From book "Descendants of James Stanclift of Middletown, Connecticut and Allied Families", By Robert C. and Sherry [Smith] Stancliff
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GEORGE GOVE STEVENS FAMILY
(527) JULIA MARIA7 STANCLIFT(1) (Thomas6, Thomas5, Comfort4, Comfort3, James2, James1)
Daughter of Thomas J. and Esther A. [Stuart] Stanclift born while the family was in Martin, Allegan County, MI Dec. 31, 1849, died Berkeley, Alameda County, CA May 6, 1924, married 1. at home of her sister Annah [Stanclift] Seamon in Allegan, MI Oct. 17, 1881 GEORGE GOVE STEVENS son of Charles Chandler and Nancy Mathilda [Bowers] Stevens born Warwick, Franklin County, MA Feb. 7, 1853, died Indianapolis, Marion County, IN Jan. 20, 1894. She married 2. ca. 1896 ARTHUR H. SANBORN born MA about 1855 and a friend of her first husband, he died after 1906.
Julia was enumerated in the 1860(2) Census with her brother Andrew and his family. "At twelve, Julia Stanclift went to live with the Fletcher family". The arrangement was not altogether a happy one for Julia and after six years, at age eighteen, she left and embarked upon a career of a teacher. She traveled from one farm to the next, spending each night with a different family whose children she taught. Realizing that there was much more she wanted to learn of the teaching profession, Julia approached her Uncle Daniel D. Davis the guardian of her father's estate. "She badgered him into giving her one thousand dollars so that she could go to the State Normal School at Ipsilanti, from which she graduated."
Julia was with sister, Annah Seamon's family in 1870(3) listed as a teacher at that time. Julia then went south to Indianapolis as the schools there were said to be very good. She lived in a Boarding house owned by a Mrs. Way and there met another boarder named George Stevens. George had come to Indianapolis from Medford, MA to work in a branch of his father's business, dealing in leathers and hides. It was the Allerdice and Stevens Co.
In 1880 Julia was the head of the training department of the Normal School in River Falls, WI. The following year she married George Stevens in Michigan and returned to Indianapolis, IN to live. Her daughter used the wonderful description "She was not a good housekeeper but a good home maker". The family was active in cultural activities and in the Baptist Church. While in George's hometown, Medford, MA their first child died and is buried there. Only ten years later and at age forty her husband, George, died of Typhoid fever.
About two years after his death Julia married a childhood friend of her husband who was also from the Boston area and had been a frequent visitor in the family's Indianapolis home. Arthur H. Sanborn lived in California after leaving Massachusetts. He was a civil engineer and had been part of a surveying team that laid out a railroad through Yellowstone Park. He had seen the final defeat of the Indians and could tell of shooting a wild buffalo. He had managed a cattle ranch in Montana that had belonged to Charles Chandler Stevens, Julia's father in law, and was part of his leather and hide business. Mr. Sanborn introduced Julia and her children to the wonders of California and took them there to live in San Francisco and Berkeley where Julia died in 1924.
CHILDREN: George Gove and Julia Maria [Stanclift] Stevens
1. NANCY BOWERS STEVENS born 1882, died 1885 and buried in the Stevens family plot in West Medford, Middlesex County, MA.
2. ESTHER STUART STEVENS born Indianapolis, Marion County, IN Jan. 1886, married ____ BARNEY and lived San Diego, San Diego County, CA. Esther wrote the manuscript describing the life of her mother, Julia Stanclift.
3. CHARLES CHANDLER STEVENS born East Medford, Middlesex County, MA 1887, died Ontario, San Bernardino County, CA about 1950.
4. SAMUEL STANCLIFT STEVENS born Indianapolis, Marion County, IN Feb. 17, 1889, died Oakland Alameda County, CA Oct. 16, 1970, married New York City, NY Jan. 30, 1917 LOIS VOSWINKEL daughter of Frederick William and Emma Cynthia [Phillips] Voswinkel born Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, IA Apr. 17, 1892. ____________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
1. .The records of Julia Maria [Stanclift] Stevens were contained in a Biography manuscript written by Esther Stuart [Stevens] Barney and provided for this text by Samuel P. Stevens.
2. .MI 1860 CENSUS, Allegan County, Martin Township 800/753
3. .MI 1870 CENSUS, Allegan County, June 22, 1870, page 17, 126/129
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