Emeline grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When she was 9 years old, her only sibling, a younger sister named Arabella, died. Their father was a grocer. He died in 1859, leaving their mother, Mary (Riley) Gilham, a single mother raising a teenage daughter in the midst of the Civil War in Fredericksburg, a beseiged confederate city in close proximity to the United States capitol, Washington DC.
How Emeline met Doran Stearns is an interesting unanswered question. He was a 19-yo Vermont farm boy (descended from Early American Revolutionary Colonists) when he enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and served in Bergen's Sharpshooters under Capt Edmund Weston. Promoted to Hospital Steward in 1863, he was "very efficient in caring for the sick and wounded." He was captured in May, 1864, and held six months in the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia (per Martha Hancock). His three-year term of enlistment in the Union Army ended in November, 1864; he was released with the expectation he would return to civilian life in Vermont. Instead he immediately enlisted as a private soldier in the Union Army of the Potomac continuing in the fight to capture Fredericksburg. After the war ended, Emeline and Doran were married. Their two sons Edgar and Frank were born in Washington DC.
Emeline (age 23), Edgar (age 3) and Frank (age 1) were listed in the 1870 Fredericksburg Census as a family including Mary Gilham, Emeline's widowed mother. Doran went west. In a 1901 Stearns Memoir it is reported that Doran's sons "were cared for by a faithful mother and grand-mother until able to support themselves, and by honesty, sobriety, industry and integrity, have won positions in the community where they live, that reflect credit to them." Their loving grandmother, Mary, passed away in 1892. Their mother, Emeline, remained involved in their lives until her death. She passed away May 5, 1911, at the home of her son, Edgar, in Richmond.
Additional Information received from FindAGrave contributor Martha Hancock (50780594):
The story my mother and grandmother told me about how Doran Harding Stearns (a Yankee) married Emeline (Emma) Gilham was that after the war, he was quartered in their home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When he couldn't make it in business as a Northerner in a Southern town, he went west where he sent many letters home begging and pleading for her to come west to be with him. Emeline's mother hid all the correspondence from her and so they parted and eventually divorced and he married again.
How Emeline met Doran Stearns is an interesting unanswered question. He was a 19-yo Vermont farm boy (descended from Early American Revolutionary Colonists) when he enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and served in Bergen's Sharpshooters under Capt Edmund Weston. Promoted to Hospital Steward in 1863, he was "very efficient in caring for the sick and wounded." He was captured in May, 1864, and held six months in the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia (per Martha Hancock). His three-year term of enlistment in the Union Army ended in November, 1864; he was released with the expectation he would return to civilian life in Vermont. Instead he immediately enlisted as a private soldier in the Union Army of the Potomac continuing in the fight to capture Fredericksburg. After the war ended, Emeline and Doran were married. Their two sons Edgar and Frank were born in Washington DC.
Emeline (age 23), Edgar (age 3) and Frank (age 1) were listed in the 1870 Fredericksburg Census as a family including Mary Gilham, Emeline's widowed mother. Doran went west. In a 1901 Stearns Memoir it is reported that Doran's sons "were cared for by a faithful mother and grand-mother until able to support themselves, and by honesty, sobriety, industry and integrity, have won positions in the community where they live, that reflect credit to them." Their loving grandmother, Mary, passed away in 1892. Their mother, Emeline, remained involved in their lives until her death. She passed away May 5, 1911, at the home of her son, Edgar, in Richmond.
Additional Information received from FindAGrave contributor Martha Hancock (50780594):
The story my mother and grandmother told me about how Doran Harding Stearns (a Yankee) married Emeline (Emma) Gilham was that after the war, he was quartered in their home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When he couldn't make it in business as a Northerner in a Southern town, he went west where he sent many letters home begging and pleading for her to come west to be with him. Emeline's mother hid all the correspondence from her and so they parted and eventually divorced and he married again.
Emeline grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When she was 9 years old, her only sibling, a younger sister named Arabella, died. Their father was a grocer. He died in 1859, leaving their mother, Mary (Riley) Gilham, a single mother raising a teenage daughter in the midst of the Civil War in Fredericksburg, a beseiged confederate city in close proximity to the United States capitol, Washington DC.
How Emeline met Doran Stearns is an interesting unanswered question. He was a 19-yo Vermont farm boy (descended from Early American Revolutionary Colonists) when he enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and served in Bergen's Sharpshooters under Capt Edmund Weston. Promoted to Hospital Steward in 1863, he was "very efficient in caring for the sick and wounded." He was captured in May, 1864, and held six months in the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia (per Martha Hancock). His three-year term of enlistment in the Union Army ended in November, 1864; he was released with the expectation he would return to civilian life in Vermont. Instead he immediately enlisted as a private soldier in the Union Army of the Potomac continuing in the fight to capture Fredericksburg. After the war ended, Emeline and Doran were married. Their two sons Edgar and Frank were born in Washington DC.
Emeline (age 23), Edgar (age 3) and Frank (age 1) were listed in the 1870 Fredericksburg Census as a family including Mary Gilham, Emeline's widowed mother. Doran went west. In a 1901 Stearns Memoir it is reported that Doran's sons "were cared for by a faithful mother and grand-mother until able to support themselves, and by honesty, sobriety, industry and integrity, have won positions in the community where they live, that reflect credit to them." Their loving grandmother, Mary, passed away in 1892. Their mother, Emeline, remained involved in their lives until her death. She passed away May 5, 1911, at the home of her son, Edgar, in Richmond.
Additional Information received from FindAGrave contributor Martha Hancock (50780594):
The story my mother and grandmother told me about how Doran Harding Stearns (a Yankee) married Emeline (Emma) Gilham was that after the war, he was quartered in their home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When he couldn't make it in business as a Northerner in a Southern town, he went west where he sent many letters home begging and pleading for her to come west to be with him. Emeline's mother hid all the correspondence from her and so they parted and eventually divorced and he married again.
How Emeline met Doran Stearns is an interesting unanswered question. He was a 19-yo Vermont farm boy (descended from Early American Revolutionary Colonists) when he enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and served in Bergen's Sharpshooters under Capt Edmund Weston. Promoted to Hospital Steward in 1863, he was "very efficient in caring for the sick and wounded." He was captured in May, 1864, and held six months in the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia (per Martha Hancock). His three-year term of enlistment in the Union Army ended in November, 1864; he was released with the expectation he would return to civilian life in Vermont. Instead he immediately enlisted as a private soldier in the Union Army of the Potomac continuing in the fight to capture Fredericksburg. After the war ended, Emeline and Doran were married. Their two sons Edgar and Frank were born in Washington DC.
Emeline (age 23), Edgar (age 3) and Frank (age 1) were listed in the 1870 Fredericksburg Census as a family including Mary Gilham, Emeline's widowed mother. Doran went west. In a 1901 Stearns Memoir it is reported that Doran's sons "were cared for by a faithful mother and grand-mother until able to support themselves, and by honesty, sobriety, industry and integrity, have won positions in the community where they live, that reflect credit to them." Their loving grandmother, Mary, passed away in 1892. Their mother, Emeline, remained involved in their lives until her death. She passed away May 5, 1911, at the home of her son, Edgar, in Richmond.
Additional Information received from FindAGrave contributor Martha Hancock (50780594):
The story my mother and grandmother told me about how Doran Harding Stearns (a Yankee) married Emeline (Emma) Gilham was that after the war, he was quartered in their home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When he couldn't make it in business as a Northerner in a Southern town, he went west where he sent many letters home begging and pleading for her to come west to be with him. Emeline's mother hid all the correspondence from her and so they parted and eventually divorced and he married again.
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