Albert Arbuckle Bird
Albert Arbuckle Bird, my 2x great-grandfather, was born in Holmes County, Ohio, on July 1, 1840 as the seventh child of Elijah Bird and Eliza Williams Bird. I was curious to know how the middle name of Arbuckle was chosen. It turns out that it was the maiden name of Albert's maternal grandmother, Sarah Arbuckle (1780 - 1825).
Like many of my ancestors, the Birds didn't make Ohio their permanent home. The land must have looked more promising on the other side of the state line because by 1850 Census 10-year old Albert and his family had moved 250 miles north and west to Kosciusko County, Indiana. Ten years later in the 1860 Census 20-year old Albert was unmarried and still living on the family farm there.
In 1865 when Albert was 24 years old he joined the 152nd Indiana Infantry Regiment of the Union Army as a private. The 152nd spent the next five months in Virginia and West Virginia assigned to the Army of the Shenandoah until the regiment was mustered out.
Back home again in Indiana Albert must have decided it was time to settle down and start a family. The girl who caught his eye was Sarah Ann Norris, who was a month shy of her 16th birthday when the couple married on 3 July 1867. The Luther Norris farm (Sarah's father) and the Elijah Bird farm (Albert's father) were situated a short distance apart in Monroe Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana so the couple may have met at church or at a social gathering in the township.
On 5 Oct 1868 Albert and Sarah's first child Clarence was born. The family must have moved soon after this because the 1870 Census shows them as residents of Monroe Township, Livingston County, Missouri. (From one Monroe Township to another!) Albert was listed as a farmer, Sarah was keeping house, and Clarence was a year old. The family's real estate was valued at $500 and their personal estate valued at $100.
Luther (15 Sep 1870 - 13 Nov 1870) and James (30 Mar 1872 - 9 Jun 1872) were the next children to be born but sadly neither lived past infancy. I haven't been able to determine whether the two boys were born in Missouri or in Indiana. I do know that Albert and Sarah's first daughter, Mary Elluria, was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana so sometime between the 1870 Census and Mary's birth on 16 Jun 1873 the family left Missouri and headed back to Kosciusko County, Indiana. The next children born were my great-grandfather Charles Orastus (13 Oct 1874) and Stephen Allyn (14 Dec 1876), both in Kosciusko County.
On 24 Mar 1885 when Albert was 44 years old, 33-year old Sarah passed away from typhoid fever. At the time of her death the children were 16, 11, 10, and 8 years old. Surprisingly, Albert didn't remarry so he and the children must have figured out how to manage on their own after the loss of Sarah.
Since nearly all the 1890 Census records were destroyed by fire, the fifteen years between Albert's loss of Sarah are unknown.
In the 1900 Census 59-year old Albert was living in Lewanee County, Michigan with his daughter Mary, his son-in-law Frank Merrick, and his 5-year old granddaughter Theodora. Albert worked as a laborer in a saw mill.
Ten years later in the 1910 Census Albert, Mary, Frank, and Theodora had moved back home to Indiana where they lived in a house on Higbee Street in the town of Milford in Van Buren Township, Kosciusko County. Albert had retired by that time. Scrolling through the eight pages of census enumeration for Milford I found Albert's younger brother (my great-grandfather) Charles, his wife Grace, and their six children living near my great-grandparents William and Mary Scott and their two sons. By 1920 Charles and Grace's daughter Eva would marry William and Mary's son Angus Cleon (A.C.). Eva and A.C. are my paternal grandparents.
In the 1920 Census Albert remained in Milford with the Merricks. By January 20th when the enumerator visited, Albert was 79 years old.
On 13 Nov 1925 Albert passed away at the age of eighty-five from chronic endocarditis and prostrate problems. He had outlived his wife, three of his sons, and all nine of his siblings.
Sarah and Albert
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