Monday Memory- Happy Birthday to my Great grandfather Edwin Cleveland Stoddard

Today marks the 128th birthday of my great grandfather, Edwin Cleveland Stoddard.  I think of him often kissing his babies and handing them to Marie and Leo after having buried his Jenny.  My grandmother Ruth's history him is brief but lovely.  Jennie called him "Ed."  He was a railway man weighing about 195 and standing at about 6 feet two inches tall.  Grandma says he had kind blue eyes and a ready smile.  Those details remind me so much of my Uncles Kurt and Wynn.  

Grandma's history of her father ends, "I never knew my father, "Ed" very well.  After our mother's death, we were raised by our aunt and uncle, Leo and Marie Kimball who adopted Cleve and myself." 

So much is said and not said in that paragraph.  I have searched to know more about my Stoddard line recording etchings of both his father and grandfather (Hyrum Franklin Stoddard and Charles Augustus Stoddard) and then the details include only birth and death dates of Curtis Stoddard, Anthony Stoddard, Eliakim Stoddard, but then it comes to Reverand Anthony Stoddard and the finding is a jackpot.   In fact, it is at Reverand Anthony Stoddard that I began a dance with him nearly 1/4 century ago....

My 22 year dance with the Reverend

I first met the Reverend Anthony Stoddard when I was 18.  At that time, I was working on my Laurel Project in order to complete my Young Womanhood Award (I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints).  My Laurel project entailed the gathering of my genealogical records and organizing them into a Book of Remembrance.  This is when my “love affair” with family history began… and in a sense my courtship with the Reverend.

My grandparents, Max Dickson Weaver and Ruth Mabel Stoddard (Kimball) Weaver both descend from the Reverend and his second wife Mary Sherman… in fact, their family lines cross at the Reverend’s son Abijah Stoddard who Married Joanna Curtis. Abijah Stoddard  died on May 6, 1776 drowning at the Battle of Crown Point, NY during the Revolutionary War.Grandma descends from Anthony and grandpa from Icabod.  Yep, my grandparents were “kissin’ cousins” too.

The Reverend was a colonial Clergyman of Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut.  He was born August 9, 1678 and died September 6, 1760 at age 82.  Anthony, the reverend’s, father was also a follower of Christ- Solomon Stoddard was a Pastor at Northampton church, Massachusetts.  At age 19, the reverend Anthony graduated from Harvard with an A.B. Degree.  In 1715, he obtained his A.M. degree also from Harvard.  Following in his Father’s footsteps he was ordained the minister of the First Congregational Church in Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut on May 27, 1702- at a mere 24 years of age.  He continued in this stead for 60 years. 

In exchange for his service as the Reverend, the congregation built him a house, (he was to provide the nails and glass) dug him a well, gave him 115 acres of land and paid him 70 pounds per year.  This house was deeded to the Reverend after 6 years of service.   At that time, he became as rich as the most opulent farmer in the area.  His house consisted of 3 floors.  On the first floor the probate courts for the district were held for forty years, on the second floor was the portico also where he as Parson prepared his sermons.  This property is located in a beautiful valley with hoary Castle Rock as a background. 

In 1714, The Reverend’s first wife Prudence Wells Stoddard died at age 32 during childbirth.  Leaving him with 8 young children to raise, he married Mary Sherman of Woodbury.  She and the Reverend had three children one of which Abijah Stoddard from which both my grandparents descend.  Mary, likewise died of childbirth in 1721 at age 29.  The Reverend then married Hannah.

The Reverend was a man of great statute.  He was known to drive off the Indians during the raids of 1708, quiet the fearful settlers during the rare appearance of the Great Northern Lights in 1719, and care for the citizens of the community during the outbreak of Typhoid fever in 1727 to which he lost four of his adult children and the community itself lost 44 villagers.  In 1741, the Reverend Anthony was appointed to teach an Indian named Achetoset and his family Christianity after Achetoset petitioned the community for the knowledge of the “Christian Revolution”

As a product of the times, Reverend Anthony owned slaves and preached in a church where seating was assigned by rank where people of “color” were assigned the balcony and where the women were separated from the men in pews.

In spite of the location of his parish, the Reverend rose in prominence often preaching 3 sermons every Sunday, he also possessed degrees in theology, medicine, and law.  The members of the community described their pastor as “an all-around man, broad minded, incessantly useful, brave, generous, and benign.  He was also elected a trustee of Yale University where a portrait of him remains a collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.

So, twenty- two years later I have finished my “dance” with the Reverend.  I have shared his story- shared his joy.  I firmly believe his great faith as a Reverend planted the seeds of a desire to know Christ in the hearts of his descendents.  So much so, that when young boy Prophet Joseph Smith restored the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth, young missionaries were led to and invited into the homes of the Reverend’s descendents Charles Stoddard and cousin Mary Ann Stoddard. A chain of  faith was forged in the Reverend’s posterity.  It was passed to the parents and grandparents of Max and Ruth, “the Kissin’ Cousins” and then to me their granddaughter and their 36 other grandchildren. I pray I will not weaken this great chain of faith!  Thank you Reverend… I have enjoyed this dance!