Warren Lewis Clough, 1847-1923

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: August 1847, Shiawassee County, Michigan

Death: 7 Oct 1923, Crosby, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: :Jonathan L. Clough, Warren Clough (Sr), Infant Boy Clough

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Ephraim Clough (Massachusetts) A023299, John Warner (Massachusetts) A121161, Abner Crosby (New York) A028061, Thaddeus Nichols (Connecticut), and Gould Ferris (New York).

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards.

 

Warren Lewis Clough was born in August 1847 in Shiawassee County, Michigan. He was known throughout his life by his middle name, Lewis. His parents were Warren Clough and Caroline Wolverton, and Lewis was the second of their nine children.

Lewis spent most of his childhood in Burns, Michigan, growing up on his parents’ farm. In 1877, at the age of thirty, he married Julia Anne Vaughn.

Julia Anne Vaughn was born on September 9, 1856, in Shiawassee County, Michigan, to Collins Vaughn and Rebecca A. Blake. She was raised in Antrim Township, Shiawassee County, and was the seventh of nine children.

On July 4, 1875, Julia Anne first married Alfred (also recorded as George) McCullam in Gaines, Genesee County, Michigan. Their son, Fred Wilbur McCullam, was born the following year. Julia and Alfred/George divorced prior to 1877, after which she married Lewis Clough.

Lewis and Julia’s son, Lester Clough, was born on March 21, 1878. In the 1880 federal census, the family was listed as living in Antrim. Julia’s son from her first marriage appeared in that census as “Fredie Clough,” though in later records he was consistently identified as Fred McCullam.

In the mid-1880s, Lewis, Julia Anne, and their two sons left Michigan and relocated to Kitsap County, Washington, following Lewis’s father, Warren Clough, who had moved west the year before. The earliest land records for Lewis Clough in Kitsap County were issued on May 13, 1896. By the time of the 1900 census, the family was living on a 40-acre farm in Crosby, which they owned free of mortgage. Lewis was fifty years old, Julia Anne forty-four, and their son Lester twenty-two. Their son Fred was married and living in Monroe, Snohomish County, Washington.

Lewis occasionally worked for Jacob Hauptly and was mentioned several times in Hauptly’s diaries. In 1890, he helped build fencing on Jacob’s property. For most of his later years, Lewis worked on his own ranch, raising chickens and trapping alongside his son Lester and his father, Warren. Together they trapped skunk, beaver, otter, mink, muskrat, and weasel in the ponds around Crosby, selling the pelts at market.

Lewis and Julia Anne remained 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.” He was buried in Seabeck Cemetery, likely near his father.

Lewis’s obituary was written by the Rev. Samuel Bassett (who wrote under the name “Brutus”) and published in the Kitsap County Herald on Friday, October 19, 1923:

“Sunday, October 17, at 6 a.m., one of the pioneers of our locality passed away – Mr. Lewis Clough. I have not his age but am sure he was near his 80th milepost if not gone beyond. Brutus knew that Mr. Clough had been ailing for a long time but never thought he was that near to the last call. Brutus himself has not been well since his accident in Seattle last spring, or he would have made an effort to call and see him.

Lewis Clough was a character by himself. We may say truly of the old warrior, there was only one Lewis Clough. He was buried in the Seabeck cemetery Tuesday afternoon. I was called away Sunday evening by the death of my nephew’s wife (he is the only close relative I have in Washington). I was glad to hear that there was a good turnout of neighbors to the funeral and I surely would have been among the assemblage on the occasion.

Brutus officiated at the funeral of his father, Old Papa Clough, a loyal Christian, and assisted at the funeral of Chester Clough, brother of Lewis Clough. Was very glad to learn that Crosby’s old settlers, but now of Silverdale, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Myhre, were at the funeral. All the old settlers here had a warm place in their hearts for the Myhre family.

Brutus’ heart goes out in sympathy for Mrs. Clough and the sons and relatives, hoping that when the Great Day will come, we will all be found, thru the merits of Jesus’ blood, among the great throng on the right hand. Who will be the next must be an unsolved question.

— BRUTUS”

After Lewis’s death, Julia Anne continued to live in the Crosby area, possibly to remain near her son Lester, his wife, and their children. By the 1930 census, she had moved from the family farm and was renting a home in Crosby. Family stories describe her as “a vivacious and charming woman.”

At the time of her death on November 7, 1938, Julia Anne was living in Port Orchard, Washington. She died at Sunnyview Hospital from a cerebral hemorrhage. Her death certificate lists the informant simply as “Hospital Records, Port Orchard.”

Her 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 September 9, 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 Anne’s first son, Fred, who died in 1936 in Montana, left behind a son, John W. McCullum, who was living in Everett, Washington, at the time of Julia’s death. Additionally, her younger son, Lester, had been released from prison in 1936 and was living in Crosby with his wife and several of their children in 1938. Julia may have been estranged from her youngest son and grandson, which could explain the inaccuracies in both her death certificate—where her parents were incorrectly named—and her obituary’s claim that “no known relatives” survived her.

Neither Lewis nor Julia Anne has a headstone in Seabeck Cemetery. According to the notes of local historian Fred Just, they are buried together in the northeastern section of the cemetery near the fence line.