This is March and month three in my 12 Months- 12 Family Lines. So this month I will be working on my Clough Family line.

The Clough’s became apart of my family when my great grandfather Joseph Fletcher Putnam married Ida May Clough. My sister has done this paternal line research but I still have a binder that needs to be reviewed. So I may need to call on her with any questions that I have. We have both written in this blog, how the Clough research has been a challenge, my sister has been quite diligent in pursuing this line. Ida May’s father Orson was the son of Benjamin and Lydia (Amsdale) Clough who are found in the 1850 census in Hamburg, Erie County, New York. Determining who Benjamin’s father was has been a daunting task. One that we have not nailed down.

Ida May had a brother William O. Clough and a sister Evelyn Clough, plus four half sisters, Hilda, Libby, Amy and Grace, a step brother William Herbert, and step sisters Kate and Nelly Herbert from her father, Orson Clough’s second marriage to Sarah J. Herbert. Ida May’s mother (Julia Marsh) also remarried (Ira Blossom) and they had three girls: Emma, Anna, and Lottie Blossom and one boy, Charles Blossom. All these divorces and remarriages occurred in the second half of the 1800’s in California. You would have thought it wouldn’t be until a more current time that we get this kind of blended family. Does this pattern run in families? If we could get back further would we see these patterns repeated? Or is this pattern occurring due to the nature of the time and rural area?

I had not originally  included any information on Ida’s half siblings but when looking for more information on Orson and Julia, following the half siblings may shed some light.

I have done a story on Uncle Billy Clough (born 23 Nov. 1851) who was believed to have died in 1920 when he failed to return to Three Rivers from the Mineral King area below Mt. Whitney, CA, where he spent summers working a mining claim and doing odd jobs for the power company, It was his job to close the dam gates before leaving for the winter. In the fall of 1920 the gates didn’t get closed and Billy was never found. Several years later remains were found on the Franklin Lake trail and it was presumed that he had been attacked by a cougar on the way to close the gate.

Now Ida May’s sister Evelyn Clough appears to have also been a very interesting woman. Evelyn was born October 1860 in California soon after her mother married Ira Blossom. Evelyn was also known as Eva and after 4 known marriages, Evelyn was found as Eva Clough in the 1920 and 1930 Census and was listed in her step-fathers 1924 obituary as Eva Clough. Evelyn first married G. W. Cahoon who was 22 years older then Evelyn and a Dairyman in the Three Rivers area. Their first child David was born about 1879.

George was born January of 1880 and Cahoon in 1882. By the 1900 census David is no longer with his mother.  From the 1900 census Eva has listed that she gave birth to 9 children and that 8 are still living. In this 1900 US census Evelyn (Eva) is no longer with G.W. Cahoon,  she has been married for less then a year to John Menteer and has George Cahoon and Cahoon Cahoon (yes, Cahoon Cahoon!) along with Pansy, Zinnia, Rose, Violet and Forest Busby listed as John Menteer’s step children. That is seven children at home so the other living child could be David or another Cahoon or a Busby.

I have not found a death record for GW Cahoon (did they divorce?) nor have I found a marriage record for Daniel Busby and Evelyn (or Eva), but it also appears that Daniel may not yet have died but he may now (in the 1900 census) be in Kansas and remarried. Need to look for divorce records.

By 1910 Evelyn is no longer with John Menteer but is shown as Evelin Long a widow  with, Zinnia, Rose, Violet, and Forest. In 1920 Evelyn is 59 and it is just her and her 23 year old son, Forest. Evelyn is shown as a truck farmer. In the 1930 US census Eva (age 70) is living with her daughter Pansy.

Evelyn Clough Cahoon, Busby, Menteer, Long died before 1940. Still looking for a death record for her other trees on ancestry.com list her date of death as may 1938. Any Cahoon’s or Busby’s out there with sources for Evelyn, I would love to hear from you. I know my sister has been in touch with a third cousin 1x removed some time ago, possibly she has added more information to this generation of Clough’s.

There are still the Orson and Sarah Clough children to follow up on as well as Orson’s siblings families, so I will try to complete the Clough family next time.