| Notes |
- Records are not wholly in agreement as to the date and place of Elvira Dorman's birth. Notes by her son Byron say that Elvira was born June 13, 1813, at Wilbraham, Massachusetts. As against a Kellogg family Bible (in the possession, as of 1951, Louise Stedman of Mechanicsville, NY) that states she was born July 13, 1813, at Colebrook, CT.
This disagreement is more apparent than real, for while Byron Stedman's notes say that Elvira was born "June 13, 1813, at Wilbraham," they show that the next child in the family, Orvel Sidney Dorman, brother of Elvira, was born March 29, 1815, at Colebrook River, Mass." and that the following five children in the same family were born, 1917-1830, at "Hartland, Conn."
Supposing that Byron Stedman should have said "Colebrook, Connecticut", instead of "Colebrook River, Massachusetts", the uncertainty is merely whether Elvira's parents moved from Wilbraham before or after her birth. Wilbraham is some fifteen miles east of Springfield. Colebrook River is a village just south of the MA-CT boundary, so close to the line that the name might be applied to a neighborhood in either state. Colebrook is about eight miles south of Colebrook River. The villages of West and East Hartland are located about six miles south of the border and ten to twenty miles east of Colebrook River. Thus the move from Wilbraham represented the real undertaking, but the Colebrook River-Colebrook-Hartland communities were near together.
To further complicate the matter, Mrs. Isabell Kellogg Thomas, a granddaughter of Robert and Elvira, said in a conversation with John J. DeMott, about 1931, that "Elvira was born at Blandford, Hampden County, Massachusetts, four miles from Russell Station on the Boston & Albany Railroad.
Blandford is perhaps twenty-five miles north of the Colebrook area. Mrs. Thomas recalled, as a girl, having visited Blandford, at a Boice (or Boise) home, as she was descended from the Boice family through her father Leroy Seth kellogg. She described this home as being "very old and interesting, and containing many antiques and family papers, in the possession, as of 1931, of William Fitzpatrick Boice."
Mrs. Isabell Kellogg Thomas also referred to a Mrs. Hannah (Gardner) Ross, of South Lee: the Gardners being a well-known South Lee family." This Mrs. Ross was a "first cousin of Robert Stedman who went to California." Mrs. Thomas stated that this Mrs. Ross "claimed Tory Governor Ward as her ancestor. Presumably, this was on the Stedman line, for Mrs. Thomas further stated that Elvira (Dorman) Stedman had in her possession the silver cuff-links and knee buckles of Governor Ward of Rhode Island."
Other details supplied by Mrs. Thomas were that "Elvira's oldest son Lawrence and his wife Ann Silvinia (Kinne) Stedman, left their home in Green River, Massachusetts, and came home to Lenox Furnace (Lenoxdale) to take care of Elvira while Robert was in California." Also, that "Elvira's death was due to appendicitis" and that "she was buried at Lee, not South Lee, her grave being marked by a stone just inside the fence."
In spite of the above description, Elvira's burial place was not found by J. J. DeMott as of 1951.
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Lee death record gives date of death as 4 January 1860 with name Alvira Steadman and birthplace of Wilbraham.
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1813 - 1860 (46 years)
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