Sarah "Sadie" E. Cheetham

Notes:

In the 1920 Federal Census, Sarah is age 44, and living at 98 State St., Bristol, RI, with her two single children, Isabelle A. & Russell T., and one married daughter, Sarah, and Sarah's husband and two sons.

In 1930 Sarah is 54 and living at 178 High St., Bristol, RI. With her is daughter Isabel A., 30, son Russell T. 25, sister Mary Duffy 58, and three grandchildren: Ralph M. Morgan 12, Gordon M. Morgan 11, and Mary G. Morgan 9.

Sarah married Samuel Austin Chafee Abt 1897. Samuel (son of Samuel Russel CHAFEE and Laura Anne MUNROE) was born 8 Feb 1870, Bristol, Bristol Co., RI; died 1927; was buried , North Burial Ground, Bristol, RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

After Sarah (Sadie) died, her sons were brought up by their Aunt Isabelle (I called her Cousin Belle) and their grandmother Sarah (Sadie) Cheetham. The daughter was brought up by her great aunt(s)
in New Bedford, MA.

Gordon went on to become a dentist, and was our family dentist when I was growing up (1950s - 1960s). He retired some years after I was married. His daughter, Donna Morgan, graduated from high
school in my class, Warwick Vets 1969.

Sarah married Ralph M. Morgan Abt 1916. Ralph was born Abt 1898, MA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Isabel's birth record at Bristol says she is the second child born to Samuel A. Chafee (29) & Sarah E. Cheetham (24).

Isabel, or "Cousin Belle" as we called her, raised her two nephews after her sister died. She never married, and for many years did not cut her hair. After becoming a member of the Salvation Army, she had vowed never to cut her hair, but always wore it in a braid wound around her head. When I was a child in the 1950s and later in the 1960s, we used to visit her every 4th of July. She lived in a duplex right on Hope St. in Bristol. My mom would cut a bouquet of flowers -- red, white, & blue -- from our garden early in the morning of the holiday, and we would arrive at Belle's to find chairs already set up for us on the sidewalk. After the big parade, we would have lunch inside, usually with Merton & Estelle Morgan and their son and daughter. After I was married, a few times I took my children to visit her where she was living at the time, in the Benjamin Church apartment complex for senior citizens further up on Hope St. She always wanted to give the children a little gift. One time she gave Laura a small doll, which I later used in the center of a doll birthday cake for Laura. In the early 1980s she came to stay with my parents while recovering from either surgery or a fall, and since we lived next door, we got to see her more. She came to our house for Ben's birthday party, and raved about the homemade clam chowder and clam cakes I had made.

She was just about the same age as my Grandmother Laura (Chafee) Remington. We kids always laughed when they got together, because they tried to out-talk each other, getting louder and louder, each one expressing (or pressing) her own train of thought.

We went to her last birthday party, held at the home of a relative in Bristol. Her funeral was at St. Michael's in Bristol, but at the time I didn't realize that one of our common ancestors had been the second rector there for many years back in the 1700s.

Russell married Grace Battcher Aft 1 Apr 1930. [Group Sheet]

Ralph — Estelle Unknown. [Group Sheet]

Gordon — Rita Mulligan. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

After her mother Sarah (Sadie) died, I am told Mary was brought up by her grandmother Sarah (Sadie) Cheetham's sisters in New Bedford, MA. However, in the 1930 census she is age 9 and living at Bristol with her maternal grandmother, two aunts & one uncle, and two brothers.

Mary — Mr. Moone. [Group Sheet]

Anne married Frank "Rusty" Denton 1984. [Group Sheet]