The tent was chartered in January, 2008 by ten ladies.  We have now grown to 20 members.  

Our members range in age from 16 to 90 years of age and we have a "real" Daughter in our tent.  We are an active and friendly group and work closely with the Sons of Union Veterans Camp in the Kalamazoo area in headstone dedications and fund raising.  We have plans to eventually have members helping out at the V.A. Hospital in Battle Creek.
 

Cornelia Stockbridge Sheldon

By Jane Chappell

        Tent No. 58 was named after Cornelia Russell Stockbridge Sheldon.  Cornelia was president of the Kalamazoo Ladies’ Aid Society in 1863.  The women raised more than $5000 for blankets and hospital supplies and for the relief of wounded soldiers and their families.[1]  Cornelia was also president of the Ladies Library Association from 1863 to 1875.[2]  “In August, 1864, the Ladies Library Association and the Ladies’ Soldiers’ Aid Society put on a Michigan State Sanitary Fair at the State Fair Grounds.  Articles had been solicited from all over the state-used goods from homes and new merchandise from merchants. “[3] They raised $9,300.”[4]  The proceeds from the sale were distributed by the Soldier’s Relief Committee.”[5]

          Cornelia was born December 18, 1827[6]  probably in Bath, Maine.[7]  She was the daughter of Dr. John Stockbridge and his second wife, Eliza L. Russell.[8]  Cornelia’s brother, Francis Brown Stockbridge, (who later became a U.S. senator from Michigan) moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1847 where he had a lumber business.[9]  Part of the family followed him after Cornelia’s father, Dr. John Stockbridge, died in 1849.[10]  According to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census Cornelia was living with her mother, her brothers-Francis, J. K. and Joseph, and two sisters -Bridget and Mariah in Chicago, Illinois.[11] 

          How Cornelia met her future husband is unknown.  In 1859 Cornelia became the second wife of Theodore Pierce Sheldon, [12] “one of the prominent and wealthy bankers of Kalamazoo”,[13] Michigan.  They had one daughter, Cornelia S., born in 1861.[14]   

          Theodore P. Sheldon came to Bronson (now Kalamazoo) in 1834 when the land office moved there.  He was the deputy clerk.[15]  In 1844 he opened a private bank.  It became the T.P. Sheldon & Co. which later became the Kalamazoo Savings bank.[16]  By 1864 Theodore P. Sheldon had the highest annual income of any man in Kalamazoo, as shown on records kept of taxes to raise funds for the war.  His income was shown to be $8,850, including $1000 of   U.S. government bonds.[17]  Theodore Sheldon had a home on the northeast corner of Main and Park in Kalamazoo until 1877.[18]  The Sheldon family was one of the original families of the Mackinac Island Resort Association.  Their cottage, called Edgewood. was built in 1883.[19]

          Theodore Pierce Sheldon died July 8, 1893 in the Oak Grove Sanitorium in Flint, Michigan.[20]  Cornelia Stockbridge Sheldon died about May 30, 1896.[21]  They are buried in Section A, Block 32S, Lots 9 and 10 in the Mountain Home Cemetery, Kalamazoo, Michigan.[22]           

[1]Larry B. Massie and Peter J. Schmitt, Kalamazoo, The Place Behind the Products, (Windsor Publications: 1981), page 57.

[1] Grace J. Potts, Women with a Vision, Ladies Library Association: Kalamazoo, 1997.

[1] Ibid, page 16.

[1] Massie and Schmitt, Kalamazoo, The Place Behind the Products.

[1] Potts, Women with a Vision, page 16.

[1] RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project:  Yankee Roots, (www.rootsweb.com, accessed 6/5/2008).

[1] Early History of Michigan, page 613 (Michigan County Histories and Atlases, online, accessed 4/10/2009).  Biography of Francis B. Stockbridge-Francis was born in Bath, Maine in 1826.

[1] RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project:  Yankee Roots.

[1] Wikipedia, “Francis B. Stockbridge”, accessed April 10, 2009.

[1] RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project:  Yankee Roots.

[1] 1850 US Federal Census, (www.ancestry.com, accessed 4/10/2009).

[1] Card File at Western Michigan Regional History Library and Archives, Kalamazoo, MI.

[1] Portrait and Biographical Record of Kalamazoo, Allegan, and Van Buren Counties, Michigan, (Chapman Bros: Chicago, 1892), page 473.

[1] Card File at WMU RHL & Archives; 1870 US Federal Census.

[1] Ibid.

[1] Portrait and Biographical Record of Kalamazoo..., page 473.

[1]

[1] Card File at WMU RHL & Archives

[1]

[1] Card File at WMU RHL &

Archives.

[1] Kalamazoo Public Library, 3x5” Vital Record Files, (www.kalamazoogenealogy.org, accessed 4/7/2009)