In the matter of the application for pension of Mrs. Serena C. Sayles, widow of Ira Sayles, Co. H. 130. Regt. N.Y. Inf.
On this 27thday of August, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, personally appeared before me, a Notary in and for the aforesaid County, duly authorized to administer oaths J.M. Sloan, aged 64 years, a resident of Chase City in the County of Mecklenburg and State of Va. Whose Post-office address is Chase City and M.V.B. Webb, aged 57 years, a resident of Chase City Va in the County of Mecklenburg and State of Va whose post-office address is Chase City Va well known to me to be respectable and entitled to credit, and who, being duly sworn, declare in relation to the aforesaid case as follows:
From the Records.
190 acres of land Value $570
Personal property 50/ $620
Taxes – $7.00
The income from said land for several years has barely paid the taxes, and she has no other income. In order to eke out an uncertain existence, she has to resort to selling a little timber, but even that resource will soon be exhausted. We deem her case both worthy and urgent.
Can’t see how she keeps body and soul together.
If she was not too proud, would, no doubt ask help of her neighbors. Her land is mostly Old Field pines, poor and almost worthless. We hope she may soon be helped, by her Government that owes the debt, because fro services of her husband, now deceased.
We have made the foregoing statement without suggestion or dictation from any one.
We don’t think her land would bring $250- if sold today.
We further declare that we have no interest in said case, and are not concerned in its prosecution.
Signed
J.M. Sloan
M.V.B. Webb
State of Virginia, County of Mecklenburg, ss: Sworn to and subscribed before me this day by the above named affiants, and I certify that I read said affidavit to said affiants, including the words ______ erased, and the words _______ added, and acquainted them with its contents before they executed the same. I further certify that I am in nowise interested in said case, nor am I concerned in its prosecution; and that said affiants are personally known to me, and that they are credible persons.
Signed
N. H. Williams
Notary Public.
Note.–This may be sworn to before a Clerk of Court, Notary Public, Justice of the Peace, or any officer who has the right to administer an oath.
Entered into the Pension Office files by James Tanner, Attorney at Law, Washington, D.C., 30 Aug 1895.
In the matter of the application for pension of Mrs. Serene (sic) C. Sayles Widow of the late Ira Sayles
ON THIS 30thday of July , A.D. one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, personally appeared before me, a Notary Public in and for the aforesaid County, duly authorized to administer oaths, J.M. Sloan, aged 60 years, a resident of Chase City in the county of Mecklenburg and State of Virginia whose Postoffice address is Chase City Va, and M.V.B. Webb aged 58 years, a resident of Chase City in the County of Mecklenburg and State of Virginia whose Postoffice address is Chase City VA well known to me to be respectable and entitled to credit, and who being sworn, declare in relation to the aforesaid case as follows:
Mrs. S. C. Sayles owns a small plantation, worth some #300.00 the rent of which amounts to $20.00 per annum. Which amount barely pays the taxes on same farm. There is no other income whatever, which she receives, and no other property or source of income.
And we further certify that the above statement was written by N.H. Williams in our presence and only from oral statements made to him on this 30thof July 1894 at chase City, Va. And in making this above statement I did not use, and I was not aided or prompted by any written or printed statement or recital prepared or dictated by any one other person and not attached as an exhibit to this testimony.
We further declare that we have no interest in said case, and are not concerned in tis prosecution.
Signed
J.M. Sloan
M.V.B. Webb
State of Virginia, County of Mecklenburg, ss:
Sworn to and subscribed before me this day by the above-named affiants and I certify that I read said affidavit to the said affiants including the words _____ erased, and the words _____ added, and acquainted them with its contents before they executed the same. I further certify that I am in nowise interested in said case, nor am I concerned in its prosecution; and that said affiant are personally know to me and that they are credible persons.
Signed
N. H. Williams
Notary Public
NOTE.—-This may be sworn to before a Clerk of Court, Notary Public, Justice of the peace, or any officer who has the right to administer an oath.
Widow’s Pension Application 597.861, Serena C. Sayles, General Affidavit of J.M. Sloan and M.V.B. Webb, 30 July 1894. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
In the matter of the application for pension of Mrs. Serena C. Sayles widow of the late Ira Sayles
ON THIS 4thday of July, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and ninety four, personally appeared before me, a Notary Public in and for the aforesaid County, duly authorized to administer oaths, J. M. Sloan, aged 60 years, a resident of Chase City in the County of Mecklenburg and State of Virginia, whose Postoffice address is Chase City, Va, and M.V.B. Webb, aged 58 years, a resident of Chase City, in the County of Mecklenburg and State of Virginia whose Postoffice address is Chase City, Virginia, well known to me to be respectable and entitled to credit, and who being duly sworn, declare in relation to the aforesaid case as follows:
They have personally known the said Serene (sic) C. Sayles , widow of the late Ira Sayles, for some twenty years. She was never married to any one(sic) else besides Ira Sayles. She was lawful wife until his death. Ira Sayles died near Chase City, Virginia, on the 14thday of June 1894. Mrs. Serene (sic) C. Sayles has never married since the death of her late husband. They further certify that both of them have known the applicant in such manner that they would have known it if she had married again, since the death of Ira Sayles. Mrs. Serene (sic) C. Sayles is in very dependent circumstances and unable to support herself, except by her daily labor, which is her only means of support.
