Notes for: Lydia Carter
There is a question about her maiden name. The book Annals of the Sinnott, Rogers, Coffin, Corlies, Reeves, Bodine and Allied Families, 1904, p. 169 gives her maiden name as Carter. One family member was told it was Davis, but there is no original source for that. Ronny Bodine said that Sinnott's information was collected in 1880 and on and would be pretty contemporary with James and Lydia Bodine. Unless solidly sourced information comes out to contradict Sinnott, then we should stick with the maiden name Carter.
Ronny later sent a copy of a letter he found from the Sinnott collection. It is from a Robert O. Doster to a Mr. John W. Bodine written on October 24, 1903. It says the following:
Robt O. Doster
.....Wool.....
17 North Front Street
Philadelphia, Oct. 24th, 1903
Mr. John W. Bodine,
Dear Sir,
In answer to yours of 23rd - Mr. Jas. Bodine's
wife's name was Lydia
nee Carter.
The family bible you speak of
was given to a man who took it to England
in search of the Smith
fortune some 40 odd years ago.
Very truly,
Robt O. Doster
From: Pamela Ware [pcompw at verizon.net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2015
To: Ronny Bodine
Subject: Hi Ronny
Hi Ronny,
It was wonderful being introduced to your website less than a year ago. Information there has greatly expanded what I had known about my Bodine family. I have a few questions since which I hope you can address for me:
1. I am descended from James Bodine born 1778 who = Sara Sooy. His son James Bodine born 1819 = Lydia Carter according to your record. My family history states his wife as Lydia Davis. The Davis family was prolific it seems and I have had trouble verifying Lydia's family. According to the 1850 Census Lydia Davis, age 19, was living in Fairfield, Cumberland Co.
Joshua Davis, s/o Joel I believe, and wife Abigail had living with them 7 named, one of whom was Lydia J. age 3 and another Lydia Davis age 19 who I believe could be Joshua'??s sister, b. 1831. Charles Davis, less than a year also listed. I think this Lydia =James Bodine. She is not on the 1860 census for this family.
Additional credibility for this comes from the reason this Davis family being in the hotel business in Bridgeton, Cumberland Co. N.J. An Edmund Davis had a hotel In Bridgeton in 1850, and in 1869 C.O. Davis & son had the Bridgeton Hotel on the same corner and a George Davis was also named who may have been a son. The Cumberland Bank was built on the site of this hotel*. My hunch is the Davis family moved their hotel business to Philadelphia where we find James and Lydia Davis Bodine, Produce Dealer, Camden, in the 1850 Census. In the 1880 census and his occupation is listed as Hotel Keeper and son Joseph, tends eating bar and married to Kate Murray and they live on Elfreth??s Alley. (One of their daughters Lillie, born in 1875, was my great grandmother.) The City Directory for Philadelphia showed James Bodine??s address at 6 S. Delaware Avenue, occupation Hotel. Gospill??s Directory (1821-1989) shows same address South Delaware Ave. s. from Market.? Along Delaware River 6th, 5th and 4th wards?. The 1870 Philadelphia census shows James 53 is Hotel Keeper, Lydia 48 keeping house, Joseph 22 Restaurant Keeper. Gospills lists James Bodine, Davis Hotel, Federal Census lists him as hotel keeper. All of this leads me to think his connection to the Davis Hotel had to do with his wife Lydia'?s family having had the same business going back to Bridgeton, N.J. (Lydia Carter doesn't seem to fit here.)
Dovetailing on all this is the idea that realizing how near the Davis Hotel was to the Delaware River and Penn's Landing and that possibly the Murray family, with daughter Kate, born in London 1859, may have debarked and gone to find lodging as close by as possible. The Davis Hotel may have been the spot they found and Kate and young Joseph Bodine may have found each other there!
Penn'??s Landing has a handsome sculpture commemorating the great influx of Irish immigrants to Philadelphia due to the Great Famine 1845-1855, mostly from rural Catholic families. It is said 18% of the population of Philadelphia in 1850 was Irish. Joseph Bodine'??s in-laws John and Ann Murray were born in Ireland. John born c 1838 was listed in the 1880 Philadelphia census, in the fruit business, was living on South Front Street, wife Ann, children Sarah, John, Ellen. Kate Murray Bodine and Joseph were already married and living on Elfreth'??s Alley, where Lydia Bodine was born in 1875. The memorial notes this area became America's first urban ethnic ghetto.
2. The children of James 1818 and Lydia Davis Bodine (1822) were John 1845, James 1848, Joseph M. 1852-4, and Anna 1854. I know nothing of James. Do you have any information on him?
Does the theory about Lydia Davis being wife of James make sense to you? I will appreciate so much your consideration of all this and any comments.
Sincerely,
Pam
*Cumberland County, N.J. Historical Society provided this information.