DAUGHTER OF MICHIGAN: THE LAST CHILD

Samuel’s wife was done having babies. She had given birth to at least seven recorded in the census records since 1860. When it was time for the 1880 census, her husband was 60 years old and she was 50 years old. Her daughter was now 10 years old and the woman who saved her farm and made it prosper could set her sights on raising the last of her family. Life does not always take kindly to human intentions and plans. At age 48, when Mary was 7 years old, Lucena learned she was pregnant one last time. And like Abraham’s wife Sarah, she must have laughed that God would play with her life in this manor. Perhaps it is not good to question what fate befalls a person.

The month of February 1876 would experience record high temperatures. On February 28, the New York Times reported a violent storm swept the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and elsewhere. It struck with such furry a tornado was produced damaging most of a town and raining hail the size of walnuts and small lemons and with winds of great destruction.

On July 8 of that year, there were reports of a very large meteor in the night sky. It was observed passing over the states of Michigan and Ohio. August’s newspapers reported record-breaking heat preceded by a spring drought. On August 4, 1876, a New York Times article mentioned a plague of grasshoppers had severely damaged crops and the railroads in the Northwest.

Fourteen days later Luecena went into labor delivering her third baby girl. Margaret King had definitely arrived and she was to be the last child recorded in the 1880 census. She was then 3 years old, her father was 60 years old and her mother was 50 years old. Clara, the youngest daughter of Lucena and John Belchor was married. Her last name was Smith and she lived at home. The Kings had prospered and Samuel was able to hire a man to help work the farm. Samuel’s son, his namesake was 12 years old and his daughter Mary was 10 years old. They were both in school and the census recorder for Hudson, Lenewee County, Michigan listed their occupation as “scholar”, “in school”.