Isaac Augur Stark

My source for the birthdate of Isaac Augur Stark is the Scripture Memoranda kept by Nathan Tuttle Stark and graciously provided to me by Doris Estelle Stark Shay. The information in the book by Edwin P. Augur corroborates this date, but I haven't found any entry in the New Haven Vital Records. However, many births of that time appear to be recorded only in church or private records. The New Haven Vital Records for 1867 show that Isaac Augur Stark died in that year at age 42, suggesting that he was born about 1825.

According to Edwin P. Augur, Isaac Augur Stark married Mary Bolton of Stockbridge, MA, and had three children. New Haven Vital Records for 1859, LDS Film 1405859, vol. 10, page 241, show that Isaac A. Stark, age 35, born in New Haven and residing in New Haven and Hannah Rice, age 23, born in Ridgefield and residing in New Haven were married by Rev. G. _. Woodruff. New Haven Vital Records for 1867 p. 222 show that a female child, ``Willieatta'' Starke was born on 14 August 1867 at 23 Frank St., New Haven, to Isaac Starke, a 42 year old machinist born in New Haven, and Hannah Knapp, a 28 year old born in Ridgefield, CT, and that it was the family's fourth child. New Haven Vital Records for 1867, p. 113, record that Isaac Augur Stark died 9 May 1867 at age 42, was the son of Daniel and Eliza, was a mechanic, died of pneumonia, and was buried in the City cemetery. The same volume records the death of a child of Isaac A. Stark of diptheria on 5 March 1864 in Hartford, CT, and buried in the City cemetery in New Haven.

The Scripture Memoranda kept by Nathan Tuttle Stark record the death of ``Hannah A. Coombs'' on 25 February 1897. The New Haven probate records contain a probate packet for ``Hannah A. Combes,'' who died on 24 February 1897. The documents state that she left a husband, George W. Combes, of 113 Frank St. New Haven, and her other heirs are listed as:

The document is signed by Nathan T. Stark, Etta S. Gray, and G. W. Combes, and is dated 22 March 1897.

It seems clear from this document that Hannah Combes is the same person as Hannah Rice, who married Isaac Augur Stark in 1859, and that Nathan T. Stark and Etta (Stark) Gray were their children. From the will of Eliza Tuttle, it also seems clear that Etta is the granddaughter ``Willietta Stark'' mentioned there, and is the same person as the ``Willieatta Stark'' reported by New Haven Vital Statistics as born to Hannah Knapp and (apparently posthumously) to Isaac A. Stark on 14 August 1867. I don't know whether Hannah's maiden name was Knapp or Rice. However, the Connecticut Newspaper Marriage Notices Index states that a marriage of Hannah Knapp to William B. Rice was reported in the New Haven Palladium on 6 April 1857. I don't know if this is the same Hannah Knapp, though. It seems like a whole lot of marriages going on in a very short time.

I have so far not been able to find a primary source record of Nathan Tuttle Stark's birth in 1863. Based on the all the above information, if Isaac Augur Stark had a son in 1863, then his mother was in all likelihood Hannah Knapp/Rice There is one puzzling inconsistency, though: although the Scripture Memoranda kept by Nathan Tuttle Stark would seem to indicate that his father was Isaac Augur Stark, his Pennsylvania death certificate from 1917 states that his father's name was Nathan Stark, and his mother's name was Ella ---. This information was apparently provided by "Mrs. Nathan Stark," whom I assume was Ida N. Brenner. I believe that Mrs. Nathan Stark perhaps did not actually know the name of Nathan Tuttle Stark's long-dead father, and assumed that his name was the same as that of his son. Doris Estelle Stark Shay (private communication) recalls that Nathan Tuttle Stark never took any of his Pennsylvania family along when he visited his family in New England, so perhaps indeed his Pennsylvania family did not know much about the New England branch.

New Haven Vital Records contain a few other Stark entries that might be related to Isaac Augur Stark: