My grandmother Virginia told me stories about her grandmother, Abbie. She didn't know much about Abbie's childhood other than that she was born in Montpelier, VT and ran away from home at the age of 14. It took us a long time to find Abbie's family in historical records due to spelling variations of McCloud. Eventually, we found family members listed as McLoud, McLeod, and McLeude. In 1860, Abbie was living with her parents Jonas and Mandana, her grandmother Polly McLoud, and six brothers and sisters in Calais, Vermont, about ten miles from Montpelier. Jonas enlisted and fought in the Civil War from 1863 to 1865. Then, about 1868, Jonas and Mandana relocated 1,300 miles west to Steele Co., Minnesota. Abbie wasn't listed with her parents in the 1870 census. However, we know she came to Steele Co. since she married Henry G. Henderson there in 1872. One might think Abbie and Henry would settle down near their families in Minnesota, but the West beckoned. According to family stories, Abbie was five months pregnant with her first child, Mandana Sara, as they traveled across the mountains in a covered wagon to Rio Grande County in southern Colorado. Henry, Abbie, and Henry's five-year old daughter Myrtle from his first marriage made the 1000-mile journey in the late summer of 1873 and are believed to be among the first white settlers in the area. In a future post, I will write more about what life was like for Abbie in Colorado.
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