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Descendants of John Mansur

Generation No. 6

6. AGNES MAE⁶ WIGGINS (ELIZA JANE⁵ MANSUR, WARREN⁴, JOSEPH³, WILLIAM², JOHN¹) was born January 24, 1861 in Island Pond, Vermont, and died February 13, 1890 in Albin Township, Brown County, Minnesota. She married WILLIAM ELLIOTT SOMERVILLE March 20, 1881 in Sleepy Eye, Brown County, Minnesota, son of ANDREW SOMERVILLE and PHEOBE CUNNINGHAM.
Notes for WILLIAM ELLIOTT SOMERVILLE:
April 22, 1996

Some thoughts about my grandparents, William Elliot and Agnes May (Wiggin) Somerville. William Elliot(t) was a younger son of Andrew Elliott and Phoebe Jane (Cunningham) Somerville. He was the first of the family to he born in Minnesota after the family came to Minnesota from southeast Indiana. (Ripley County, Indiana). His birth place is Viola Township, MN., located about ten miles northeast of Rochester, MN. He was born on a farm two miles directly east of the Oak Hill Cemetery, on the Plainview, MN. road. As a young man, he moved to the Sleepy Eye, MN. area where he married Agnes May Wiggin, daughter of Mark Wiggin. Mark spelled his name without the final "s". They rented and farmed a farm in Alim Township, Brown County, MN. owned by Phoebe Jane's father, Mark Wiggin. The older four children -- Earl, Mark, Lee and Birdie -- were all born at this farm. When my mother was 11 months old, her mother died as a result of Tuberculoses. Grandpa Somerville tried to care for the three young boys by himself. He had his sister, Mary, (Mrs. Jacob Duncan) take care of mother. After about six months, the Duncan's wanted to adopt mother. Grandfather would have no part of that.

When Agnes May was ill, Wm. Elliot had hired a recent German immigrant girl (aged 20) by the name of Anna Marie Mueckl to care for his wife. After Agnes May died, Anna Maria took other employment. At this point, grandpa asked her if she would come back to care for the children including my mother. She did. Later, she and grandfather married, she took the American name, "Mary", and they then started the second family of seven children beginning with my Aunt Emma.

After Mark Wiggin's death, Wm. Elliot purchased a farm of his own. The first Wiggins farm was directly south of Sleepy Eye. The new farm was northeast of Sleepy Eye about 8 miles from the first farm. Grandfather later sold that farm and purchased a larger farm, 320 acres, in Woods Township, Chippewa County, about fourteen miles west and a bit south of Willmar. The road fronting the farm was the county line road, so although this farm was in Chippewa County, land east, across the road, was in Kandiyohi County.

When the family moved from Brown County to Chippewa County, they loaded the livestock and machinery onto a box car, with Earl and Mark riding with the personal goods. The rest of the family drove overland by team and buggy, driving the first day until dusk when they stopped at a likely looking farmstead, where they were taken in and bedded and boarded for the night. The next day they continued on to the new Chippewa County farm which had only a large granary on the property. And that granary was home until a house could be built.

Grandpa hired his brother-in-law, Maximilian Mueckl, as head carpenter and paid him $2.50 per day, the helpers, $1.75 per day. The new house cost just under $1,000.00 to build. Later a barn and other farm building were built.

Grandpa evidently did not live in the new farm very long, because only Aunt Isabel Aarvig was born there. The others were born either in Brown County or in the City of Willmar.

Grandpa decided he should sell the farm and move to Willmar so the children, ten, would have a better opportunity to attend school. They bought a small acreage just off Litchfield Avenue in the west part of Willmar. The 6.5 acres had a large garden, apple trees, plums cherries, etc., and grandma used to can 80 quarts of this, 70 quarts of that, so the family got much of their food from the acreage.

With a large family to support, grandpa felt need for extra income, so he used his team and wagon for freight deliveries, later working for the railroad at the round-house. In the later years, the family was mostly gone, so he sold the acreage and bought a smaller house in east Willmar near the railroad roundhouse. He lived there until his death. He had a hernia for years, arid would not have it taken care of surgically, so a loop of intestine caught in the hernia, infection set in, and he died from this.

Grandmother, after her husbands death, with no income, was not able to keep up the home, lost it, and spent her last years in a rented apartment in downtown Willmar.

Grandma Somerville was raised Catholic but living 14 miles in the country for some time, was unable to get to town to attend church, so she eventually became a Methodist convert and joined Grandpa's church. All her own children, except Aunt Viola, were baptized Catholic, but were raised Methodist.

This is sort of a rambling letter, probably with a lot of typos in it, hut there is some family history which I imagine that no one other than me has first hand knowledge of. So I hope thru this letter, it can remain "alive".

My great great grandparents, the Robert Cunninghams, my great grandparents, Andrew Elliott Somervilles, are all buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery, Viola Township, Olmsted County, MN. The great grandparents, Mark and Eliza Jane Wiggin, are buried in the Some Cemetery, Sleepy Eye, MN. Their daughter, my grandmother, Agnes May Somerville is also buried in Home Cemetery. Grandparents, the Wm. Elliot Somervilles are buried in the Fairview Cemetery, Willmar, MN. Uncle Jesse and Aunt Isabel Aarvig, are buried in lots next to them in Fairview. Your grandfather, Mark Somerville, is also buried at Fairview Cemetery, about 100 feet from the Wm. Somervilles.

