Benjamin Family, McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)
“Although her life had been one strangely mixed with sorrow as well as physical suffering, her Christian trust and faith never deserted her for a moment.”
These words from the obituary of Frances “Fannie” Drucilla Benjamin (1843-1899) suggest that more than the physical pain Fannie suffered from her afflictions colored her life.
What were her sorrows?
And what about Emanuel Clutter, Fannie’s husband? What had happened that caused him to not be there at her bedside through her last days?
While we can only know some of the sorrows of Fannie’s life, looking at the time span between the marriage of Fannie and Emanuel and the birth of their son Rufus E. Clutter might give us a clue to one of the difficulties. Many women in that era might have had one or two additional children during those five years. Had Fannie miscarried, lost a child as stillborn, or soon after birth? Maybe a child passed away very young, and we just have found no record or gravesite for them? Or maybe there had been problems with getting pregnant- we will never know but any of those events would have brought great sadness to the family. The couple must have been incredibly overjoyed at the birth and survival of their son Rufus. (He was probably named after his maternal grandfather, Sylvanus Rufus Benjamin- and he likely had red hair too! ‘Rufus’= red.)
Life must have been quite altered for the family once Fannie became an invalid a year or so after their son Rufus was born, per her obituary. Was her illness a complication of childbirth? How did they manage with a little one needing constant care, and Fannie needing help too? It was good that family was very close by, but caring for Fannie and Rufus would be a challenge as they worked to provide for their own families too. Being unable to be the wife and mother she wished to be, Fannie’s sickness would probably have caused her emotional pain as well.
Fannie, Emanuel, and young Rufus had taken a place on Main Street in Newton, Iowa by 1880, which would have made Emanuel’s work as an “artist” (photographer?) quick to get to as well as for shopping for groceries or medications. Even with family help, their life with Fannie’s “physical suffering” must have been quite difficult.
More research revealed what was likely one more great sorrow for Fannie- she and Emanuel must have divorced sometime before September of 1883. We learned this when we found that Emanuel married a second time in Hughes, South Dakota, on September 16, 1883 to Nancy “Louisa” Burnett (1843-1923).
There was a lot of stigma attached to a divorced woman back in those days. The reason for the separation did not matter nor if it was the ‘fault’ of the other partner – a woman’s reputation was harmed by a divorce. That too must have been one of Fannie’s great sorrows.
Many years ago we had found the 1885 Iowa State Census showing Fannie and Rufus, age 12, living with her parents Sylvanus Rufus Benjamin and Sarah Ann Palmer Benjamin on the family farm in Newton Township, Jasper County, Iowa. This record was curious, as Emanuel was not in the household. Now, however, we know that was because Emanuel had moved west at least two years before. And it explains why he was not with Fannie in her last days. [This record is also a lesson in revisiting sources and reading them carefully- the original census record actually shows a “D” for ‘divorced’ in the column for Fannie’s marital status. At that time, we were not really focused on Fannie since she is not in our direct line, but still should have noticed. This was also one of those records where it is important to check the page before- that is how we knew that Fannie and Rufus were living out on the farm of her parents.]
Unfortunately there is no 1890 US Federal Census available for most locations, so we do not know where Fannie or Emanuel were living (separately) that year. Five years later, we did find Emanuel in an 1895 Los Angeles, California City Directory, residing at 746 Maple av with his wife, Mrs. Louisa Clutter. There is no occupation listed for Emanuel, age 49, but the country was in the midst of “The Panic of 1893”- a very significant economic depression that lasted until 1897. Emanuel may have had a rough time finding a job during this period of bank runs, people losing their life savings, big railroad failures, and an (estimated) unemployment rate of up to 19% at the peak of the depression.
Emanuel’s wife Louisa, however, was employed in 1895, as a “psychometrist.” Today a psychometrist works with psychologists and neurologists to administer tests for clinical diagnosis, but at the end of the 19th Century, differences between humans, their intelligence and how it correlated to physical measurements were the primary interests of the field.
Frances “Fannie” Drucilla Benjamin passed away in Newton, Iowa, on March 5, 1899. She had her mother and adult son with her. Her remains were “laid beside the aged father in our cemetery,” as Sylvanus Rufus Benjamin had died in 1892.
Eleven years later, in 1910, Emanuel and Louisa were still across the continent in Ballona, Los Angeles County. Louisa’s married daughter from her first marriage, Nina “May” Berry Wagner, was living in Ballona with her family, and Louisa’s son had moved to the Los Angeles area as well, though we do not know the date he migrated. Emanuel was working for himself as an agent for mines and real estate. His wife Louisa was living with him, as was her older brother, Giles Burnett, a widower. This census asked respondents how many times they had married, and interestingly, it stated it was the first marriage for Emanuel- not his second. Louisa, however, listed Emanuel as her second husband, and that she had two children that were still living. As Louisa was forty years old when she and Emanuel married, it was unlikely that he was the father of her children. More research showed that Louisa had married Charles Henry Berry (1845-1926) in Phelps, New York, on December 11, 1865, and they moved to Iowa by 1868 where their first of two children were born: Miles C. Berry, born 1868, and Nina May Berry, born 1869 or 1870, also in Iowa. The family lived in Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa, in 1870. This was only about 30 miles from Newton, so there is a possibility that Emanuel and Nancy had met in Iowa- maybe Emanuel had traveled to the big city as a photographer?- or maybe not. Emanuel could have headed west to the Dakota Territory after he and Fannie separated, and possibly met Louisa there. We have not found an entry for Louisa or her first husband in any 1880 US Federal Census nor an 1885 Iowa State Census, but one knowledgeable family member has a tree on Ancestry with about 1880 as Louisa’s divorce date, taking place in Illinois. Louisa and Emanuel married in Hughes, South Dakota, on September 16, 1883. Nancy was 40 years old, and Emanuel 36.
