Broersma Family Tree » Hon. Christopher Douglass (1787-1867)

Personal data Hon. Christopher Douglass 

• He was born on February 22, 1787 in New London, New London, Connecticut, USA.Sources 1, 2
• Profession: Judge.Source 3
• He died on February 16, 1867 in Walworth Co., Wisconsin, Verenigde Staten, he was 79 years old.Source 1
• A child of Daniel Douglass and Lydia Douglass
• This information was last updated on April 9, 2013.

Household of Hon. Christopher Douglass

He is married to Phoebe Douglass.

They got married about 1808.

Child(ren):

1. Oscar Houghton Douglas  1810-????
2. Christopher Columbus Douglas  1812-????
3. Aurilla Ann Douglas  1814-????
4. Roxanna Columbia Douglas  1816-????
5. Maria Theresa Douglas  1818-????
6. Gilbert Lafayette Douglas  1820-????
7. Phoebe Lydia Angeline Douglas  ± 1823-1853
8. Anastasia Noailles Agnes? Douglass  1825-1906 
9. Carlos Lavallette Douglas  1827-1898
10. Maria Louisa Josephine Douglas  ± 1830-????

Notes about Hon. Christopher Douglass

"Time by moments steals away": the 1848 journal of Ruth Douglass
By Robert L. Root, Ruth Douglass
Pg 94

The children of Christopher and Phoebe Douglass were, in order, Oscar Houghton (born 1810), Columbus Christopher (1812), Aurilla Ann (1814), Roxanna Columbia (1816), Maria Theresa (1818), Gilbert Lafayette (1820), Phebe Lydia Angeline (c. 1825-1853), Agnes Noailles, Carlos Lavallete (1827-1898), and Maria Louisa Josephine (Beckwith, 1:511). Most of the children seem to have moved west from Michigan with their parents, although C.C. Douglass spend most of the period following that move in Michigan. In her journal Ruth refers to Roxanna, Lydia, Lavalette, and Josephine by name, and alludes to Oscar; Maria Theresa had married Ransom Sheldon of Wisconsin in 1839 and they had settled in the Upper Peninsula by this time.

"Time by moments steals away": the 1848 journal of Ruth Douglass
By Robert L. Root, Ruth Douglass
Pg 58-59

Tuesday, 22 February 1848
This day is celebrated as the birth day of General George Washington, who has been very justly styled The Father of our Country. This makes the one hundredth and sixteenth anniversary. There is no attempt made in this place to pay any honor to the day. It is also a day on record in our family, being the Sixty first Anniversary of Father Douglass birthday. Who, though not the Father of his Country is the Father of ten children. Most of them are now settled near him. He has just given me a sketch of his emigrations from his boyhood up to the present time, together with the hardships and privations incidental to a settlement in a new country.

Being born as on this day, in the year 1787, in New-London, Connecticut, he removed with his Parents when a small Boy to Rutland Vermont, while the Country was yet new. Here he remained with his Parents on a farm, until he married and removed from thence in the year 1809, to the western part of the State of New York, Town of Concord, Erie County, (going the whole distance with an Ox team,) where he commenced the world for himself, by clearing up a farm on the banks of the Cattaraugus Creek. Here they endured privations, and hardships of which we of the present day, know but little, and would appear to us as almost incredible. Buffalo, Rochester, and other places, not flourishing cities then contained only a few log cabins.

Remained here until the Country became somewhat thickly settled around him, and having a predilection for a life in a new Country, visited Michigan in 1825, being much pleased with this then new Country. Purchased a farm near Mt. Clemens, Macomb County, on which he removed with his family in the fall of 27, this proved to be a very unhealthy place, the whole family suffering severely from the effects of ague and fever, and may well be termed the Plague of Michigan. Michigan was then a territory compromising within its jurisdiction what is now, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, having a population of 27,000 inhabitants.

