Deborah (Slocum) Holdridge (1778 - 1839)

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Biography

Mrs. Deborah Holdridge, started out one morning in quest of rushes which were utilized in those early days for cleaning the wooden-ware of which the table dishes were largely composed. Not returning, her husband and son went in search of her, and it soon became evident that she had lost her bearings and had wandered into the dense woods, where was a swamp which had never been crossed probably by the foot of man or beast, the mud and water being from one to three feet deep. The alarm was in due time given to the entire neighborhood, and hundreds of people set out, and thereafter for weeks there was kept up an untiring but unsuccessful search. After the others had done their part so bravely and faithfully, the husband and son, inspired by an undying hope, continued their efforts to find the lost wife and mother, and after the lapse of weeks, received word that the lifeless body of an aged lady had been found by two hunters in an Indian hut in a secluded spot six miles from her home. As there were no marks of violence, it was believed that she entered there exhausted and finally starved to death. The remains were tenderly cared for and conveyed to a place of sepulture not far from the spot where her husband and children made their home, and it is hardly necessary to say that the bereaved and deeply afflicted family received the unbounded sympathy of all in their hour of trouble. Mrs. Holdridge was a lady of great force of character, a model wife and mother, and her death in any ordinary manner would have been deeply mourned, but under these distressing circumstances the affliction seemed almost more than they could bear. Her husband, Felix, survived many years, his death taking place in 1855, after he had arrived at an advanced age.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Chapman Brothers. Portrait and Biographical Album of Lenawee County, Mich, Volume 1. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1888. Page 670. Accessed November 4, 2017.

• https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=22510131
• Slocum, Charles Elihu. History of the Slocums, Slocumbs and Slocombs of America: genealogical and biographical, embracing twelve generations of the first-named family from A.D. 1637 to 1908, with their marriages and descendants in the female lines as far as ascertained. Defiance, O.: C.E. Slocum, 1908. Page 247. Accessed November 4, 2017.

• Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed Nov 4, 2017), "Record of SLOCUMB, ELEAZER ", Ancestor # A105325.