And we further certify that the above statement was written by N. H. Williams, in our presence and only from oral statements made to him on this 4thday of July 1894, at Chase City, Virginia, and in making this above statement, we did not use and we were not aided or prompted by any written or printed statement or recital, prepared or dictated by any other person and not attached as an exhibit to this testimony.
We further declare that we have no interest in said case, and are not concerned in its prosecution.
Signed
J.M. Sloan, late Capt. Co K.O.V.I
M.V.B. Webb
State of Virginia, County of Mecklenburg, ss:
Sworn to and subscribed before me this day be the above-named affiants, and I certify that J.M. Sloan read said affidavit to the said affiants including the words ____erased, and the words ____added, and acquainted them with its contents before they executed the same. I further certify that I am in nowise interested in said case, nor am I concerned in its prosecution; and that said affiants are personally known to me and that they are credible persons.
Signed
W. H. Williams, Notary Public
Note.–This may be sworn to before a Clerk of Court, Notary Public, Justice of the Peace, or any officer who has the right to administer an oath.
General Affidavit in the Pension Claim #597.861 of Serena C. Sayles, widow of Ira Sayles, Soldier’s Certificate #859591; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
This post examines the letter Ira Sayles, my great-great-grandfather, wrote to his brother James in July of 1869 for its tantalizing clues of sibling whereabouts.
Many thanks to cousin, blog-reader, and James Sayles descendant, Sharon Babcock, for sharing her family stash.
A bit of Review
Ira Sayles (1817-1894) was one of nine children born to Christopher and Sarah [King] Sayles. In 1824, the family migrated from Burrillville, Rhode Island to Westfield Township in the Cowanesque Valley of Tioga County, Pennsylvania. By mid-century, however, few of the Sayles kids remained in that northern tier county.
As I systematically reviewed what I knew or wanted to know about each person mentioned, the 1869 letter became more than a sibling’s let-me-catch-up-with-you. It documents family movements and issues that are inextricably tied with economic and social events that prompted mass migrations of people in the mid-19th century.
let me reintroduce Ira
Ira, the eldest child, was the first to leave the Westfield homeplace, to apprentice in a woolen mill located in Whitesville, Allegany County, New York, in 1837. It was a poor fit for the voracious reader and Ira leapt at the chance to become a student at an Allegany County academy in Alfred in 1839. With the exception of military service in Virginia during 1862-1863, Ira resided in Allegany County, just over the New York-Pennsylvania border from his family, for the next thirty years, serving as a teacher and/or principal:
at Alfred Academy,
then Rushford Academy,
back to Alfred Academy,
and, after the war,
once again at Rushford Academy.
And it is from Rushford that Ira wrote to James in 1869.
Who Else is mentioned in this letter?
James (1822-1882), the letter’s recipient, was a fiery-tempered, hazel eyed younger brother, who remained in his hometown to become first a machinist and then a hotelier. In the mid-1860s James, wife Lucinda, and their family disappeared from Ira’s life.
“Yours of the 18 inst[ant] came to hand, last evening. I need not say I was somewhat surprised: for I had lost all trace of you…I am glad to receive a line now,” said Ira.
A line from Austin, Minnesota where James and his wife Lucinda had purchased a farm in the south central part of that state.
Another person mentioned is the blue-eyed middle child, Loren. “[He] is in East Boston, I suppose.”
This brother had left Westfield in his twenties to study at Alfred Academy before relocating to Lowell, Massachusetts where he married Francis Weymouth in 1855. Shortly thereafter, the couple trekked across the continent to Cosumnes, a gold mining camp in the Michigan Bar District of California. After trying his hand as a miner, Loren, his wife, and baby daughter returned to the east coast, to East Boston, where Loren likely worked as a machinist in the area’s shipbuilding yards.
And wrote to Ira inquiring about other family members. “He (Loren) has twice inquired of me for you. I could not tell. The matter has rested.”
A third person is discussed in that note to James–Ira’s wife, my great-great-grandmother, Serena Crandall White Sayles. The couple was living together in a house across Main Street from Rushford Academy. Serena was a full-time homemaker, assisted by black teenager, Virginia Copeland, and mother to three surviving children, Clifton, Merlin, and Christopher Sherman.
Serena was also the controller of the family’s purse-strings, a role that Ira seems to have resented. Ira’s principal salary was devoured by family expenses and any financial flexibility was attributed to his wife’s assets, given or bequeathed to Serena by her parents, Samuel S. and Nancy Teater White.
