Category: Biographical Sketch

Continued from Part One

The 1840 Census is the first to ascribe an occupation to Elisha – agriculture. Subsequent census enumerations and land records make it clear that as with his father and brothers, he was a farmer.¹ His land, which was part of that originally acquired by his father when the latter moved to Alton in the early 1800s, was about 40 acres on Alton Mountain; near (or on) the vicinity of present-day Davis Road and described (in 1842) thusly:

Beginning on the road leading from Simon Foss’s to Levi Woodman’s at the southeast corner of land belonging to the heirs of the late Jonathan Sleeper thence running northerly binding on the said heirs land far enough that a line running easterly parallel with the before mentioned road to land of Stephen Piper to containing forty acres binding easterly on land of said Piper and southerly on the before mentioned road.²

Although the farm was passed down in the family for a couple more generations, it is no longer an active farm and is now primarily overgrown.³ Subsequent changes in ownership have made the original metes and bounds land description difficult to place with absolute certainty on a modern map; however, the ruins of several farm houses and several existing structures are located in the vicinity and subsequent investigation may reveal one of them belonged to Elisha or his family.

Whilst it is now increasingly the domain of expensive residences and summer holiday-makers, Alton Mountain in the 19th century was a fairly poor and wild place. Largely isolated from the town proper (located then, as now, directly on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee), Mountain residents developed a “backwoods” culture not dis-similar to other isolated mountain regions; where hunting and fishing were the primary diversions and raccoon grease was a panacea for all impediment[s], from chest colds to ungreased boots.⁴

By the 1850 Census, the family structure has changed significantly.⁵ Nancy/Ann, Elisha’s wife, had died in 1846, having birthed one last child.⁶ Elisha never remarried; his oldest daughter, Mary, who never married herself, lived with her father her whole life and likely provided the household duties that a second wife would otherwise have.

Other than Mary, the older children had all left the farm by 1850, leaving only the three youngest. Elisha remained a farmer, and his real estate holdings (the 40 acres discussed above) had a value of $500 (this was less than most all of his neighbors, which would suggest the family was relatively poor.)

Ten years later, in the 1860 Census, much remained the same.⁷ Elisha was still actively farming his land, now worth $600 (with a personal estate worth $200.) Only Mary and his youngest son, Eben, remained on the farm with him. Land records suggest that Elisha was having financial difficulties, as on 08 December 1860, he mortgaged his farm to his neighbor Simon Clough for $202.26.⁸

Things had not changed much by 1870.⁹ Elisha was still farming, although given his age, it is easy to imagine that he was no longer very active. Mary still lived with him, as did one of Eben’s children, his grand-daughter Imogene. The land was still worth $600, with Elisha’s personal estate now worth $250. His financial problems also remain, with another mortgage on the farm, this time to his son, David, for $150.¹⁰

Elisha’s final appearance in the Census is in 1880.¹¹ He is still nominally farming, although the bulk of the work, presumably, is being done by his grandson, Oscar E. Davis, who lived with his grandfather, aunt, and his young family.

Elisha died of old age in Alton, on 20 September 1884.¹² He was first buried in the Frohock Cemetery before reinternment in Riverside Cemetery, where he lies today in a family plot.

1. See below. [↩]
2. Belknap Deeds 29:400 (Sleeper to Sleeper) [↩]
3. Town and City Atlas of the State of New Hampshire. Boston: D.H. Hurd & Co. 1892, at pg. 262 (Map of North Alton showing the Elisha Sleeper place, owned by Oscar Davis near the turn of the 20th century.) The current state of the area was observed by the author in 2011. [↩]
4. Griffin, Barton McLain. The History of Alton. Somersworth NH: New Hampshire Pub. Co. 1965, at pages 46-7. [↩]
5. 1850 Census for Alton, Belknap Co. NH, pg. 178, lines 37-41. [↩]
6. There is no death record found for Ann/Nancy in New Hampshire records; her date of death is from her gravestone in the Riverside Cemetery in Alton [↩]
7. 1860 Census for Alton, Belknap Co. NH, pg. 271, lines 24-26. [↩]
8. Belknap Deeds 35:424 (Sleeper to Clough) [↩]
9. 1870 Census for Alton, Belknap Co. NH, pg. 13, lines 14-16. [↩]
10. Belknap Deeds 52:118 (Sleeper to Sleeper) [↩]
11. 1880 Census for Alton, Belknap Co. NH, ED 1, pg 9, lines 42-46. [↩]
12. New Hampshire Death Records, 1654-1947, database with images, (FamilySearch: 21 December 2015), 004244238 > image 409 of 5111; Bureau Vital Records and Health Statistics, Concord. [↩]

