MELVIN ROY DONHAM |
Ferdinand Lee DONHAM was born 3 March 1851 in Clay County, IN. He was the ninth child of Abijah DONHAM and Margaret DONHAM. He was probably named after his second cousin, Ferdinand LEE, the son of Henry D. LEE and Harriet Evelyn GORDON.1
Florella Jane "Jenna" RECTOR2, daughter of Enoch Mabury RECTOR and Elizabeth DONHAM, was born 27 February 1862 in Perry Township, Clay County, IN. She might have been named after Florella Jane DONHAM (m. J.H. SIMMONS), daughter of Jonathan Singleton DONHAM and Elizabeth AYERS.
Ferdinand and Jenna were married 4 September 1880 in Cory, Clay County, IN.3 They were second cousins once removed as they were both descended from Nathaniel DONHAM Jr. and Keziah CROSLEY (they were also half second cousins once removed because Ferdinand was also descended from Nathaniel DONHAM Jr. and his first wife Mary SUTTON). Ferdinand and Jenna had at least four known children, though only two lived beyond childhood.
CHILDREN OF FERDINAND LEE DONHAM & FLORELLA JANE RECTOR
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1 NAME: Melvin Roy DONHAM
BORN: 19 Dec 1882 PLACE: Terre Haute,Vigo,IN4
DIED: 2 Oct 1960 PLACE: Sebastopol,Sonoma,CA
BUR.: 4 Oct 1960 PLACE: Woodlawn Cem,San Mateo,CA
SPOUSE: Rose Marie HEIM
MARR: 5 Jul 1910 PLACE: San Rafael,Marin,CA
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2 NAME: (infant) DONHAM
BORN: Abt 1884 PLACE: ,Clay,IN
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3 NAME: Goldie Elizabeth DONHAM
BORN: 1 Sep 1886 PLACE: Jackson Twp,Clay,IN5
DIED: Abt Jul 1920 PLACE: Manilla,,,PHIL
BUR.: Abt 15 Feb 1921 PLACE: San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
SPOUSE: Lot Dean LOCKWOOD
MARR: 19 Sep 1919 PLACE: San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
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4 NAME: (male) DONHAM
BORN: 21 Jul 1887 PLACE: Jackson Twp,Clay,IN6
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Children #2 and #4 died young. I have not found any documentation on what their names might have been. When I found the records on these children Melvin's daughter Genevieve (DONHAM) SUGGS remembered something her father had once said about there being more than two children. Melvin might have remembered them since he was five years old when (male) DONHAM was born in 1887.
I have not found a death record for Jenna (RECTOR) DONHAM, but family legend says that she died in childbirth. That would mean that she died after 21 July 1887 when the last known child was born, but before 1897 when a land record showed that Ferdinand was "unmarried".7
In 1893 Melvin DONHAM was going to Washington School, in Perry Township, Clay County, IN. There is an old schoolhouse photograph that shows him sitting in the front row.8 There are sixty-five people in the picture, almost all of them somehow related to Melvin. There were eight DONHAMs, twelve JEFFERS, and twelve RECTORs!
Ferdinand was a farmer and rancher, but several Indiana records also listed him as a miner, although I do not know what it was that he mined there. It might have been partly because of this job that he decided to leave Indiana to go gold prospecting in Alaska. In the 1897 land deed Ferdinand transferred his land to his sister Melissa D. JAMES. It was probably shortly after this that he left Indiana. I also assume that the cover photo of Ferdinand with his children Melvin and Goldie was taken about this time in 1897 because each person appears to be the correct age and this was a suitable occasion.9
Family legend says that Ferdinand left Indiana first and later Melvin joined him in Alaska. Goldie stayed in Indiana, living with her maternal grandparents Enoch Mabury and Elizabeth (DONHAM) RECTOR. Apparently Melvin washed dishes somewhere in Colorado as he made his way to Alaska. When he got there, he and Ferdinand panned for gold at a place called Mary's Igloo, which today is an Eskimo Reservation near Nome.10 They worked hard and had nothing to eat except beans and ptarmigan.11 They did not strike it rich.
It is unknown exactly how many years they stayed in Alaska, but Melvin was in Everett, Snohomish County, Washington, at least in July 1903 the 1901-1902 City Directory of Everett, Snohomish County, WA, listed Ferdinand L. DONHAM as a county landowner (Section 13, Township 31, Range 10, 160 Acres, value $920, address unknown). They were there up until at least July 1903 when Melvin appeared in a photograph shot in Everett. Eventually he and Ferdinand ended up in San Francisco, CA. Ferdinand and Melvin operated a saloon in the Barbary Coast section of the City. Barbary Coast, at that time, was a rowdy place filled with sailors, whorehouses, barfights, and gambling. Ferdinand would occasionally get drunk and because of this Melvin would not touch any alcohol in later years except for a special drink on a holiday. The 1909 San Francisco City Directory lists "Fred DONHAM", a waiter, living at 1470 California Street. The next known record shows him living alone in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, CA, in the 1920 census under the name "Lee DONHAM".
Between 1926 and 1927 Melvin and his family moved to Petaluma where he ran a chicken farm. Ferdinand lived out the last of his days there, sleeping in an extra room unconnected to the rest of the house. He died from chronic heart disease on 11 August 1927 in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, CA. He was buried 13 August 1927 in Petaluma.12 The tombstone says, "F.L. DONHAM 1851-1927".