“Serena does not dispose of much of her landed property, though of some. She is moving to sell her Alfred property, house and all, for six thousand. It ought to bring ten thousand. She wanted me to invest her means in Virginia lands. Then she thought she didn’t dare trust me alone, so she went with me. It was exceedingly warm; and I suspect she will not go again very soon.”
“I could get and make a splendid home there, at a very low price. But it is all of no use. The means of making such a home are hers. Where she says invest, there investment will be made, or nowhere.”
Once Correspondence, Now Evidence
Ira wrote to bring James up to speed on family news. It was a conversation via post.
For me now, the letter provides evidence of family members’ residences, as well as evidence of marital discord. It also offers evidence of when the Sayles first began to consider relocating to Mecklenburg County, Virginia.
Ira’s determination to remain connected with his extended family unwittingly recorded how the era’s political and economic whirlwinds separated family networks and reinforced racial hierarchies.
In taking his animal husbandry, blacksmithing, and business skills west, James joined a stream of white settlers that flooded into Minnesota lands from which indigenous peoples had been forcibly removed during the US-Dakota War of 1862.
Loren trained as a machinist, and left the mountains of rural Pennsylvania to participate in the northeast’s textile economy, which thrived off the cotton picked by enslaved labor. Loren then sought opportunity amidst the gold rush in California and returned to the industrial opportunities of East Boston‘s ship yards.
Ira, though chafing at his wife’s property rights, contemplated the possibilities of migrating to a reconstructing south.
All three families were white, descendants of Rhode Island British colonizers. The Sayles families moved to opportunity, confident that they would be welcomed and capable of moving again if prospects didn’t work out. They negotiated no bans, confronted no xenophobic signs, carried no passes or permission to travel from employers or law enforcement.
Three different stories. Three different sets of choices that separated siblings. All remained joined by the position they, as white men, occupied in the country’s hierarchy of color, race, and opportunity.
Now what
Beyond pricking my conscience about white intergenerational opportunity, the letter also prompts questions for further family research.
How much was an average teacher’s salary in post-war New York? Virginia? Nationally?
What were the laws in New York and Virginia governing a married woman’s right to own property and control her wages?
What were the motives for Serena and Ira’s consideration of a Virginia residence?
How do the answers to these questions affect my understanding of what unfolded in the next decade for Serena and Ira?
The past dwells in the present, and confronting its truth is requisite to participating in reconciliation.
A family mystery has been solved! My great-great-grandparents, Ira and Serena Sayles, had four children, wrote my grandmother, Florette Sayles Strickland. The daughter, Florette, died as a young girl. One son, Clifton, grew up to be a farmer, a husband, a dad – her dad. Another son, Christopher, grew up to join the peacetime army, and yet another son, Merlin, was lost to memory’s mists, until I uncovered his obituary in the Seventh Day Baptist archives of the 1878 Sabbath Recorder. From page three of Volume 34, issue 40, I finally learn the fate of this young man.
DIED
In Whitesville, N. Y., September 23d, 1878, MERLIN W. SAYLES, of Chase City, Maklinburg (sic) County, Va., aged 21 years, 2 months, and 11 days, second son of Prof. Ira and Serena C. Sayles, formerly of Alfred. His disease, as shown by examination after death, was aneurism in the right of the mesenteric artery, followed by a completely conjested mesentery, with incipient abcsess (sic) of the same, thus functionally destroying this vital organ. For the last two months, his sufferings were intense — he really starved to death. He was a member of the First-day Baptist Church of Chase City, Va., and died clinging to Jesus.
Just imagine the scene. On a muggy, hot July day, Merlin collapsed after slopping the hogs. His brothers, Christopher and Clifton, rushed to where he lay doubled over, clutching his belly as the blood vessel lay ruptured inside him. As they carried Merlin up the porch steps Clifton yelled to his mother, and Serena rushed into the front hallway of the family’s farmhouse. Sizing up the moment she turned and took the stairs two at a time, with the boys on her heels. Merlin was gently lowered into bed, his shoes taken off, his clothing loosened. He must have been in agony that day, and each day after as his intestines slowly died and infection set in. No tea, no soup, no biscuit would have stayed down; Serena would have tried every sort of remedy to ease the pain, to cure the fever, to stave off his withering. Today the ruptured artery would be quickly diagnosed and surgically repaired. Serena could only watch over her boy, mopping his sweaty brow, wetting his dry lips, holding his feverish hand, praying for his recovery.
Would Ira have traveled down from New York for a last visit? Or did Serena meet this tragedy alone with her boys and neighbors?
Merlin W. Sayles may be buried in the family’s cemetery just off of Hunter’s Lane, south of Chase City, Virginia. Hidden among trees, his tombstone may still serve as testimony to the horror of his final days.
