My DAR Line to Patriot Stephen Bliss

In 2015 I joined the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) by proving my paternal Grandpa's line of descent from the Revolutionary War Patriot Asa Corbin. This past year, I sent in a "supplemental" application to prove the line of descent for my paternal Grandma. Each line of descent I prove enables other descendants of the same Patriot to more easily join the DAR because the amount of documentation they need is cut down. Anyone joining the DAR has to provide proof of their connections, such as copies of birth, marriage and death records, for each generation until they can connect to someone in a line already proven. They have to go all the way back to the Patriot if no one else has done that. 

My paternal Grandma is a direct descendant of the Patriot Stephen Bliss. I was able to connect to other DAR members who included his son Gideon Bliss in their line of descent, so I needed to provide documentation for my connections all the way to Gideon Bliss - that was 7 generations. My supplemental application was approved in May, so now any female descendant of Stephen Bliss who has in her blood line my Grandma or any of her siblings, her Mother or her siblings, and so on, can join DAR and less documentation would be required.

My direct ancestors are listed below in bold type, each of their children would potentially be a direct line for someone else. Starting with my Great Grandmother, Cora (Gaisford) Mann, this is the basic info I have for the line to Stephen Bliss:

Cora Gaisford, (1882-1971) Cora married Clarence L. Mann on July 5, 1899 in Fairbury, Nebraska. They raised their family in southeast Nebraska. Their children:
     Leila (1900-1997) married Charlie Roy Wierman
     Florence (1902-1983) married Pearle T Nickeson 
     Esther (1903-2000) married Roe K Hudson
     Lester (1906-1982) married Lydia Krebs
     Orra (1907-1992) married Charlene Vance 
     Clare (1909-2004) married Rulo Rathbun, other marriages with no children
     Faye (1911-1977) married Frank Carpenter
     Vivian (1913-2002) married Earl Bartlett
     Blanche (1915-2006) married Lyman Bartlett
     Bethel (1917-2014) married Elmer Krebs
     Dean (1920-2003) married Doris Kollekowski
     Doris (Living) married Kenneth Menke - my Grandparents
     Keith (1922-1923) 
     Letty (Living) married Bob Phelps


Henrietta Smith (1848-1932) born in Norwich, Connecticut. She married Charles Gaisford in Worcester, Massachusetts on May 23, 1867. They had 11 children: 
     Charles (1868-1947) married Nancy Erhard
     Mary Ann "Maime" (1870-1959) never married
     Anna (1871-1943) married Henry Fielder 
     Emma (1874-1939) married Rufus Thompson, other marriage with no children
     Carrie (1876-1899) married Sherman E White
     Ella (1880-1881) 
     Cora (1882-1971) above
     Nellie (1883-1919) never married
     William (1885-1953) married Ethel Middleton
     Gertrude (1888-1966) married Harlen Weaver 
     Gladys (1890-1986) married Frank Amos


Mary Abigail Bliss (1829-1866) was married to John Potter Smith in Norwich, Connecticut in 1847 and they moved to Worcester, Massachusetts soon after. They had 5 children, Mary's death happened with the last one: 
     Henrietta, above
     Anna (1854-1929) married Myron Barrows
     Minnie (1859-1859)
     Carried (1861-1889) married William A Brown
     Charles (1866-by 1870)


Austin Bliss (1786-1871) married Abigail Bumstead in Monson, Massachusetts. They moved to Connecticut about 1822. Their 12 children were:
     Edward (1818-1871) 
     Sylvester (1820-1867)
     Austin (1821-?)
     Alvin (1824-?)
     Horace Harrison (1826-?)
     Sanford Joseph (1827-1873)
     Mary Abigail, above
     Harriet Eliza (1831-1875)
     Julia Maria (1833-1835)
     William Henry (1835-1902)
     Julia M (1838-1871) married Henry Kirkland 
     Sarah Elizabeth (1842-?)


Gideon Bliss (1766-1847) married Mary Woodworth in Massachusetts where they raised these children:
     Roswell (1791-1869)
     Mary (1792-1866)
     Betsey (1792-1795)
     Chloe (1794-1797)
     Austin, above
     Gideon (1798-1828)
     Sylvester (1800-?0
     Betsey (1802-1881)
     James B (1804-1843)
     Willard (1806-?)
     Catherine (1809-1880)
     Lewis Tirrell (1811-?)
     Henry Harrison (1813-1897) married Lucy Maria Sawyer


Stephen Bliss (1732-1806) was a Private from Longmeadow, Hampshire county, Massachusetts. He served under Captains Pinneas Stebbins and Joseph Browning; and Colonels Nathan Sparhawk, Seth Murray and John Bliss. He was married to Katherine Burt in 1756 and he died in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. They had at least six children:
     Catherine (1757-1838)
     Mercy (1759-1776)
     Stephen (1761-1850)
     Susannah (1764-?)
     Gideon, above
     Chloe (1769-1776) 


If you're interested in joining the DAR, I suggest you contact your local chapter, or visit the website DAR.org. If you have questions about anyone listed here, just drop me a note and I may have more information.

The State of the Canton Cemetery 1868

Here's an interesting article I copied from the Canton (Illinois) Weekly register while looking for obituaries. I have a few ancestors who died in Fulton County, Illinois in the mid 1800's. I've never been able to find out exactly where they are buried. If the Canton cemetery was in this bad of shape in 1868, this may explain why. With "many graves" sunk or caved in at this point in time, it's no wonder they can't be found today. My relatives may not have been buried in this cemetery, but maybe other cemeteries in the area were not well-kept either.

Canton Weekly Register, April 24, 1868

"We took a stroll on Sunday last through the Canton Cemetery. Its appearance is a disgrace to our city. Where there appears to have been once more care and taste displayed in the adornment of graves, all appears now neglected, dilapidated and in miserable disorder. Fences which have been erected around family lots are broken down, and pieces lie scattered about. Trees have been cut down, and some have blown down, and brush and logs lie about promiscuously.
A few tombstones are broken and lie upon the ground, while many more are leaning and almost ready to fall. Many graves are sunk even caved in, presenting a very sad and neglected appearance. Bank weeds have been permitted to grow up and [? down briers?], bushes and noxious shrubbery are growing in rich profusion in different parts of the cemetery. The fence surrounding the cemetery is in keeping with the general neglect.
There is need of immediate and earnest attention to the matter of cleaning up and beautifying our cemetery. It should no longer remain as it is now, a disgrace and a reproach to the city. There are but few families in this city and vicinity but what have an interest in this resting place of the dead. Let all unite in doing something to give it an appearance worthy the memory of the departed. The trustees of the cemetery should be more active in their duties. There are many really beautiful monuments and tombstones in the cemetery, but an almost total lack of cultivated flowers, shrubbery, & [?]. A walk through a cemetery, where care and taste is displayed in tokens of love and regard for the memory of the departed, cannot but have a pure and holy influence upon the living, but when only noxious weeds and tangled brush and briers grow over the graves of those who have "gone before", we can only be impressed with the proneness of mortals to forget the virtues of the dead, and all those sacred lies which once bound them to the departed, and to be only absorbed in the vanities and virtues(?) or the pleasures and the profits of the present life."