David Colton...where to start!
David was born in Oswego County, New York to George and Mary Colton. Not much is known about Mary, but father George was a curious man from a very famous family.
David and his siblings grew up close to Lake Erie and the Canadian border at Niagara Falls.
Documentation is scarce online and a trip to Oswego will be the only way to find primary documents. But we do know that his father died before the 1860 census and that David ran away and ended up sentenced to serve time in the Michigan Reform School for Boys. After his release, he returned to Oswego where he married the former Mary Snow. They had four children, but David was apparently unhappy with his life. According to descendants of David and Mary Snow, the day came that he just literally walked away from his wife and children, Caroline (Carrie), Bertha, George A, and Grace Colton.
So, where, oh where did David go? For more than 130 years, the hypothesis of his first wife and first set of children was that he "went West". But not exactly. David took a beeline to Ingham County, Michigan and by the end of 1881, he would marry Cora Pollack. There is a working hypothesis that he may have met her during his earlier stint in Michigan. At the time of their marriage, he was living in Whealful township, Ingham County; Cora was living in Springwells township, Wayne County. The two are not close together, leading researchers to wonder how they met and why they married so quickly after his arrival in the US.
David and Cora were married in Fowlerville, Livingston County, on December 29, 1881. Over the next 25 years, they would have several children, including a second son named George, after David's apparently beloved father. Their children were: George E, Fred, Bessie, Clifford, Howard, M. Euretta, and Louise.
Recent DNA tests have confirmed that a great-grandson of his son George E. Colton and a great-granddaughter, Carrie Colton, are indeed 3rd cousins to each other.
Now, while he was apparently a juvenile delinquent, bigamist, and absentee father to his four oldest children, David was clearly also well-respected through his life. He would, in serious irony, get elected to the post of Sheriff of Lake County, Michigan.
David Colton, you were an enigma. But you were the progenitor of three very large, and quite separate lines that never knew each other. God bless you.
David was born in Oswego County, New York to George and Mary Colton. Not much is known about Mary, but father George was a curious man from a very famous family.
David and his siblings grew up close to Lake Erie and the Canadian border at Niagara Falls.
Documentation is scarce online and a trip to Oswego will be the only way to find primary documents. But we do know that his father died before the 1860 census and that David ran away and ended up sentenced to serve time in the Michigan Reform School for Boys. After his release, he returned to Oswego where he married the former Mary Snow. They had four children, but David was apparently unhappy with his life. According to descendants of David and Mary Snow, the day came that he just literally walked away from his wife and children, Caroline (Carrie), Bertha, George A, and Grace Colton.
So, where, oh where did David go? For more than 130 years, the hypothesis of his first wife and first set of children was that he "went West". But not exactly. David took a beeline to Ingham County, Michigan and by the end of 1881, he would marry Cora Pollack. There is a working hypothesis that he may have met her during his earlier stint in Michigan. At the time of their marriage, he was living in Whealful township, Ingham County; Cora was living in Springwells township, Wayne County. The two are not close together, leading researchers to wonder how they met and why they married so quickly after his arrival in the US.
David and Cora were married in Fowlerville, Livingston County, on December 29, 1881. Over the next 25 years, they would have several children, including a second son named George, after David's apparently beloved father. Their children were: George E, Fred, Bessie, Clifford, Howard, M. Euretta, and Louise.
Recent DNA tests have confirmed that a great-grandson of his son George E. Colton and a great-granddaughter, Carrie Colton, are indeed 3rd cousins to each other.
Now, while he was apparently a juvenile delinquent, bigamist, and absentee father to his four oldest children, David was clearly also well-respected through his life. He would, in serious irony, get elected to the post of Sheriff of Lake County, Michigan.
David Colton, you were an enigma. But you were the progenitor of three very large, and quite separate lines that never knew each other. God bless you.
David Colton...where to start!
David was born in Oswego County, New York to George and Mary Colton. Not much is known about Mary, but father George was a curious man from a very famous family.
David and his siblings grew up close to Lake Erie and the Canadian border at Niagara Falls.
Documentation is scarce online and a trip to Oswego will be the only way to find primary documents. But we do know that his father died before the 1860 census and that David ran away and ended up sentenced to serve time in the Michigan Reform School for Boys. After his release, he returned to Oswego where he married the former Mary Snow. They had four children, but David was apparently unhappy with his life. According to descendants of David and Mary Snow, the day came that he just literally walked away from his wife and children, Caroline (Carrie), Bertha, George A, and Grace Colton.
So, where, oh where did David go? For more than 130 years, the hypothesis of his first wife and first set of children was that he "went West". But not exactly. David took a beeline to Ingham County, Michigan and by the end of 1881, he would marry Cora Pollack. There is a working hypothesis that he may have met her during his earlier stint in Michigan. At the time of their marriage, he was living in Whealful township, Ingham County; Cora was living in Springwells township, Wayne County. The two are not close together, leading researchers to wonder how they met and why they married so quickly after his arrival in the US.
David and Cora were married in Fowlerville, Livingston County, on December 29, 1881. Over the next 25 years, they would have several children, including a second son named George, after David's apparently beloved father. Their children were: George E, Fred, Bessie, Clifford, Howard, M. Euretta, and Louise.
Recent DNA tests have confirmed that a great-grandson of his son George E. Colton and a great-granddaughter, Carrie Colton, are indeed 3rd cousins to each other.
Now, while he was apparently a juvenile delinquent, bigamist, and absentee father to his four oldest children, David was clearly also well-respected through his life. He would, in serious irony, get elected to the post of Sheriff of Lake County, Michigan.
David Colton, you were an enigma. But you were the progenitor of three very large, and quite separate lines that never knew each other. God bless you.
David was born in Oswego County, New York to George and Mary Colton. Not much is known about Mary, but father George was a curious man from a very famous family.
David and his siblings grew up close to Lake Erie and the Canadian border at Niagara Falls.
Documentation is scarce online and a trip to Oswego will be the only way to find primary documents. But we do know that his father died before the 1860 census and that David ran away and ended up sentenced to serve time in the Michigan Reform School for Boys. After his release, he returned to Oswego where he married the former Mary Snow. They had four children, but David was apparently unhappy with his life. According to descendants of David and Mary Snow, the day came that he just literally walked away from his wife and children, Caroline (Carrie), Bertha, George A, and Grace Colton.
So, where, oh where did David go? For more than 130 years, the hypothesis of his first wife and first set of children was that he "went West". But not exactly. David took a beeline to Ingham County, Michigan and by the end of 1881, he would marry Cora Pollack. There is a working hypothesis that he may have met her during his earlier stint in Michigan. At the time of their marriage, he was living in Whealful township, Ingham County; Cora was living in Springwells township, Wayne County. The two are not close together, leading researchers to wonder how they met and why they married so quickly after his arrival in the US.
David and Cora were married in Fowlerville, Livingston County, on December 29, 1881. Over the next 25 years, they would have several children, including a second son named George, after David's apparently beloved father. Their children were: George E, Fred, Bessie, Clifford, Howard, M. Euretta, and Louise.
Recent DNA tests have confirmed that a great-grandson of his son George E. Colton and a great-granddaughter, Carrie Colton, are indeed 3rd cousins to each other.
Now, while he was apparently a juvenile delinquent, bigamist, and absentee father to his four oldest children, David was clearly also well-respected through his life. He would, in serious irony, get elected to the post of Sheriff of Lake County, Michigan.
David Colton, you were an enigma. But you were the progenitor of three very large, and quite separate lines that never knew each other. God bless you.
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