This story is for my father and all of his siblings and cousins, who never knew their maternal grandparents. Now they can.
Eli Sanford BIRCHARD/BURCHARD (1830-1862)
Eli Sanford BIRCHARD was born in August of 1830 in Fairfield County, Connecticut. He was the second son of Uriah and Julia (HYATT) BIRCHARD.[1] Altogether, the BIRCHARDs had 10 children, four boys and six girls. Uriah was a shoe cutter in Wilton. He lived and worked among the shoemakers that made Fairfield County a booming textile community in the 1800s. The BIRCHARD sons became shoe manufacturers and cabinet makers, the daughters married and raised families nearby.
For more information about the shoe making industry in Fairfield County, see our story The Bavarian Bootmaker and His Wives.
Eli BIRCHARD married Jemima JONES in November of 1853.[2] Jemima was born in New York in 1833, the third daughter of Reuben and Sarah (SCOFIELD) JONES.[3] The JONES family had eight daughters and one son. Reuben JONES had been born in Southington, Connecticut, and settled in Fairfield County with his wife and family sometime before 1830. He was, like many men in the community, a shoe cutter.[4]
Both Eli and Jemima’s families had been in Connecticut since before the Revolutionary War. Julia BIRCHARD’s father, Stephen HYATT, was a Revolutionary War soldier, and the BIRCHARD name can be traced in this county back to the 1600s.
During the early period of settlement, in the 1600s and 1700s, Connecticut had more enslaved people than any other state in New England, more than 5,000 in 1774. However, Wilton, where the BIRCHARD family settled, had just 16 slaves listed on the 1810 census.[5] In nearby Georgetown, the Georgetown Anti-Slavery Society was formed in December 1838 – Edwin Birchard (unknown relation) was a founding member.[6]
During the period leading up to the Civil War, Wilton had developed a strong anti-slavery movement, and served as an Underground Railroad stop on the road to Canada.[7] One route took slaves north through Stamford to a man by the name of “Weed” in Darien who transported runaway slaves to a station in Norwalk and from there to Wilton. In Wilton there was a known abolitionist by the name of William Wakeman who worked tirelessly for decades helping slaves escape north to Canada as both station-keeper and conductor. He would take the men, women, and sometimes children, to their next destination in his hay wagon, under cover of night, but there were reports of his transporting them in broad daylight, openly, taking a “dangerous day shift.”
In the Wakeman house at 36 Seeley Road, not far from the home where Uriah and Julia BIRCHARD lived, “when the neighbors saw him ‘carrying wood to the guest chamber and Mrs. Wakeman carrying trays of her best food, they knew that during the dark hours of the preceding night one or more …. had arrived.’”[8]Aside from the BIRCHARDs, many of the neighbors that knew of these comings and goings, and likely aided, had names like SCOFIELD, ST. JOHN, and HYATT – names that can be found on several branches of our tree.[9] In 1848 Connecticut introduced “An Act to Prevent Slavery” and officially freed all slaves in the state, although the state continued its work to aid the abolitionist movement in the union.[10]
In March of 1855, Eli’s mother Julia died at the age of 55. A year later, in March of 1856, Eli’s young sister Frances died at the age of 10. Uriah BURCHARD died in April of 1867. Julia, Frances and Uriah are buried in St. Matthew’s Parish Cemetery in Wilton.[11]
Eli and Jemima welcomed their first child, a daughter named Emma, in early 1857. In March of 1859 they had another baby girl they named Charlotte. Sadly, in August of that year little Emma, their firstborn, died at age 2. In May of 1860, Jemima gave birth to the couple’s first son, Charles. Eli worked as a shoemaker in a community thriving with fellow tradesmen. Eli and Jemima had a healthy young daughter and baby son and Jemima was pregnant again within the year.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Eli joined the Union Army, enlisting with the 10th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The regiment mustered in at Hartford on the 22nd of October in 1861. Jemima was 6 months pregnant when Eli left for his service – she gave birth to Frank Foster BURCHARD on January 14, 1862 in New Canaan, Connecticut.
