Chester Douglass (1821 – 1907) and Lucilda Cady Douglass (1823 – 1884)

This picture of Chester Douglass did not scan and copy very well. But it does give you a general idea of the man. This is the Chester Douglass I wrote about in my book, the one who (in my story) challenged his friend to a race nailing shingles. His name was actually James Chester, named James after his father, but he always went by Chester.

He was described to me by elderly relatives as a big man and the picture does indicate a large framed person. It is not hard to imagine him scything hay and being able to go around the field twice before his neighbors could barely get around once. At least that’s the story told.

He and his wife Lucilda (Cady) lived with his parents on the Douglass homestead on Pillar Point at least until their first daughter Susannah Orinda was born. In 1846, he bought land next to his father’s homestead on Pillar Point. His farm later became the home of his youngest son, Fred C. Douglass, and later still of his granddaughter Ethel and her husband, Milton Lee.

He lived to be 86, but the last fifteen years of his life he was badly crippled with arthritis. He died of complications following a fall and a broken hip.

(Lineage: Chester-4, James-3, John-2, Alexander Douglass-1)

Note: Don’t mix up this Chester Douglass with the one out west who owned the Elk Point Drugstore. The Chester Douglass in Elk Point, SD, had this lineage: (Chester, William, Robert, John, Alexander Douglass) and was born in Ontario, Canada.

Lucilda Cady Douglass was born in 1823, in Woodville, Jefferson County, NY, the daughter of Luther Cady and Orinda Jenkins. Luther Cady bought a farm in 1841 on Pillar Point and a year later sold it. There’s a good chance the family moved to Ohio because within the next couple years both of Lucilda’s older brothers married Ohio women. If Lucilda moved west with her parents, she must have stayed in touch with Chester because on July 2, 1843, Chester and Lucilda were married “at the Ferry” on Pillar Point, probably in the small church there. In later years her parents lived with them for brief periods of time but for the rest of her life all of her family lived “out west”.

She bore seven children: Susannah, Delia, Hubert, John, Flora, Emma and Fred. She died in 1884 at the age of 61 when her youngest son was 22. Even in her later years, she was a “comely” woman. She was my great great Grandmother Douglass.

My thanks to Fred Bellinger for sharing these photos with me. Previously I had none of Chester and Lucilda Douglass. ELI