Julia Anne (nee Vaughn) Clough, 1856-1938
Headstone GPS Coordinates:
Birth: 09 September 1856, Shiawassee County, Michigan
Death:07 November 1938, Port Orchard, Kitsap County, Washington
Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Warren Lewis Clough
American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Increase Blake (Massachusetts) A010953.
Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards.
Julia Anne Vaughn was born on September 9, 1856, in Shiawassee County, Michigan, to Collins Vaughn and Rebecca A. Blake. She grew up in Antrim, Shiawassee County, and was the seventh of nine children in a large farming family. Descendants later remembered Julia as a “vivacious and charming woman,” a description that seems to fit a life marked by resilience, movement, and independence.
On July 4, 1875, Julia married Alfred (also recorded as George) McCullam in Gaines, Genesee County, Michigan. The couple had a son, Fred Wilbur McCullam, born the following year. The marriage ended in divorce prior to 1877.
In 1877, Julia married Warren Lewis Clough, commonly known as Lewis, who had been born in August 1847 in Shiawassee County, Michigan. Lewis was the second of nine children of Warren Clough and Caroline Wolverton and had grown up on his parents’ farm in Burns, Michigan. Julia was twenty years old at the time of their marriage; Lewis was thirty.
On March 21, 1878, Julia and Lewis welcomed a son, Lester Clough. In the 1880 federal census, the family was listed as living in Antrim, Michigan. Julia’s older son from her first marriage appeared in that census as “Fredie Clough,” though later records correctly identified him as Fred McCullam.
In the mid-1880s, Julia and Lewis left Michigan with their sons and moved west to Kitsap County, Washington, following Lewis’s father, who had relocated the year before. The family settled near Crosby, where Lewis eventually acquired land; the first known land records in his name date to May 13, 1896. By the 1900 census, Julia and Lewis owned a 40-acre farm in Crosby free of mortgage. Julia was forty-four years old at the time, Lewis fifty, and their son Lester twenty-two. Her eldest son, Fred, was married and living in Monroe, Snohomish County, Washington.
Life in Kitsap County revolved around farming and subsistence work. Lewis raised chickens and trapped animals with Lester and his father, selling skunk, beaver, otter, mink, muskrat, and weasel skins from ponds around Crosby. Lewis also worked periodically for Jacob Hauptly and was mentioned in Hauptly’s diaries, including a note from 1890 when Lewis helped build a fence on Hauptly’s property. Julia maintained the household and family during these years on the frontier farm.
Julia and Lewis continued living on their farm until Lewis’s death on October 7, 1923. He died at home at the age of seventy-six from “general debility and valvular heart trouble” and was buried at Seabeck Cemetery. His obituary, written by Rev. Samuel Bassett (also known as “Brutus”) and published in the Kitsap County Herald on October 19, 1923, described Lewis as a unique character and a pioneer of the Crosby area, and expressed sympathy for Julia and her family.
After Lewis’s death, Julia remained in the Crosby area, likely to stay near her son Lester, his wife, and their children. By the 1930 census, she had left the farm and was renting a home in Crosby. Family stories passed down through generations continued to emphasize her lively personality and charm.
In her later years, Julia moved to Port Orchard, Washington. She died on November 7, 1938, at Sunnyview Hospital from a cerebral hemorrhage. Her death certificate listed the informant as “Hospital Records, Port Orchard,” and contained several inaccuracies, including incorrect information about her parents.
Julia’s obituary, published in the Bremerton Sun, stated:
“Julia A. Clough, resident of the Bremerton vicinity for many years, died Monday evening at her Port Orchard home at the age of 82 years. She was born in Michigan on 9 Sep 1856. There are no known relatives surviving. Graveside services will be held Saturday morning at 10 o’clock at the Seabeck Cemetery.”
This obituary is puzzling, as Julia did have surviving family at the time of her death. Her eldest son, Fred, had died in 1936 in Montana but left a son, John W. McCollum, who was living in Everett, Washington. Her younger son, Lester, had been released from prison in 1936 and was living in Crosby with his wife and several children in 1938. These circumstances suggest that Julia may have been estranged from her son Lester and her grandson at the end of her life, possibly explaining the statement that there were “no known relatives surviving” and the errors on her death certificate.
Julia Anne Vaughn Clough was buried at Seabeck Cemetery alongside her husband. Neither Julia nor Lewis has a headstone. According to notes by the late historian Fred Just, they are buried together in the northeastern section of the cemetery near the fence line.