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Surnames: Claiborne
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.claiborne/188/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Dear Laura, I believe you are incorrect that your greatgrandfather is Hugh Claiborne. I believe he was Augustine (Austin) Claiborne. Your GGgrandfather was Hugh Logan. The Logans came out to San Francisco from Chicago after the fire. Hugh worked for the DeLaVergne Ice Machine Co. in S.F., moving to Sydney, Australia for a time. My uncle Logan Claiborne, now 89, recalls that his greatgrandfather Hugh Logan "was the first to introduce refrigeration to Australia". They came back and their daughter Laura (your namesake?) married Austin Claiborne. They had two sons, John (always went by J. Logan Claiborne)and Leigh (Leigh was an old Claiborne name from generations past). My Grandfather was J. Logan and I believe yours was Leigh. Austin and Laura moved to Seattle in the 1890's. Austin was a bookkeeper, reportedly ambidexterous (he could write in two ledger books with right and left hands at the same time). He liked to gamble (I have a cheater's cribbage board of his where one co!
lumn secretly slides by a hidden track). Laura was a "battle ax" according to my Mother and Austin took up with another woman. He also "borrowed" some funds from the company he worked for. He took off north to Nome, Alaska sending for his true love Maude Frederick. They were very much in love. Meanwhile Laura rented rooms in their Seattle home to travelers. She took the money and invested in real estate. When she died in 1933 she was regarded as the wealthiest woman in the Northwest, having extensive real estate holdings including the Hotel Sorrento and entire business blocks in Northwest cities. She was married at the time to Seattle attorney Jay Allen. The bulk of her estate was left to her sons (there was a court fight over that and I have the extensive brief). Leigh (your grandfather?), who was working in the Recorder's office in SF moved north with his family (wife also Laura) and Boston Bull Dog "Micky Beans" to handle the estate. Many properties were lost for back !
taxes since it was the depression, but still there was about a million
in value left of an estate once valued in the several millions. Leigh was a stamp collector and they settled at Laura Allen's summer home at Salmon Creek on the water opposite Vashond Island. They sold that and later moved to another of Laura's homes on Bothel Way across from the cemetary. My Mother (Carole Claiborne) remembers Leigh as a "nasty man" but his wife Laura as "nice". Anyway, Leigh had two sons, Hugh and Alan, I believe Hugh was your father and was a merchant marine. He married a German woman named Wallie (sp?) Laura Allen, who had paid back the money Austin "borrowed", strictly forbid my Grandfather J. Logan from communicating with his father but they reconciled after her death and he died at his home in SF at the age of 90 in 1950. Back to your question. James Henry Claiborne(born in Virginia 1825) moved to SF from Mason, Tenn (where he was a station master for the railroad)after the civil war. I have also heard the story that they came through Texas but have!
been unable to find anything on that. James Henry Claiborne worked for the San Francisco Gas Light Company as superintendent of the lamplighters. I just found that he died in 1909 in SF. I have an early cased photograph (about 1860) of him and his wife Amelia. J.H. Claiborne married Amelia VanClaire Ryan in 1852. I have an 18th century sewing box with mother of pearl inlay that reported belonged to Amelia's mother whose parents were aristocrats guillotined during the Reign of Terror in France. Supposedly she disguised herself as a boy and sought refuge on a ship captained by a John Ryan (north of Ireland). He took her to America (Philadelphia) and married her. There is a newer book "Claibornes in America" (I don't have it yet) that details the first eight generations of Claibornes starting with William that was born in Kent, England in 1600 and came to Virginia in 1621. I have been told it ends with James Henry and now you can pick up the trail from there. One other note.!
We were always told that we were related to the last man beheaded on
Tower Hill in London. This was the famous Scottsman, Simon Fraser, who participated in the Jacobite uprising aimed at returning the Stuart king to the throne of England. There was a Fraser (Jane Epes Fraser) who married into our family around 1800. Her father (either Angus or Simon) came to this country in 1747- the exact year Simon was beheaded in England. I have been unable to make the link between our ancestor and "the Simon Fraser" but am still trying. By the way, I had my uncle Logan Claiborne genetically tested for his "Y" chromosome, passed to each male generation with the Claiborne surname. He is a real Claiborne and is matched to other Claibornes in the line of Leonard Claiborne. I have other Claiborne stuff and would love to communicate with you. My email is drjacobs(a)sbcglobal.net.