Elisha Sleeper’s birth is not found in the known records of New Hampshire.  Although all published sources agree he was the son of Benjamin and Ruth (Bean) Sleeper, a fact strongly supported by land records,¹ the date and location are in question.  Cutter states he was born 25 March 1796 in Brentwood, Rockingham Co. NH.² His death certificate, disinterment, and gravestone (all informed by his grandson, Oscar E. Davis) claim a date of 01 May 1792 in Alton.³ As Benjamin was first enumerated in Alton in the 1810 Census (he and his family are enumerated in Brentwood in both 1790 and 1800),⁴ his grandson would seem to be in error as to the location; however, as Elisha was the only children born to his parents between 1790 and 1802, it is impossible to suggest which source (if any) is accurate.

The first time Elisha conclusively appears in the records is his marriage, on 03 July 1817 in Belmont, Belknap Co. NH, to Nancy (or Ann, which is synonymous) Bean.⁵ He is of “East Kingston” at the time; although his family appears, from the Census at least, to have resided in Alton at the time; it is certainly possible he was doing farm labor for a relative or had another good reason to be in the town.

As the 1820 Census is no longer extent for Strafford (then including Belknap) Co. NH, the first Census Elisha and his family appear is 1830, when the family is enumerated as including five young women, two born between 1814-1820, one born between 1821 and 1825, and two born between 1826 and 1830.⁶ No birth records have been found for any of Elisha and Nancy’s children, however analysis of marriage, and death records from New Hampshire and Massachusetts have largely allowed the reconstruction of the family.  Of these initial girls, four of them are accounted for as children of the couple; one of the older girls (aged between 10 and 16) is not; she could be a domestic (although the family does not appear to have been very wealthy), another relative, or a daughter who died young.

By the time of the 1840 Census, the family had grown in size to 12. The unidentified girl from 1830 is no longer enumerated with the family (her fate is unknown); the four other girls from the previous Census remain, joined by two boys and a girl born between 1831 and 1835, and one boy and two girls born between 1836 and 1840.⁷ All except one of the older girls is accounted for amongst the identified children of Elisha and Nancy. It is possible that this girl is Lydia Jane Sleeper, the daughter of Elisha’s brother Jonathan, who had died by 1840.⁸ Lydia Jane was said to be the sister of Eben G. (Elisha’s youngest son).⁹ While land records conclusively prove Lydia was not Eben’s sister, but his first cousin,¹⁰ this could reflect a tradition that she lived on her uncle’s neighboring farm, thus giving rise to the idea of sisterhood. Alternatively, it could reflect another relative, or an unaccounted-for daughter.

[To be Continued…]
           

1. Belknap Deeds 29:400 (Sleeper to Sleeper) [↩]
2. Cutter, William R.  Genealogical and Personal Memoirs relating to the families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, volume II.  New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co. 1908.  Pg. 750. [↩]
3. See below. [↩]
4. 1790 Census for Brentwood, Rockingham Co. NH, pg. 103 and 1800 Census for Brentwood, Rockingham Co. NH (alphabetized), pg. 552. [↩]
5. “New Hampshire, Marriage Records, 1637-1947,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FLF6-RFL : accessed 24 August 2015) [↩]
6. 1830 Census for Alton, Strafford Co. NH, pg. 103. [↩]
7. 1840 Census for Alton, Strafford Co. NH, pg. 294. [↩]
8. Jonathan’s wife Mary appears as the head of household in the 1840 Census for Alton, supra. Research of Pamela Currier, Epping NH, states Jonathan died 03 January 1838, however, the provenience of this information is unclear.
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9. Specifically in Bartlett, A.W. History of the 12th New Hampshire Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion. Concord NH: Ira C. Evans 1897, at pg. 488. [↩]
10. The family connections are explicitly set forth in Belknap Deeds 29:379 (Sleeper, et al. to Sleeper), wherein Jonathan’s children quitclaimed their interest in his estate to their brother James in consideration for James caring for their mother Mary in her dotage.
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