The Black Hawk war being terminated, and the western Prairies laid open to the poineer, he determined to go stil farther on in hopes of finding the promised land, and as the Cry then was Westward ho! he bent his course in 37 towards Northern Illinois, where he made a temporary home, for one year, (at Elk Grove 18 miles North West of Chicago,) in orer to make choice of a more permanent one, while stopping here the family suffered much from sickness.

Emigration increasing at this time so fast as to render the consumption of provisions greater than the production, the result of which was, exorbitant prices for all kinds of provisions, such as $30.00 a barrel for pork and $20 for flour, having it to carry from Chicago that being their nearest market, after looking about and surveying the country he settled on this beautiful prairie. The first winter they passed here there was but one other family on the prairie.

And now after spending som much of his life on the frontier He says he would rather go west than east.

"Time by moments steals away": the 1848 journal of Ruth Douglass
By Robert L. Root, Ruth Douglass
Pg 47-48

Columbuss Father, Christopher Douglass, left Vermont and returned to Connecticut to teach school. His wife, Phoebe, was the daughter of Ivory Douglass and Phoebe Smith and the granddaughter of William Douglass, Jr., Christopher Douglasss uncle and his mother Lydias brother. In Springville, New York, as later in Wisconsin, he cleared the land for his farm out of unbroken wilderness and served as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Erie County. Albert Clayton Beckwith, History of Walworth County, Wisconsin (Indianapolis; B.F. Bowen and Co., 1912), 2:1277. For further information on Christopher Douglass see Ruths entry for February 22, as well as the Douglass genealogy in the appendices.

History of Walworth county, Wisconsin
By Albert Clayton Beckwith
Pg 511

Christopher Douglass was twice descended from William and Ann, who came to Boston in 1640, and to New London about 1651. He was son of Capt. Daniel5 (Robert4, Thomas3, Robert2, William1), and Lydia5 (William4, Richard3, William21); that is, these were third-cousins. Christopher was born February 22, 1787, at New London, Connecticut; married Phoebe Douglass, his mother's brother William Jr.'s granddaughter. Her parents were Ivory Douglass and Phoebe Smith. He came from Cattaraugus county, New York, to section 28, Walworth, in 1837, with ten children. He was chairman of the board of county commissioners, 1840-2, and a supervisor in 1848. He was one of the earliest school commissioners. He died February 16, 1867. His children were: Oscar Houghton, Christopher Columbus, Aurilla Ann, Roxana Columbia, Maria Theresa, Gilbert Lafayette, Phoebe Angeline, Agnes Noailles, Carlos Lavallette, Maria Louisa Josephine.

Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection)
Name: Christopher Douglass
[Christopher Douglas, Dowglass]
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 22 Feb 1787
Birth Location: New London
Parent Name: Daniel
Parent Name: Lydia

A collection of family records: with biographical sketches bearing the name Douglas
Charles Henry James Douglas
Pg 167-168

126.
Hon. CHRISTOPHER DOUGLAS6 (Daniel5, Robert4, Thomas3, Robert2, William1), born in New London, Conn., Feb. 22, 1787; removed to Wallingford, Vt., in 1797, and soon after married Phebe Douglas7 [244. iii.], of Chelsea. In 1811 he removed to Springville, N. Y., and settled on a farm there. He was at one time judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Erie county. About 1828 he removed to Mount Clemens, Mich., where he remained till about 1840. He then removed to Geneva, Wis., where he died not far from 1865. His wife had died two or three years before. They had ten children, but only the following have been traced:
i. Orilla7, m. Atwood; res. ('77) Mt. Clemens; has several ch.
ii. Oscar7, res. ('77) Geneva.
290. iii. Christopher Columbus7, m. Lydia Smith.
iv. Roxanna7, m.; d. set. 40-5, leav. several eh. in Cal.
v. Lafayette7, farmer, res. ('76) Geneva.
vi. Lavalette7.
vii. Josephine7.
viii. Maria Theresa7, m. Ransom Sheldon; res. ('77) Houghton, Mich.
ix. C. S.7, res. ('77) Walworth, Wis.