While Jemima was giving birth to his second son, Eli was marching. His unit had been attached to Foster’s 1st Brigade, Burnside’s Expeditionary Corps and was on expedition to Hatteras Inlet and Roanoke Island, North Carolina, through January and early February. In the early morning of February 8, 1862, the regiment took part in the Battle of Roanoke Island. Under the leadership of General Ambrose E. Burnside, an amphibious operation of 7,500 men launched from Fort Monroe and landed on the southwestern side of Roanoke Island. Supported by gunboats, they attacked the Confederates, forcing the surrender of 2,500 men and securing an important Atlantic outpost for the Union Army.[12]
After the capture of Roanoke Island, the regiment marched to New Berne and participated in the Battle of New Berne on March 14. From March through October the regiment was stationed at New Berne.[13] It is possible that Eli was able to take furlough during this time, to meet his new baby, but there is no record of one. The regiment moved out from New Berne on October 30, 1862, but Eli BIRCHARD would not be with his fellow Union Army soldiers. On October 22, 1862, Eli Sanford BIRCHARD died of bilious fever in Washington County, North Carolina.[14] After Eli died, Jemima applied for, and received, a pension on behalf of her husband, starting in early 1863.[15]
Jemima BIRCHARD never remarried; she and her children moved home with her family when her husband left for war and never returned. Reuben JONES doted on baby Frank and raised him as a favored grandson. Reuben’s wife, Sarah (Jemima’s mother and Frank’s grandmother) died in 1866, and the other JONES siblings had all married and moved on to their own families (except for the youngest daughter, who would die unmarried in 1916). Jemima and her children Charlotte, Charles, and Frank, all lived with Reuben until he died in 1878. In his will, Reuben JONES left his “movable estate, consisting of tools, furniture, clothing, etc.” to his grandson Frank “out of [his] affection for him.”[16]
Frank Foster BURCHARD (1862-1923)
Although the spelling of the surname BIRCHARD had varied over the generations, Frank began using the BURCHARD spelling regularly. Frank Foster BURCHARD was 16 years old when his maternal grandfather died in 1878, and he inherited his “movable” estate. By the federal census of 1880, Frank’s brother, Charles, had moved to Manhattan and married.[17] Frank lived with his mother and his sister Charlotte, in a home neighboring his maternal uncle and aunts, and took work on a local farm as a general laborer.
Not far away lived the family of William and Margareta (PRITCHARD) RAYMOND and their five children: four daughters – the youngest of these called Annie (b. 1867) – and a son. William Bouton RAYMOND worked in a nursery and Margareta and her eldest daughters worked in clothing manufacturing while Anne kept house at age 12.[18] The RAYMOND family was an established Fairfield County family that had been settled in the area for more than a century.[19]
It is likely that Frank met Anne RAYMOND at some point between 1880 and 1890 – they grew up in the same town, knew all the same people by proximity and relation, and it is possible that during the time Frank worked as a farm laborer his path may have crossed with William RAYMOND who was also at varying times a gardener and farm laborer. Sometime in this period Frank and Annie courted and became engaged. In early 1893, Frank Foster BURCHARD and Anna Elizabeth “Annie” RAYMOND were married. Frank was 31 and Annie was 26.[20]
William RAYMOND, Frank BURCHARD’s new father-in-law had enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War, mustering in at Hartford in September of 1861 – just a month before Frank’s father, Eli BURCHARD, had done – joining the 8th Regiment, Connecticut Infantry, Company H. This regiment sailed with the Burnside expedition as part of the IX Corps and participated in the Battle of New Berne – the same engagement that Eli BURCHARD was participating in when Frank was a newborn. After New Berne, William RAYMOND’s regiment proceeded to Fredericksburg to join the Maryland Campaign and participated in the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862. The Battle of Antietam remains the single bloodiest day in American history with over 22,000 men dead, wounded or missing on both sides, the Union suffering the most losses with the IX Corps suffering casualties of about 20 percent.[21] The results of Antietam led directly to President Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. William RAYMOND’s regiment were set to be engaged in the Battle of Fredericksburg in December. However, two days before this battle, on December 11, 1862, William was listed as a deserter of his regiment.[22] Frank BURCHARD, who had lost his father to the war and never knew him, would marry a girl who had only known her father likely because he had deserted his regiment in the same period that her future father-in-law was dying far from home.
