OUR
MOTHER
A. S. RUTHERFURD
Born April 14 1816
Died Nov 2, 1889
CORNELIA W. SHACKFORD
wife of
A. S. RUTHERFURD.
DIED
March 26 1873
Aged 48 years
CORNELIA W SHACKFORD
Cornelia Shackford was the youngest daughter of John E Shackford and Jane C Smallcorn. Her exact birth date and location are not precisely known but she was most likely born in St. Louis, Missouri around 1825. (The 1850 census reads a Massachusetts birth se 1860 and 1870 and her death record state Missouri). There was about a seventeen year difference between Cornelia and her eldest sister Amelia Jane who married Nathan Ranney when Cornelia was probably two years old. She was probably eight when her father was elected Doorkeeper of the US Senate and the family moved to Washington DC. Sometime thereafter she and her next oldest sister Charlotte were sent to the Greenfield High School for Young ladies in Greenfield, Massachusetts. While attending the school, her father, John E Shackford became very ill, returned to St Louis and died in the home of her older sister Amelia Jane. We do not know if the younger children returned to St Louis or remained in Massachusetts during this difficult time.
Because her father left her a significant sum of money, her mother, cousin, and uncle posted a guardianship bond of $15,000 on Oct 9, 1840 as she, a minor upwards of fourteen years of age formally chose her cousin, Charles C Shackford as her guardian.
On September 12, 1843, Cornelia W Shackford of Boston (she was most likely living with her cousin Charles and his wife, her sister) married Archibald Scott Rutherfurd, of St Louis. Archibald is described in Cox's Old and New St. Louis as "one of the city's earliest merchants, and the founder of the present house of Scrugs, Vandervoort & Barney." so the marriage may have been arranged by Cornelia's sister Amelia whose husband was also a merchant in St. Louis.
Cornelia certainly traveled a lot! Her first son John was born in Missouri in 1847 but her daughter Isabella was born in Kelso, Scotland and her sons Robert and Miller are listed with Pennsylvania birth locations. By 1864 she appears to have resettled in St Louis where her two children Cornelia and Bertha were born.
We wish we knew more about Cornelia's life but know that she died at the young age of 48 in St Louis and that her family chose to recognize her memory by leaving a beautiful stone memorial in her memory.
CHILDREN:
John Shackford Rutherfurd (1857-1880) - may have married Anna, painter
Isabella Rutherfurd (1851-1940) - married Frederick W Mott, worked as secretary in his real estate company
Robert Rutherfurd (1853-1945) - married Margaret McDonald, unsure of occupation, sometimes listed as Robert Rutherford in the city directory
J. Miller Rutherfurd (1854-1865)
Cornelia Shackford Rutherfurd (1864-1916) - lived with sister Bertha and traveled
Bertha M Rutherfurd (1867-1963) - lived with sister Cornelia and traveled
REFERENCES
1850 United States Federal Census, St Louis, Missouri, population schedule, 3rd Ward, City St Louis, Page, Dwelling 94, Family 98, Archibald Rutherford; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 August 2013); Year: 1850; Census Place: St Louis Ward 3, St Louis (Independent City), Missouri; Roll: M432_416; Page: 292B; Image: 35
1860 United States Federal Census, Saint Louis, Missouri, population schedule, Town of Carondelet, Page 24, Dwelling 167, Family 168, Arch Rutherford; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 August 2013); Year: 1860; Census Place: Carondelet, St Louis, Missouri; Roll: M653_656; Page: 566; Image: 104; Family History Library Film: 80365
1870 United States Federal Census, St Louis, Missouri, population schedule, Carondelet City, Page 150, Dwelling 965, Family 1106, Archa Rutherford; digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 26 August 2013).
Catalogue of the Greenfield High School for Young Ladies, for THE YEAR 1836-1837 (Greenfield, Mass.: Phelps & Ingersoll, Printers, 1837), p. 5; digital images, Orignal Source: School Student Lists. Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 July 2013; Scholars Charlotte L and Cornelia W Shackford
Cox James, Old and New St. Louis: A Concise History of the Metropolis of the West and and Southwest, with a Review of Its Present Greatness and Immediate Prospects. With a Biographical Appendix (1894), page 534; digital images, Google eBook (http://books.google.com : accessed 26 August 2013
Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, , Archibald S Rutherford & Cornelia W Shackford, 12 September 1843; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 July 2013); Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records
Missouri, Death Records, , Mrs C W Rutherford, 27 March 1873; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 November 2013).
New Hampshire, County Probate Estate Files, Rockingham Case No 14001, Guardianship Cornelia W Shackford; "New Hampshire, County Probate Estate Files, 1769-1936," digital images, Family Search (http://www.familysearch.org: accessed 26 August 2013); Case no 13937-14009 1840, Image 1041