Christopher Douglass and Phoebe Douglass are related in 3 ways:

1st cousins once removed. Capt William Douglass and Sarah Denison are the grandparents of Christopher and are the G Grandparents of Phebe.

3rd cousins once removed. John Denison and Phebe Lay are the gg grandparents of Christopher and the ggg grandparents of Phebe.

half 4th cousins once removed. Phebe Brown is the ggg grandmother of Christopher and the gggg grandmother of Phebe.

History of Walworth county, Wisconsin
Albert Clayton Beckwith
pg1376-1378

One of this sterling band of a past generation in Walworth county was the late Carlos Lavalette Douglass, an early settler of the town of Walworth, who contributed much to its subsequent development. He was born in Cattaraugus county. New York, November 4. 1827. He was the son of Christopher and Phoebe (Douglass) Douglass. The father was born February 22, 1787, at New London, Connecticut, and the mother was born at Chelsea, Vermont, February 28, 1787. Their ancestry has been traced in unbroken line to William and Ann (Mattles) Douglass, who came from the north of England, both born in the year 1610, and were the first of the family to come to America. Their first child was born in 1637, probably in New England, for it is known that they came to New London, Connecticut. One of their sons, Robert, had a son, Thomas, whose son, Robert, was the father of Capt. Daniel Douglass. The latter was born in 1752 and it is probable that he was with the New York troops in the Revolutionary war, but he may have been in the Vermont troops. Captain Douglass married Lydia Douglass, who, like her husband, was in the fourth generation of descent from the original William Douglass that came to this country from England. Lydia was the daughter of William, whose father was Richard, the son of William, of the second generation, who was the son of William, the emigrant from England. Capt. Daniel Douglass' son, Christopher, who headed the family in Walworth county, Wisconsin, married Phoebe Douglass, daughter of Ivory, whose father, William, was a brother to the Lydia that was the wife of Capt. Daniel Douglass, and he was therefore a son of William, descended from the emigrant. Therefore Carlos Lavalette Douglass was descended in three ways from William, the emigrant. Christopher Douglass, father of the subject of this memoir, was born in New London, Connecticut, February 22, 1787, and when a young man he moved with his parents to Vermont and was reared on a farm He obtained a common school education and returned to Connecticut, where he taught school, and while there he was united in marriage with Phoebe Douglass. They afterwards moved to New York. Later he was a soldier in the war of 1812, then settled on a farm near Buffalo, then an almost unbroken wilderness. In the midst of the forest he cleared his land and developed a rich farm. His nearest neighbor was twenty miles away. In 1828 he moved to Macomb county, Michigan, and in the spring of 1837 he sold his farm in Michigan and for about six months rented land near Chicago. Leaving his family there, he came to Walworth county, Wisconsin, and began breaking land and preparing for a home to which he brought his family in the fall of that vear. Christopher Douglass broke a vast amount of wild prairie land in Walworth county in 1837 when they plowed furrows two and onehalf miles long on Big Foot Prairie. He entered a farm in section 28, which he sold, later settling on another which he purchased at a land sale. Here he farmed and in 1842 established a tavern at what was soon to be known all over this part of the country as Douglass' Corners, now called Walworth. In 1857 he sold a part of his farm and bought land at the head of Lake Geneva where Fontana is now located. In 1839 Christopher Douglass was one of three county commissioners and he continued in that capacity nearly four years and served as chairman of the board He was one of the first judges of election in 1839 and was on the first grand jury in this county. He was a leader in local affairs and one of the best known and influential of the pioneers. His death occurred in 1866, at the age of eighty years, the community losing one of its best citizens at that time. His wife died at Fontana at the age of seventy-four years. Their family consisted of ten children, of whom Carlos Lavalette, of this sketch, was the ninth in order of birth.

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Timeline Hon. Christopher Douglass

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