Within a year of marriage, the BURCHARD couple welcomed a son, Nathan, in May of 1894. In February of 1897 they welcomed a daughter, Esther. Sadly, in November of that year young Nathan would die at the young age of 3. Esther would die the next summer, at the age of 18 months. When Esther died, Annie was pregnant, and they welcomed son Philip Raymond BURCHARD to their home in March of 1899.[23]
Frances Elizabeth “Bessie” BURCHARD SCHILCHER (1903-1934)
In 1900, Frank and Annie BURCHARD and their young son, Philip, lived with Frank’s mother Jemima on Park Street, New Canaan. Frank now worked as a cloth cutter. In January of 1903 Annie gave birth to a daughter, Frances Elizabeth, who the family affectionately called “Bessie.” In 1910, Frank’s mother Jemima died. She was buried alongside her husband and her infant daughter Emma in the Lakeview Cemetery in New Canaan.[24] Annie’s parents, Margareta and William RAYMOND, died in 1906 and 1915, respectively, and were also buried in Lakeview Cemetery, alongside William’s parents.[25]
The BURCHARD family – Frank, Annie, Philip and Bessie – resided at 169 Park Street, New Canaan. In 1917, at age 17, Philip BURCHARD enlisted in the U.S. Military and served in World War I. His draft registration card lists him as medium height, stout build, with dark hair and blue eyes.[26] After he returned from service, Philip went to Wesleyan College. Throughout his life, he would work as a secretary for the YMCA, an insurance agent, and a canned food salesman.
In the summer of 1923, Frank Foster BURCHARD died at the age of 61. He was buried in Lakeview Cemetery, near his mother and father, and alongside his infant children Nathan and Esther.[27]
Annie and the children continued to live in the home after Frank’s death. Bessie took work as a bookkeeper for the First National Bank of New Canaan.[28] In July of 1928 Philip married and moved to nearby Stamford where he started a family. On September 3, 1928, Frances “Bessie” BURCHARD married Joseph Paul SCHILCHER. Joseph was the eldest son of Paul and Sadie (MCALEER) SCHILCHER.
Joe SCHILCHER’s history can be read about in our stories: Irish Immigrants in New York City and The Bavarian Bootmaker and His Wives.
Bessie and Joe SCHILCHER lived together with her mother, Annie BURCHARD at 211 Park Street, New Canaan. Joe worked as an inspector for the railroad and, later, as an employee of the highway department. Bessie continued with her job as a bank clerk.[29] In August of 1930 the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Anne Elizabeth SCHILCHER.[30] In June of the following year, Philip BURCHARD’s first daughter with his wife, Signe, died in childbirth – they named her June Barbara.[31] The following year, in August of 1932, Signe gave birth to a healthy baby boy they named Philip Raymond Jr.[32]
On January 3, 1934, a second daughter was born to Bessie and Joe SCHILCHER – however, just two days later Frances BURCHARD SCHILCHER died of childbirth complications, two weeks shy of her 31st birthday. Her funeral service was held on January 7. Just four days later, on January 11, 1934, Annie RAYMOND BURCHARD, grandmother to the infant girls, and Joe SCHILCHER’s mother-in-law, also died. She was 67 years old.[33] Both Frances “Bessie” BURCHARD SCHILCHER and her mother, Anne RAYMOND BURCHARD, are buried at Lakeview Cemetery.[34]
In his grief, Joe SCHILCHER split his children up to live with his relatives. He sent his eldest daughter Anne, now 2 ½ years old, to live with his paternal aunt Minnie and her husband John MILLER, who was 16 years his wife’s junior.[35] The infant, now called Bessie after her mother, was sent to live with her paternal grandparents – Sarah “Sadie” and Paul SCHILCHER – and her aunt Katherine Frances and uncle Carlton.[36]
Joe SCHILCHER remarried in June of 1936. His new wife was Helen SCOFIELD, a bookkeeper in the local H.L. Scofield Furniture store on Main Street in New Canaan, which was owned by her father. The SCOFIELD family were distant cousins of the BURCHARDs – Sarah SCOFIELD JONES’ daughter, Jemima, had married Eli Sanford BURCHARD not a century earlier. After his second marriage, Joe SCHILCHER began working full time at the SCOFIELD furniture store and the family moved to a house at 127 East Avenue in New Canaan.[37] Joe SCHILCHER and Helen welcomed a daughter of their own (Joyce) in 1942.[38] They did not ever take the BURCHARD daughters back permanently into the home.
