Letter:
The following, quoted from an 1897 letter by Luther Sawdey Rouse, is now owned by Robert Rouse of Saratoga, CA.
On July 20, 1897 Luther Sawdey Rouse wrote his son Parker Sawdey Rouse from Belle Plaine, WI:
"I will briefly answer your request for information of your great grandfather Rouse with pleasure for he was like Jabez an honorable man. He was born on Christmas Day 1765 at Providence, RI and named George. His father, Sawdey Rouse, was a tailor by trade and had the honor of refarring (as spelled) coats for Lafayette and his grandies when they first launched in to help Washington. Grandpa learnt his father's trade and struck out for himself to the westward and good fortune found him a Christian companion by the name of Barbara Weaver born at Bennington, VT......George is your grandfather was born in Johnsburg, Warren County, NY, 30 Aug 1806 and died 30 Dec 1870 in Ingham, Michigan. Buried in the cemetery with his father who died July, (18)36.....My great grandads family came over from old to New England soon after the Pilgrim fathers founded Plymouth." |