Genealogy is rarely tidy, and items often are found out of chronological order. But it is definitely worth the untidiness to find more information, as above. So back to the early 1900s:
In 1916 “Clutter, Emanuel, brkr” was listed on the Los Angeles County Voter Registration Roll. The microfilm does not have a listing of abbreviations used for occupations, but it may be “broker.” Emanuel was 70 that year. Perhaps he was a broker for gold, since he knew that well? Or maybe for cattle or horses, since he had been a rancher.
Four years later Emanuel was 74 and listed as a “Gold Miner” in the 1920 Alhambra, California US Federal Census enumeration. His entry in the 1920 California Voter Registrations listed Emanuel Clutter as a rancher and declining to state his political party. This voter registration list included “Mrs. Nancy L. Clutter” as a Democrat. California passed their Equal Suffrage law in 1911, nine years before women across the nation were included in our democracy via the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. We have not seen Nancy Louisa listed on earlier voter registrations. Perhaps she decided to register to vote only after the passage of the Women’s Suffrage Amendment.
Now that we see this chronology, let’s circle back to an interesting thought- these mining occupations and the timing of his migration west may suggest that Emanuel’s move to the Dakota Territory in the early 1880s was specifically to become a gold miner! The Black Hills Gold Rush began in 1874 in the western part of the territory when George Armstrong Custer led a military expedition into the area and ‘discovered’ gold. The loose pieces found around streams are called ‘placer gold,’ and are the most common type of gold found in the Dakota Territory. The town of Hughes, where Emanuel married Louisa, is more central, but may have been a stopping-off spot for Emmanuel and Louisa to earn some money, learn about opportunities, and stock up on provisions before heading to the Black Hills, if that was their plan. Hughes only had 268 persons in 1880, with the railroad finally making it to the Territory about that time; by 1890, the population was 5,044- an increase of 1900%! So Emanuel, like many, may have headed west to be a photographer, provide support for miners (the grocers, saloon keepers, etc. generally made more money than the miners), or even just be a miner himself.
About to press the ‘publish’ button for this blog post, I wanted to check just one more thing. One tree on Ancestry has been really useful in researching Emanuel Clutter’s second family, and the owner has kindly given permission for us to use his wonderful photos, etc., on the blog. He had the most amazing clipping from their family bible:
Transcription:
“My ma got this Bible when I was
6 years old. we lived in Des Moines.
I am 13 years old now we live in
Pierre Dakota, out on the Clame.
May Burnette
May 1st 1883″
Wow. What a treasure to have this, and in May’s handwriting! This family was definitely involved in some type of mining, probably gold. The note verifies pretty closely when she was born, where they lived in Iowa, and where in Dakota Territory they lived on May 1, 1883. (Pierre became the state capital.) But now there are more questions… They were living out on “the Clame.” Whose claim was it? Had Louisa entered a claim herself? (Could women even do that there and then?) Gold mining is really hard work, and for a woman to be alone with two children would have been dangerous with the rough miners and unscrupulous businesses that were booming in the Pierre/Hughes County region. It probably was not a claim worked by May’s father, Charles Henry Berry, as he and Louisa had divorced around 1880 in Illinois and he remarried on June 16, 1883, in Chicago, Illinois, just six weeks after May wrote the note. Could it have been Emanuel’s claim? He and his first wife also were divorced around 1880, so he could have been out in the Dakotas by May 1883 either working as a photographer or as a gold miner. (he and Louisa married that Sept. 16.) Could the claim have been owned by a business? Louisa might have been doing cooking, laundry, or a myriad of other tasks to help support miners on a large claim. This should be some interesting information for a family history researcher to pursue in the future.
Nancy Louisa Burnett Berry Clutter passed away in Los Angeles, California, on January 25, 1923, after 40 years of marriage to Emanuel Clutter. Emanuel survived her by about four and a half years, his death on June 15, 1927 in Venice, Los Angeles County, California.
Our original research question was “How did the descendants of Hannah Melissa Benjamin McMurray end up with a very old album full of Clutter family photos?” We did get sidetracked in a very interesting way, and the answer seems to be that Emanuel Clutter likely left his family photo album in Newton, Iowa, when he divorced Frances “Fannie” Drucilla Benjamin Clutter, then headed 550 miles northwest to (probably) mine gold in the Dakota Territory. We don’t know for sure that Fannie and her mother Sarah Ann Palmer Benjamin shared a home, but Fannie’s personal effects may have stayed with her widowed mother, and then been passed down to her sister Hannah Melissa Benjamin McMurray, who in turn passed them down to her descendants. This research project also answered some questions about cemetery plots and why certain persons were buried near others, and helped us learn a bit more about the history of our country. What is truly great, in addition to knowing more about our ancestors, is that we have found some wonderful photos as well as living cousins new to us!
Notes, Sources, and References:
- Sadly we have no known pictures of Frances “Fannie” Drucilla Benjamin Clutter. Please share if you have any!
- Images posted with the generous permission of the Hoge-Clutter Family Tree. Thank you!
- Thanks you also to our other cousins who have family trees full of information and pictures, and are willing to share and discuss what they know about the family. Of course, cousins Cindi and Julie are owed a special thanks, as they provided scans of the Clutter photo album that started this journey!
- For your consideration: an interesting thread concerning the Clutter family to add to your analysis from daneil2229 on Family Tree Circles– https://www.familytreecircles.com/u/daneil2229/ We do not know of any followup of this query from over nine years ago, but it might be interesting to follow up to corroborate. We have not analyzed this but just thought we would share with other researchers.
- Panic of 1893– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893
- Federal and State Censuses as noted.
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