Bessie was living with her father’s parents and sister during the period that WWII broke out. Her uncle, Carlton, who was like an older brother to her by now, served in WWII beginning in early 1943 and was taken prisoner during a reconnaissance mission in late 1944 and held by the Germans for nearly six months before his escape.[39] The stress of wartime, combined with the fear of a close family member being in a POW camp thousands of miles away, and the knowledge that the enemy country holding your relative was the homeland of your great grandparents must have been overwhelming.
Eldest daughter Anne, meanwhile, remained with her great aunt and uncle, who had cared for her great grandmother Mary Scheuer SCHILCHER up to her death at age 100 in 1932. In the spring of 1948, Minnie SCHILCHER MILLER died, leaving Anne, now 17, in the home alone with her uncle John.[40] Anne, likely pregnant with her first child, eloped to Elkton, Maryland in August of that year and married her high school sweetheart, Eugene George IRELAND. When they returned, Anne discovered all her possessions strewn across the lawn of the MILLER home.
Anne and Eugene IRELAND retreated to his family home, where they welcomed their first son in April of 1949, before moving to 34 Bartlett Avenue in Norwalk.[41] Eugene was the second son of Walter and Bertha (FINNEY) IRELAND – her childhood story can be found at our story on the LINK TO CARETAKERS OF NEW CANAAN. The FINNEYs had come to New England with the first pilgrims, and many branches of the IRELAND tree, those that weren’t German immigrants, were original settlers of Connecticut.
In June of 1950 the young couple had a second son, Eugene George Jr., but sadly he was born with a congenital heart defect and died two days after his birth. He was buried in Lakeview Cemetery.[42] Anne and Eugene had three more sons in 1954, 1957 and 1958. After the family expanded, they moved to 122 East Avenue in New Canaan – neighbors with Joe SCHILCHER, Anne’s father – where they lived for the remainder of Anne’s life. Anne SCHILCHER IRELAND died in 1988.[43]
Bessie was raised by her paternal grandparents. Paul SCHILCHER, died in 1946 and her grandmother Sadie SCHILCHER died in 1953. Bessie married in 1964 at age 30 and had two children.
Philip BURCHARD lived in nearby New Haven with his family – another boy and a girl were born in 1935 and 1939 – but it does not appear that the BURCHARD relations were close with their young nieces, and Philip died in 1963. He was buried in Lakeview Cemetery alongside his parents and sister, and his infant daughter June.[44]
Anne and Bessie never knew their mother or maternal grandmother, and they had a strained relationship with their father, Joe, who lived close to them their entire lives but did not raise them. Their maternal grandfather, Frank, had never known his father and their paternal grandmother, Sadie, had never known her mother – both parents dying when the children were infants. Although the family had been settled in Fairfield County for centuries, and they were surrounded by a large extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins, the connection to their BURCHARD line was severed irreparably with the deaths of Annie RAYMOND BURCHARD and her daughter Frances “Bessie” BURCHARD SCHILCHER. The angst and stoicism that comes from such absence of parental love was thus passed down through multiple generations.
My father remembered playing in the Lakeview Cemetery as a child. He did not then know that he was playing where generations of his ancestors had been laid to rest. There are 10 BURCHARDs and 10 SCHILCHERs buried in Lakeview Cemetery, and countless JONESs, SCOFIELDs, and RAYMONDs as well. Layers of family history, lost to time.
[1] Year: 1850; Census Place: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: M432_38; Page: 349B; Dwelling/Family: .