The Oak Hill Cemetery, Viola Township, Olmsted County, also has the graves of many other family members, great uncles and aunts, and cousins of older generations. Probably a dozen or more relatives of some degree are buried here.

The WM. Somerville farm in Chippewa County was just "down the road" from the Doubles, so Mark Somerville and Edith Double undoubtedly knew each other as young people. The nearest school there was the Woods Township School. Mother taught there for several years, followed by Aunt Emma, then Aunt Esther Carrell, the Aunt Isabel Aarvig. For more than ten years, the teacher was always a Somerville sister.

Best regards,

Mr. Merrill Chesebrough

According to one old form of William Wesley Harden, William Somerville was born in Winona County, Minnesota.

Children of AGNES WIGGINS and WILLIAM SOMERVILLE are:

EARL⁷ SOMERVILLE, b. February 09, 1882, Sleepy Eye, Brown County, Minnesota; d. February 13, 1965, Bird Island, Renville County, Minnesota.

Notes for EARL SOMERVILLE:
EARL - born February 9, 1882, in Albin Township, Brown County, MN. He was married to Agnes Theresa Hultgren at Kerkhoven, MN. June 1, 1904. She died June 19, 1908, of complications of childbirth when son, Irwin was born. Mary Somerville cared for Irwin untilhe died in infancy.

Earl then married Edith Emelyn Hultgren, Agnes' sister, January 3, 1912. Two sons were born to this marriage: Earl, Jr., born March 25, 1915 and Wayne, born January 31, 1919.

Following Edith's death, Earl married a third time to Jessie Bernice Collinson Jones from Willmar. They lived at Bird Island until Earl's death, then she lived in Wilimar until her death.

Earl lived for many years at Raymond, MN. where he owned a jewelry store and operated the theatre. His sons were born here.

ii.

MARK WIGGINS SOMERVILLE, b. May 26, 1883, Sleepy Eye, Brown County, Minnesota; d. October 27, 1918, Willmar, Chippewa County, Minnesota; m. EDITH HELEN DOBLE, August 13, 1906, Willmar, Chippewa County, Minnesota.

Notes for MARK WIGGINS SOMERVILLE:
MARK WIGGINS SOMERVILLE - born May 26, 1883, in Albin Twp., Brown County, MN. He married Ethel May Doble at Montevideo, MN. Oct. 1, 1904. She died in 1905. He then married her sister, Edith Doble on Aug. 16, 1906 at Montevideo. Mark died Oct. 27, 1918 from tuberculosis, but his actual Jeath was hastened by an attack of influenze in the first yearof the influenza epidemic in 1918. He is buried at Fairview Cemetery, Wilimar, MN.

Children of Mark and Edith Somerville were: Harold Elliott (b. March 16, 1907 - died June 30, 1977), Florence Evelyn (b. June 10, 1909 died September 8, 1995),Violet Mae (b. 3/16/1911), Evangeline Grace (b.8/26/1913 died ?) Derwin Mark Dorothy, (b. 9/21/1916). Dorothy died 07/10/1917).

iii.

LEE LOT SOMERVILLE, b. December 07, 1885, Sleepy Eye, Brown County, Minnesota; d. October 06, 1975, Canoga Park, California; m. MATHILDA OLENA BERG, September 25, 1912, Willmar, Chippewa County, Minnesota.

Notes for LEE LOT SOMERVILLE:
LEE LOT SOMERVILLE - born 12/7/1885 in Albin Twp., Brown County, MN. He married Mathilda Olena Berg 9/25/1912. She was born 6/30/1893 in Minnesota and died 5/11/1977 in Canoga Park, CA. Lee died 10/5/1975, also at Canoga Park, CA. Children of this marriage are: Stanley C. Somerville (b. 7/6/1913 at Willmar), Alice Vivian (b. 11/4/1915 at Willmar), Eugene Victor (b. 2/3/1918), and Debris Corinne (b. 1/10/1924).

iv.

BIRDIE GLEN SOMERVILLE, b. March 12, 1889, Sleepy Eye, Brown County, Minnesota; d. December 11, 1981, Le Roy, Mower County, Minnesota.

Notes for BIRDIE GLEN SOMERVILLE:

BIRDIE GLEN SOMERVILLE - b. 03/12/1889 in Albin Twp., Brown County, MN. As her mother died when Birdie was so young, she remembers no other but Mary, to whom she was exceedingly devoted. She married Earl Mathewson Chesebrough, b.07/04/1870 in Plainfield, Conn., but later of Willmar, on June 27, 1912 in the Somerville home on West Litchfield, Ave, the Rev. John L. Parmeter officiating. Earl died of a stroke Nov. 28, 1937. One son, Merrill Earl, was born to this marriage (03/27/1919).

After being a widow for several years she married George Selbin Ecklund. He passed away March 17, 1960 after a long illness.

On August 20, 1964, she was united in marriage to Howard B. Hanks at the Little Brown Church, IA. This was an unusually happy and companiable marriage. Birdie passed away Dec. 11, 1981 at her home in Le Roy.

Earl and Birdie first owned the Grant County Review at Herman, MN., then purchased the Le Roy Independent, Le Roy, MN. Birdie, together with her son, Merrill, continued to publish it until 1969.

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