Birth

Josiah Cuitler born at Lewiston, Maine (then in Massachusetts) on 25 Feb 1791, the son of Nathan Cutler (1755-1827) and Ruth Nelson.^[1]

Marriage or Marriages and Children

Josiah Cutler married Sally Jane Hanscom on 27 Mar 1820, and he probably married, second, a Sarah Bailey. He recorded four children between 1821 and 1827. See the Research Note below for a discussion of his marriage or marriages and a list of the children, with sources.

Residences

Josiah Cutler was a resident of Lewiston, Maine, where he had been born, when he recorded the birth of his daughter Sally there in February 1821.^[2] By the birth of his second child in 1823,^[3] he had moved to that section of Livermore, Maine, that was set aside as the town of East Livermore in 1844 (and renamed Livermore Falls in 1930). In the 1850 Census, Josiah Cutler was living with his son Josiah and his daughter-in-law Love Cutler, both age 26, at East Livermore, with his age shown as 55 and his birthplace as Maine.^[4] By 1870, the Cutler family had moved to Chicago, Illinois, and Josiah Cutler Sen., age 79, born in Maine, was shown living there in the household of Josiah and Love Cutler, ages 47 and 46 respectively, with three children, ages 6 to 15.^[5] His whereabouts in 1880 are unknown; the census of that year doed not shown living with his son's family in Chicago,^[6] nor is he found elsewhere in the census.

Death

An entry in the BillionGraves.com website says that Josiah Cutler, who was born on 22 Feb 1791, died on 4 Jun 1881 and is buried at the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.^[7]

Research Note

On 27 Mar 1820, Josiah Cutler married Salley Hanscom at Mount Vernon, Maine.^[8] The vital records of Livermore, Maine, show in the "Record of the family of Josiah Cutler and Sally [illegible] his wife" four children born between 1821 and 1827:^[3]

1. Sally Jane Hanscomb Cutler, born on 20 Feb 1821
2. Josiah Nelson Cutler, born on 22 Jun 1823
3. Mary Roseline Cutler, born on 2 Jun 1825
4. Rhoda Carson Cutler, born on 8 Jul 1827

But immediatly following the birth entries hen there is the entry, "Sally Bailey, wife of Josiah Cutler died April 22^d 1830" (emphasis added).^[3] The top part of a broken gravestone at the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Livermore Falls, Maine, has the inscription, "Sarah B., Wife of Capt. Josiah Cutler"; the date she died is missing.^[9]

The possible explanations for the discrepancy in Sally's last name would seem to include:

• There was error recording her name in the vital records.
• Sally was born Sally Bailey, married a man named Hanscom (or Hanscomb), and at his she death married Josiah Cutler.
• Sally (Hanscom) Cutler was the mother of some or all of Josiah Cutler's children. She died, and Josiah married Sarah Bailey.

The first explanation, an error in the record, is very unlikely. The marriage record and the name of Josiah's first child establish that he married a Sally Hanscom, and the gravestone confirms that he was married to a Sarah B., very likely a Sarah Bailey.

The second explanation, that Sally Cutler was Sally Jane (Bailey) Hanscom is possible, but no evidence has been found to support it.

The third explanation, that Josiah was married twice to women named Sally, is also possible, and would seem to have the weight of the evidence to make it most likely, There is no indication in the record that more than one Sally was the mother of Josiah Cutler's children. But there are several considerations that make this a possibility:

• In the heading to the list of children, there is an illegible word following Sally's name. It looks like it might read "family of Josiah Cutler and Sally etc his wife." That could indicate that there was more than one Sally.
• The entries in the Livermore records are not contemporary. They are recorded in the handwriting of and attested to by Tristram Hillman, who served as the town clerk from 1833 to 1845. Whether they came from an earlier, no longer extant document or from the memory of a family member is unknown.
• The first child was named Sally Jane Hanscom Cutler, and her birth is also recorded (on 19 Feb 1821) at Lewiston, Maine,^[2] and was re-recorded (on 20 Feb 1821) after her father moved to Livermore; re-recording children born before they moved to Livermore was done by many Livermore families.
• When a woman died in childbirth of a female child (or shortly thereafter), it was a common practice of the time to honor the deceased mother by naming the child after her.

Here, then, is the most likely scenario:

• Josiah Cutler married Sally Hanscom, they settled in his home town of Lewiston, and a daughter, their first child, was born there, 11 months after their marriage.
• Sally (Hanscom) Cutler died, probably at Lewiston, shortly after the birth of the child, and their daughter was named in her memory.
• Josiah then married Sally Bailey, and their first child was born at Livermore, 28 months after the birth of Josiah and Sally (Hanscom) Cutler's only child.
• When he recorded (well after the fact, sometime between 1833 and 1845) the names of the children of Josiah and Sally Cutler, Town Clerk Tristram Hillman was unaware that there had been an earlier Sally and assumed that all the children were those of the Sally (Bailey) Cutler who had lived with Josiah at Livermore, bore his children there, and died there in 1830.

(Analysis by Stu Bloom, 21 April 2020)

Sources

1. ↑ Transcribed birth record of Josiah Cutler, in Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900, database, FamilySearch, Josiah Cutler, 1791
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Transcribed birth record of Salley Jane Hanscom Cutler, in Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900, database, FamilySearch, Salley Jane Hanscom Cutler, 1821
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Vital Records of Livermore, Maine; Vital and town records, 1797-1910; "Livermore Vital Records, 1805-1862", page 38; FHL Microfilm 11332, Image 229 of 718
4. ↑ Josiah Cutler household, family #1, in United States Census, 1850, database with images, FamilySearch, Maine > Kennebec > East Livermore > image 1 of 25; citing NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.). The relationship is not shown in the census but is inferred from other evidence.
5. ↑ Josiah Cutler household, family #1776, in United States Census, 1870, database with images, FamilySearch, Illinois > Cook > Chicago, ward 13 > image 214 of 230; citing NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
6. ↑ J. N. Cutler household, family #266, in United States Census, 1880, database with images, FamilySearch, Illinois > Cook > Chicago > ED 124 > image 34 of 52; citing NARA microfilm publication T9, (National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., n.d.)
7. ↑ BillionGraves entry for Josiah Cutler
8. ↑ Transcribed marriage record of Josiah Cutler and Salley Hanscom, in Maine Marriages, 1771-1907, database, FamilySearch, Josiah Cutler, 1820
9. ↑ Photo of partial gravestone of "Sarah B., Wife of Capt. Josiah Cutler" (Find A Grave: Memorial #179868191)