[2] Genealogical Publishing Co.; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. Vol. 1-55; Author: White, Lorraine Cook, Ed.; Publication Date: 1994-2002; Volume: 28
[3] Year: 1870; Census Place: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: M593_; Page: 17; Dwelling/Family: 131/142
[4] The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: 38; Page: 338a
[5] https://www.wiltonbulletin.com/news/article/Wilton-s-civil-rights-history-Slavery-15399265.php
[6] http://historyofredding.net/HGchurches.htm
[7] https://www.wiltonct.org/welcome-wilton-ct/pages/wilton-town-history
[8] Strother, Horatio T. The Underground Railroad in Connecticut. Wesleyan University Press: Middletown, CT. 1962. Pages 120-123.
[9] https://wiltonhistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Seeley-Road-36.pdf; https://museumofcthistory.org/underground-railroad-sites-on-the-connecticut-freedom-trail/; The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: Wilton, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: 38; Page: 114b
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_Connecticut
[11] https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/103675/saint-matthew’s-parish-cemetery
[12] https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battles-detail.htm?battleCode=nc002
[13] https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UCT0010RI
[14] Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s–1917. Record Group 94. The National Archives in Washington, D.C.
[15] General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. T288, 546 rolls.
[16] Probate Records, 1802-1916; Author: Connecticut. Probate Court (Norwalk District); Probate Place: Fairfield, Connecticut
[17] Dept. of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, New York. Marriage Registers, Extracts from Manhattan (1869-1880) and Brooklyn (1895-1897). Cert. 8041
[18] Year: 1880; Census Place: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: 96; Page: 237D; Enumeration District: 150
[19] Year: 1880; Census Place: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: 96; Family History Film: 1254096; Page: 252B; Enumeration District: 150; Image: 0505.
[20] Year: 1900; Census Place: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: T623_133; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 78.
[21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam
[22] Historical Data Systems, Inc.; Duxbury, MA 02331; American Civil War Research Database; U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles
[23] Registration Location: Fairfield County, Connecticut; Roll: 1570493; Draft Board: 14.
[24] Connecticut, Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934
[25] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173678391/william-bouton-raymond
[26] World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918; Registration Location: Fairfield County, Connecticut; Roll: 1570493; Draft Board: 14.
[27] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173683312/frank-f.-burchard
[28] U.S. City Directories. Residence date: 1926 Residence place: Darien, Connecticut, USA
[29] Year: 1930; Census Place: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Page: 10-A; Enumeration District: 1-142; House/Dwelling/Family: 211/214/223.
[30] U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
[31] Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Elk Grove Village, IL, USA; Swedish American Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths, and Burials; Parish: St John Lutheran Church; ELCA Film Number: S153-154; SSIRC Film Number: S-153; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173683313/june-barbara-burchard; iConnecticut Vital Records — Index of Deaths, 1897-1968/i. Connecticut State Library. https://www.ctatatelibrarydata.org/death-records/: accessed 7 May 2019.
[32] Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Elk Grove Village, IL, USA; Swedish American Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths, and Burials; Parish: St John Lutheran Church; ELCA Film Number: S153-154; SSIRC Film Number: S-153
[33] State Vital Records Office; Hartford, Connecticut; Connecticut Vital Records — Index of Deaths, 1897-1968
[34] Connecticut, Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173685339/frances-e-schilcher; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173683310/anna-elizabeth-burchard.
[35] Year: 1940; Census Place: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: T627_496; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 1-78
[36] Year: 1940; Census Place: Wilton, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: m-t0627-00500; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 1-225
[37] Year: 1940; Census Place: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: m-t0627-00496; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 1-75
[38] National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: 2227; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 1-146
[39] https://norwalkctheroes.org/2021/02/21/private-carlton-john-schilcher-u-s-army/
[40] https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/138783352:60525?ssrc=pt&tid=24445164&pid=12562208858
[41] National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: 2438; Page: 29; Enumeration District: 1-209
[42] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173846332/eugene-george-ireland
[43] Connecticut Department of Health; Connecticut Death Index, 1949-2001
[44]
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173683315/philip-raymond-burchard
Gathering Roots 